This is a list of popular Somali proverbs starting with L:
Labaatanjir intuu geed ka booduu talo ka boodaa: A young man of twenty makes mistakes as if he jumps over a log ( i.e. as easily).
Laba qaawani isma qaaddo. One naked man cannot carry another naked man (i.e. one poor man cannot help another poor man).
Laba kala bariday kala war la’: If two men spend a night far from each other, neither one of them knows how the other one is now.
Lafo geri ayagaa laysku jebiyaa: A giraffe bone can only be broken against another giraffe bone ( a difficult problem can only be solved with adequate means).
Laga barayba laga badi. One surpassses the man from whom one has learnt something.
La jiifiyaana bannaan, la joojiyaana bannaan. It is level at the rod standing upright and it is level at the rod lying flat.
Said when someone appears to be using double standards. This goes back to a tale about the chief who had to decide two cases about the damage caused to the adjacent field by somebody else’s and by his own cows. He ordened that two heaps of corn, to reach the height of a rod, be poured out for the victim. On the first occasion the rod was standing upright, but on the second occasion he ordered that the rod be lain on the ground. The chief alleged that both his decisions were just , since each time the heap of corn was level at the hieght of the rod.
Lamahuraan waa cawska jilaal. In the rainless season dry grass is (rich) fodder.
Lax dhukani abaar moog: The short-eared sheep does not hear the complaints about the drought ( it forgets
about the sufferings of others once it is full)
Lax walba shillalkay is dhigtaa lagu qalaa: A sheep is slaughtered on the deck on which she herself is standing (i.e. everybody gets according to his deserts).
La-yeele ma hilmaamo, laakin yeele wuu hilmaamaa: An offence is forgotten not by the offendeed but by the offender.
Libaax nin aan aqoon baa lax ka rida: Only he who does not know a lion ( and therefore is not afraid of him) can take a sheep from him ( i.e. sometimes ignorance can be useful).