Folklore: Talking too much

Genre: Proverb, Portuguese, Azores 

Alberto Santo Amaro, male, 50s
taxi driver, entrepreneur
Azores-born, Portuguese/English speaking
Velas, São George, Azores, Portugal
Sept. 30, 2001

"Boca calada diz tudo."
(boka kaw’lada, di:z tudo)
[A] mouth shut says everything.
“This is something people say when some people talk too much, and say nothing,” said Alberto, a taxi driver, who coyly declined to give his age, but he was well into his 50s, as he had a 27-year-old daughter. 

We were on the island of São George, in the Azores, and he was giving us a special tour of his native isle after my family was stranded by a ferry boat company. The ferryboat owner had decided to cancel the outgoing boat service and there weren’t too many ways off the island until the following week. 

Alberto tracked down the ferryboat owner and tried to bargain with him to honor his schedule, but the owner couldn’t be bothered with providing transport to four Americans. So he moved up the winter schedule by a day, and that was that. We were pretty well frazzled after frantically making special arrangements to fly off the island.

The Azores, in the mid-Atlantic Ocean is very isolated, the islands are spread over a 400-mile radius. They are warmed by the African gulf current, and are actively volcanic. There is an isolation there that modern technology has done little to erase as there are only two satellite TV channels. 

However most people are connected by a cell phone program subsidized by the government. As a result of isolated island living, the people are gregarious and helpful, if conservative. And many old customs are well preserved, some dating back as much as 500 years.

Alberto said he was a kid when he heard this proverb from his grandfather, who was always telling him, “Tu fales muito.” You talk a lot. Or, You talk too much.

This reminds me of an Irish proverb I learned, “A mouth is sweet in its silence” (p 35, #615). 

“Is binn béal ina thost” From “Seanfhocail,” M.F. Ó Conchuír,
(iss binn beyal eena host) (Cló Iar-Chonnachta, 1997, Ireland)
it’s (a) melodious mouth in its silence/lull 

It also echoes a variant of a Spanish idiom I learned the hard way: "Las moscas no entraron una boca cerrada."

Or the more common (correct) version: "En boca cerrada no entran moscas."

We were very glad that Alberto didn’t take his grandfather’s advice, he still talked too much—and the day was enriched by his stories. Alberto drove us by his house and farm near Velas, which he inherited from his grandfather.

He also left us with another of his grandfather’s proverbs, “Trabalou todos os dias sem parar” Work all the days without stopping—something he does well, as he has several businesses, as well as running the farm and a taxi service. 

Alberto was a gem. He took care of us like family. It was post-9/11 and we were shellshocked. I met him standing alone above the main road of the ferry, having a cigarette; all the other taxi drivers were like pool sharks. I went up to him and said: Disculpame. Ayudame....

And so he did.

UC Berkeley Folklore Collections
Kroeber Hall, Dr. Alan Dundes