Traditional Jamaican proverb · taught in St. Andrew
Liki-liki flai fala kafin go a huol.
The greedy fly follows the coffin all the way down into the grave.
Appetite followed too far takes you somewhere you never meant to go.
single-clause indicative, serial verbs
Follow and go run together with nothing between them — two verbs in a row for one movement — and licky-licky doubles to mark the habit rather than the act.
This one is taught in St. Andrew.
Cassidy gives this proverb for licky-licky, which he distinguishes from plain greedy as tasting things out of sensuality rather than hunger, and records the variant 'Sweet-mout' fly follow coffin go a' hole.'
The grammatical categories this description uses — clause type, mood, and the sound patterning noted where it carries the proverb — follow Unseth's framework for describing a proverb rather than only translating it.
The proverb is folk material. The description of how it is put together follows the framework in the work above; the translation and the commentary are mine.
Hear it, and collect the rest →