«يُغُورِ الْحَبْسْ وَلَوْ فِي بُسْتَانْ»

The saying wishes confinement far off, even when it would take place somewhere delightful. It voices a wish, not a report that a prison has vanished. A garden suggests beauty, shade, and ease, yet putting a prison inside one does not change what it is. Being locked up remains unwelcome whatever charm surrounds it.

Its force lies in the contrast between setting and condition. Pleasant surroundings cannot cancel the loss of liberty, so the speaker refuses to let an attractive location soften the judgment that captivity is a hardship to be avoided.

Use it when someone implies that a pleasant setting makes confinement acceptable. The saying answers that imprisonment is still something to wish far away, however lovely the place where it happens to be.