Quiet riva run deep.

Traditional Jamaican proverb · taught in Hanover

Written in Cassidy-JLU

Kwaiyat riva ron diip.

Word for word

A quiet river runs deep.

What it actually means

Still, quiet people often have the deepest feelings and strength — like quiet little Hanover itself.

How it is built

single-clause indicative, metaphor

Four words; deep does adverb duty with no ending on it, and the r of riva and run is the only sound tying the line together.

Where it comes up

This one is taught in Hanover.

More proverbs

Empty bag cyaan tan up.A hungry person cannot hold themselves up or do the work — feed people first.

Young cock crow after ole cock.The young one crows in imitation of the old: children copy what they see their elders do, so mind what you do in front of them.

Wata more dan flour.Too much water and not enough flour, so the dumplings cannot be made — times are hard and what you have is stretched too thin.

Yu neva miss di wata til di well run dry.You don't value what you have until it's gone.

Sources

Peter Unseth, Proverb Studies: A Practical Manual (2025, version 1.0), p. 82 [CC BY-NC]
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.

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