ABSTRACT
This work investigates The Translation of Yoruba Proverbs. In an attempt to bring to limelight the use of proverbs as a very important aspect of Yoruba culture. Most native speaker of Yoruba has drifted from using their language into the use of foreign language (English) which has affected the use of Proverbs. The incapability of the use of Yoruba proverbs motivated this work. is carried out to help to revive the use of proverbs and the contexts that gave rise to them.
In an attempt to make the use of proverbs easier, the translation of the proverbs into English is carried out using the framework of Uwajeh (1994). The four levels of translation constructed by Uwajeh were employed for the data presentation.
The data used in this investigation was gathered through an interview with the native speaker of Yoruba language which was put into writing by the researcher of this work. At the presentation of the work, it was discovered that some of the words used that existed in the proverbs cannot be translated directly into English, since they are kinds of words that does not exist in English. It was also discovered that, the knowledge of Yoruba and English language is enough for a translator but also the knowledge about the culture of the people who use the language.
This work serves as an important part of linguistics, because it brought the contextual and semantic aspect proverbs.
For an effective use of proverbs, it is recommended that every native speaker of Yoruba language should strive to make use proverbs in every of their conversation. This is also applicable to other native speakers who have proverbs in their language.
