Sayings of Cypriot origin
Love me as I love you, want me as I want you, for there will come a time when you will want and I will not.
When you see food, eat and when you see work flee.
Don’t fear for the tree that leans for it won’t break.
Honor is priceless and joy to him who has it.
We have no bread to eat yet we seek a radish.
Whatever rains let it fall.
Teacher, you instructed but failed to obey.
Blood does not become water.
The liar and the thief rejoice in the first year only.
A child inherits features from seventeen sources.
If my grandma had balls I’d call her granddad.
Let’s drink and God will pay.
Can you give a fool brains?
When you find a fig pick it up.
When you find your saint light your candle.
The thief succeeds once, the thief succeeds twice, the third time is his comeuppance day.
However much is above ground is also below.
Better to have five in the hand than to wait for ten.
The way you made your bed is the way you’ll sleep.
Rain is innocent.
Fire burns where it strikes.
The fool fell asleep and dreamt a foolish dream.
The mirror will show you whatever you show it.
What wind has blown to bring you here?
They’re asking us for an ox and a donkey.
The fox was hiding but its tail could be seen.
For a flea he burns the blanket.
Where you hear of many figs take a small basket.
Better shoes from home even if they’re tattered.
He who has no shame owns the whole world.
Hit the nail and you hit the horseshoe.
The whole world’s ending and the fanny’s combing itself.
It’s my name day today, yours tomorrow.
If the child doesn’t cry, the mother won’t feed it.
A fool may have no sense but he has legs.
Bolt your door so as not to make a thief of your neighbor.
With fish and a woman you need to use fingers.
With a pure heart you can go where you please.
The fly fell into the milk.
Sense comes with age.
The fox saw chickens in its sleep.
Run, uncle, and I’ll catch you; walk and I’ll watch you.
A mountain doesn’t mix with a mountain.
He who drinks wine on debt gets drunk twice.
We won’t live as long as the mountains.
Everyone has his pain.
Having come to the dance you will dance.
I’d rather lose my eye than my good name.
A fish rots from the head.
He settled down like soft water.
Give the fool a sausage and he tells you it’s bent.
The child of the wise cooks before it hungers.
Lay to rest the anger of the night till the morning.
A lazy donkey is an over-laden donkey.
A piss without a fart is a wedding without a violin.
One hand washes the other and the two wash the face.
He who loses in money wins in love.
Take a big bite but refrain from big talk.
That sort of head needs that sort of razor.
A priest with time on his hands buries even the living.
A fine day is apparent in the morning.
He’s afraid to shit lest he goes hungry.
Mountains are used to snow.
The one not dancing knows lots of songs.
Death keeps coming round but I send him back. I’ll marry off my grandchildren and then I’ll welcome him.
I command my cat and she commands her kittens.
One woman is owed to you by God.
The fool threw a rock in the well and a thousand clever men went to pull it out.
It is I who built you, my oven, and it is I who’ll knock you down.
God wants those he loves close to Him.
A good understanding makes good friends.
When your garden’s dry don’t pour water in other gardens.
Can a pig’s tail be straightened?
How you train a cat and dog is how you have them.
They called him mad and he went mad completely.
The lazy donkey always overloads himself.
The last in line is either lucky or unlucky.
He who’s in pain goes to the doctor, and he who’s thirsty to the well.
I’ll blind them to sell, and you look closely to buy.
One priest can’t say mass in two churches.
Come, granddad, let me show you your vineyards.
Give the thief the key.
He who hasn’t seen mountains and castles is amazed by the sight of an oven.
Life without friends is death without mourners.
Talk little for a sweet life.
The one who enters without saying hello or good day, take him to the fair and sell him for whatever you can get; and as for the one who when greeted doesn’t reply, give him away at the fair if you see he isn’t selling.
Some sow and reap, others eat and cavort.
The ancients fasted to say these things.
A cunning woman will lead a man astray, and if he’s uneducated she’ll teach him to chant.
A slipped tongue speaks the truth.
Tell me what company you keep and I’ll tell you what kind of man you are.
We’re hungry and lean.
He’s pulled out both the rope and the post.
A virtuous woman is always praised.
We kept saying our pig was good and it turned out bad.
The good captain shows himself in a storm.
The donkey brought them to us and the donkey ate them.
With a relative, eat, drink, but never do business.
Don’t shake your legs before you’ve mounted.
He who denies the cat bread has his clothes eaten by mice.
Give the baker bread to eat for he deserves it.
Do a good deed and cast it to sea.
They belong in their home and we belong in ours.
The rabbit has different eyes than the owl’s.
Each child brings its own fortune.
A man with a load gets used up by a woman with a spoon.
He who mixes with bran gets eaten by the hens.
When your neighbor got the itches you too must seek the remedy.
He who doesn’t heed his parent sleeps in the corner.
He who has it easy never marries.
A clear sky fears no lightning.
Eating brings on your appetite.
Each type of wood knows its own smoke.
A good village needs no guide.
Wherever you find me, wherever I find you, Friday we’ll meet in Nicosia.
They took us to water and brought us back thirsty.
The end sanctifies the means.
Does he who is wet fear the rain?
Dance, Mrs. Maru, but keep an eye on the child.
Only the cannon can sort it out.
If I tell you it means I know something.
A walnut from every walnut-tree.
He who’s been burnt blows even on yogurt.
The children eat the fruit and the father sleeps on the peel.
He who can’t beat the donkey beats the saddle.
We must see each other lest we forget each other.
Eat a big bite but don’t say a big statement.
A hungry bear doesn’t dance.
When God wants to get rid of an ant He gives it wings to fly.
The pot rolled and found its lid.
One says to the other, I’m the best.
When the slave is to blame the slave gets beaten; when the master is to blame the slave gets beaten.
A thoughtless mind causes bad fortune.
Love moves even the mountains.
Every obstacle is for the good.
He’s having a festival in his head.
He who’s unhappy in the morning is unhappy all day.
Two who laugh know something, one who laughs is mad.
An aimless mind means twice the work.
Everything in its season and the crow in August.
Don’t covet earth for it’s earth that will consume us.
Give me your husband, madam, and you go seek another.
Don’t fret about clothes or bread.
We’ve made a hole in the water.
Either marry very young or go young into a monastery.
He’s eaten his bread and drunk his water.
They promised us oven-loads of breadsticks.
We went as fools and came back as arch-fools.
Now that we’ve taught our donkey not to eat, it’s died.
An ill-matched couple is a barren field.
The thief shouts to frighten the householder.
He’s become both father and godfather.
The fool feels neither cold or heat, nor does he tire or break.
Does only Vogolos’s son have black oxen?
Go absent and your luck goes absent too.
Where there are many roosters the dawn comes late.
Same race, same face.
Some succeed with effort, others with manners.
When you have a neighbor you have God.
It’s my donkey and I can tie it where I please.
A child needs encouragement so that it can grow wise with time.
He made a camel out of the flea.
He who dislikes hammering doesn’t go to the blacksmith.
He who is high and proud is toppled by God.
He who doesn’t look where he’s going will fall into the well.
The wise man became the fool’s donkey.
That’s cucumbers from marjoram.
Learn the truth from a fool or a child.
We went to tell and got told.
He who digs a grave for another falls in it himself.
A well-carved stone always has its place.
Full stomach, hard rooster.
They’re cats and dogs.
To experience is to learn.
He who agrees to the seed doesn’t argue at the harvest.
The honey fell into the sugar.
He rises to the top like oil.
One swallow doesn’t bring the spring.
Don’t overburden the good donkey.
The lid rolled and found the cook.
He who has a brain let him understand.
I wish neither to see the devil nor to make the sign of the cross.
Don’t throw a stone at the village so that the village won’t throw a stone at you.
We’ve drowned in a glass of water.
A pot may go to the well many times but one day it will break.
Take all advice but follow your own.
Take it in through one ear and out the other.
The reaper earned a reputation and fell asleep.
Why should I peel broad beans for you to eat?
He fries my liver in my own fat.
When you see its trail don’t seek the snake.
In everything moderation is best.
He wants the bread whole and the dog fed.
We must convince by reason, not prescribe by tradition.
Look at the mother before marrying the daughter.
One who’s full doesn’t believe one who’s hungry.
Does a raven take out a raven’s eye?
They showed us one thing and stuffed us with another.
We’ve eaten the ox and only the tail remains.
The bride’s getting ready but the groom has no idea.
Where the goat leaps the kid will follow.
Take care so that God takes care of you.
With company even death is sweet.
We’ve abandoned our harvest to pick out hemp seeds.
Extol a small donkey, ride a big one.
After a year and a month, all there is to show is a small ball of wool.
He looks at me like a goat at a knife.
He thought he could catch birds with his mouth.
He bites one (of his fingers) and they all hurt.
The eggs went and so did the basket.
Each fool has his own mind.
Better late than never.
Go slowly to arrive quickly.
He who wants a lot loses what little he has.
They gave the peasant rope and he got on the bed with his boots.
It’s not Easter every day.
What has my creator left and what is there for death to take?
I was seeking you in heaven and found you on earth.
If you don’t oil the wheel it won’t turn.
Go early to work and be home in good time.
Don’t bother the snake and it won’t bite you.
The sufferer is the doctor.
The thorn gives forth a rose.
What’s past is forgotten.
Good weather, fresh beans.
God torments those He loves.
He who loses an old coat seeks one that’s new.
The mother loses her child and the child its mother.
Friday’s mirth is Saturday’s grief.
Among dry wood the fresh shoot also burns.
A bad year goes but a bad neighbor doesn’t.
Truth and oil always rise above.
The response to a fool is silence.
There are those who have it and lose it and those who have nothing and make it.
The wheel has turned.
Take care so that God takes care of you.
He’s small but he’s a rock.
An egg cracks an egg.
Let me be with my friend in grief and my enemy in joy.
Learn a trade and hang it on a post.
Whatever befalls the priest let it befall the priest’s wife.
She wants a husband and she wants him now.
So that they miss you, delay before they see you.
The talk of many drives a man mad.
Breadsticks fall to those without teeth.
If God listened to the crow He would cause donkeys to die every day.
Whoever can consume, consumes.
He who gathers honey licks his fingers.
If you see a couple getting on well, you know it’s down to one of them.
Big boat, big storm.
The far have become near.
It’s not the robes that make the priest but the priest the robes.
A dog barks where it eats.
Tie your donkey (first) and (worry about other things) later.
The devil had no work so fucked his children.
Where there’s a tree there’s shade.
Bathe a dog, wash a dog, still it stinks of dog.
They got the fox to mind the hens.
You tell me, I’ll tell you and so we’ll pass the time.
He beats the bride to frighten the mother-in-law.
Where it rains it shows, where it snows it whitens.
Cyprus, officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea. it is the third largest and third most populous island in the Mediterranean, and a member state of the European Union. It is located south of Turkey, west of Syria and Lebanon, northwest of Israel and the Gaza Strip, north of Egypt and east of Greece. ~ More!
Cyprus is a major tourist destination in the Mediterranean. With an advanced, high-income economy and a very high Human Development Index,the Republic of Cyprus is a member of the Commonwealth since 1961 and was a founding member of the Non- Aligned Movement until it joined the European Union on 1 May 2004.[On 1 January 2008, the Republic of Cyprus joined the Euro-zone.
Geopolitically, the island is subdivided into four main segments. The Republic of Cyprus occupies the southern two-thirds of the island (59.74%). The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus occupies the northern third (34.85%), and the United Nations- controlled Green Line provides a buffer zone that separates the two and covers 2.67% of the island. Lastly, two bases under British sovereignty covering the remaining 2.74%.
The everyday spoken language of Greek Cypriots is Cypriot Greek and that of Turkish Cypriots is Cypriot Turkish. These both differ from their respective standard register quite significantly.
Limassol is a city on the southern coast of Cyprus and capital of the eponymous district. Limassol is the second largest urban area in Cyprus, with an urban population of 160,000-176,700.The municipality is the most populous in the country with 101,000 inhabitants (2011).
The Hymn to Liberty is a poem consists of 158 stanzas, which is used as the national anthem of Greece and Cyprus. and is the longest national anthem in the world by length of text. ~ Watch Video
I recognize you by the fearsome sharpness,
of your sword,
I recognize you by the gleam (in your eyes)
with which you rapidly survey the earth.
From the sacred bones,
of the Hellenes arisen,
and valiant again as you once were,
hail, o hail, Liberty