Traditional Jamaican proverb · taught in St. Ann and St. Catherine
Wa fi yu kyaahn bi on-fi-yu.
What is meant for you cannot be un-yours.
What's destined for you can't be taken away — keep working toward your future.
negative indicative, coined opposite
Un-fi-yu is built on the spot by hanging an English prefix on a Patois phrase, and the line rules an impossibility out rather than picturing one.
This one is taught in St. Ann and St. Catherine.
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 →