How many of us are aware that our people love plays on words and make puns with words. Many of us know that there are puns in the English language but how many of us knows the puns in our own language.
The Yorubas in their songs, ditties, sayings and proverbs exhibit their love of plays on words as amply demonstrated here.
In the olden days during the first cocoa boom era, the Yoruba cocoa farmers made so much money that they did not know what to do with it. There were no cars to buy, no expensive schools to send their children to, and their wants were easily satisfied, so the only thing they could do to show they had arrived was to snatch the wives of men they considered poorer than themselves. Wife snatching became very rampant, a thing that was virtually unheard of before. They would snatch the wife or wives of people considered less richer than they were for no other reason than to show that they had the means to.
After snatching the wife of the poor man, they would go with their friends and kiths in a victory procession, pass through the street of the man whose wife they snatched and the drummer on the talking drum would be belching out abusive songs and ditties. One of such songs then current was the following which was a pun. It might go something like this:
Bamgbose omo Ogundaini, ( the name of the wife snatcher)
Iwo la ri ba wi
Iwo la ri ba wi
Iwo to o gbaya won
To o gbaya won
Iwo la ri ba wi
Bamgbose son of Ogundaini, you are the one who is to blame, you are the one who is to blame. Why did you merely snatch his wife and not snatch his mother also, you are the one who is to blame.
In the passage above the song is punning on gbaya ( snatch the wife) and gbaya ( snatch the mother).
Other puns go like this:
2. Omo ti enu ko ba ka aso ki i ka ( a child that cannot be controlled by the words of his parents ( enu ko ka) cannot do well in life ( aso ko ni ka) literally, he will not be rich enough to buy clothing materials sufficient to cover his body
Here the pun is on "enu ko ka" (uncontrollable) and "aso ko ka" ( not sufficiently clothed).
3. A ki i kan inu ki a kan ile.
You cannot be of a sour disposition (kannu) and at the same time prosper ( kanle) that is be rich enough to build a house)
The pun is on kannu ( being of a sour disposition) and kanle ( roofing a house).
4. Sokoto o kan ile a ni ki a gba leti, bi won ba jin laya, o nibi to le mo.
NA trouser is not long enough, you said you should add another cloth to it (gba leti can mean add another cloth to it, and it can also mean box him in the ear) even if you punch it in the chest, there is a limit to how far it can go.
The pun is on gba leti ( adding to a trousers that is not long enough and gba leti, box him in the ear).
5. Ironu o papo, Iya n ronu omo n roka.
We are bothered by different things, the mother is full of anxious thoughts and worries (ronu) the daughter is stirring yam flour paste on fire (roka).
6. Tokan ladie ntoko eemo bo. The hen comes back unscathed from the eemo bush (clinging burrs, that normally cling to any animal with fur) . The pun is on eemo, the clinging burrs and eemo, something that is bizarre and dangerous.
7. Oro lonyo obi lapo, oro na a lo nyo ofa lapo. It is the word that a person speaks that will produce kolanut from the pocket (as a reward) It is also the word that another person will speak that will produce the arrow from the quiver. The pun here is on lapo ( from the pocket) and lapo (from the quiver).
8. Ohun ta n wa lo si Sokoto ohun n be lapo sokoto. What we are going to seek in Sokoto ( a city very far from Yoruba land) is in the pocket of ones sokoto (ones trousers). The pun is on Sokoto and sokoto.
9. Omo Iya ki i ya, Omo baba ni i ba. Maternal siblings do not diverge, that is (be far from each other), it is paternal siblings that crouch away from each other. The pun is on ya in omo iya and ba in omo baba.
10. Oba ba lori ohun gbogbo. The king hovers over ( that is he is lord over) everything. The pun is on ba (hover) and oba (king).
11 Eni ti Ojo ko pa, ti orun ko pa, ise ni yoo pa onitohun.
A person that is not killed ( That is not drenched by the rain) and is not killed by the sun ( that is not scorched by the sun) it is poverty that will kill the person. The pun is on pa, which when applied to the rain, the sun and poverty, means three different things.
12. Onigbese ti o ba gbeemin, yo o gbemin.
A creditor who does not accept his debtor's plea to pay the debt next year would have no choice than to take the life of his debtor. The pun is on eemin ( next year) and emi (life).
By Daniel Ayodele Adeniran
No comments:
Post a Comment