W
wag see it is MERRY in hall when beards wag all.
wait see ALL things come to those who wait; TIME and tide wait for no man.
waiting see it’s ILL waiting for dead men’s shoes.
If you can WALK you can dance, if you can talk you can sing
African (Shona) proverb.
1998 J. C. SHUMAN & D. ROTTENBERG Rhythm of Business 11.1 started this
chapter with a saying from Zimbabwe: If you can walk/You can dance/If you can
talk/You can sing. 1999 New York Times 17 Aug. (online) ‘The only thing I am interested
to know is that they will be consistent,’ Mr. Leitao said. ‘I do believe if you can walk you
can dance. If you can talk you can sing. When you learn to shift your weight then you
learn about structure and form and then you put the melody in your body.’ 2005 ‘Drums
that Talk’ posting on http://www.bowdoin.edu 28 Mar. In West Africa, music is learned without
notation and allows access to everyone, regardless of ability. Adzenyah embraces the
inclusive nature of this music: ‘If you can walk, you can dance. If you can talk, you can
sing.’ optimism; possibility and impossibility
We must learn to WALK before we can run
The metaphorical phrase to run before one can walk is also common.
c 1350 Douce MS 52 no. 116 Fyrst the chylde crepyth and after gooth [walks]. c
1450 Towneley Play of First Shepherds (EETS) 1.100 Ffyrst must vs crepe and sythen
[afterwards] go. 1670 J. RAY English Proverbs 75 You must learn to creep before you go.
1794 G. WASHINGTON Letter 20 July in Writings (1940) XXXIII. 438 We must walk as
other countries have done before we can run. 1851 G. BORROW Lavengro II. ii.
Ambition is a very pretty thing; but sir, we must walk before we run. 1876 J. PLATT
Business 124 More fail from doing too much than too little. We must learn and be strong
enough to walk before we can run. 1947 M. PENN Manchester Fourteen Miles xv. Mrs.
Winstanley reproved her for being impatient. She pointed out..that everybody must learn
