“A fool gives full vent to his anger” is literally “A fool brings out all of his spirit [wind, breath].” The sense of this line is that a fool freely expresses his anger. Compare this with 14.29 and 16.32.

“But a wise man quietly holds it back”: It is not entirely clear in this line if the action of the wise person is in regard to his own anger or to that of the fool. It is probably best to take the action of the wise person as holding back his own anger and thus contrasting with the action of the fool in the previous line. “Holds it back” thus has the sense of restraining or controlling his feelings of anger and not giving outward expression to them.

We may translate this saying, for example, “The fool gets angry and shows everyone how he feels, but wise people are patient and control their hearts.” In some languages this thought may be expressed, for example, “The fool’s heart gets hot and he shouts, but the wise person keeps his heart cool” or “The person with no thinking is cross in front of everybody, but the thinking person is patient and holds in his anger.”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Proverbs. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2000. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .