Literal translation for this proverb would be “intelligence helps unlucky people.”

In the Haitian society, we have people that never succeed in anything or are successful in very few little things and have many bad situations happen to them repeatedly. Haitians say that these people are “devenn", meaning "unlucky".

At the same time, we have people that are industrious. They literally find a way to live or to get what they need out of nothing. Haitian people call these people "entèlijan."

This proverb encourages people not to sit on what is happening to them and believe that they are unlucky, but to use their mind and be diligent so that they can find a way to have things get better for them even when they would be "devenn".

The proverb also teaches us that we might not reach the level of success we would have had if we were not unlucky, but we will reach a certain level of satisfaction if we are smart enough in life.

Every time things are not going well in life for you, remember to use your intelligence, to be diligent, to be smart because "entèlijan ede devenn".