Folklore: Water, strength

Genre: Proverb, Portuguese, Azores 
Urbano, Prereirada da Silva, male, 19
English student, electrician
Azores-born, Portuguese-speaking
Terciera, Azores
Oct. 2, 2001

Agua mole em pedra dura
(‘agwa ‘mo-le em pedra durya
water weak the stone strong

tantu bate ate que fura
tantu ba’te ke ‘furya)
but weak that hole


Water may be weak but it can wear down the stone.

“My father said to me when I was six or seven, when I was a student, when I didn’t understand my homework,” said Urbano, my flatmate on Terciera Island in the Azores, Portugal. Urbano is studying English, and also studying to be an electrician, he is from one of the distant outer islands, Flores. His address is Rua do Quartiero, P. Delgada 9970, Santa Cruz, Flores, Azores.

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

When I asked Urbano what he thought the proverb meant, he answered that water was soft but it was constant and if you continue to try to work at something as hard as stone, you can wear down the obstacle. It reminded me of a similar Chinese saying. 

It was interesting trying to collect folklore from Urbano as he was just learning English, and wanted a chance to practice. That's how we met, in the hotel lobby. We used a lot of intermediary methods of communicating, as I speak a passable Spanish, and can say a few phrases in Portuguese. But I am not fluent in either language. We often spoke an admixture of Spanish & Portuguese peppered with English—including pantomime and pictures. So it took three languages, and then some, to collect Urbano's folklore.

UC Berkeley Folklore Collections
Kroeber Hall, Dr. Alan Dundes