Meaning
'Time longer than rope' — time stretches further than any rope. Be patient, the proverb counsels, because things unfold and truth comes out over the long stretch of time, however slowly. It urges endurance in the face of trouble, injustice, or wrongdoing, and it warns the wrongdoer that consequences, though they may be slow, will arrive in the end. The image of time as a rope longer than any that can be measured makes the point that everything is answered, and everything revealed, in due course.
Examples
-
Nuh badda rush fi revenge; time longer than rope.
Don't rush for revenge; in time everything comes around.
-
Di truth a go come out one day. Time longer than rope.
The truth will come out one day. Time is longer than rope.
-
Him a boast now, but time longer than rope.
He's boasting now, but given time things will change.
Origin
A Jamaican proverb using the image of a rope — long, but finite — against time, which outlasts it, to teach patience and the certainty of eventual reckoning.
How it’s used
Said to urge patience, or as a quiet warning that justice or change will come with time.