- English translation
Better a lifetime of hardship than a single sleep in the grave.
- Literal wording
A thousand lives with hardship, rather than one sleep beneath the stone.
- Meaning and lesson
The saying declares that life is preferable even when it is marked by hardship, distress, or deprivation. It values remaining alive, however troubled, above death as an escape from suffering.
Its contrast is not between easy and difficult living, but between continued existence and death, pictured as sleep beneath a grave stone. The force is emphatic: even prolonged adversity is presented as preferable to the grave.
- When it is used
It may be said when stressing that troubled life is still preferable to death. Because its grave image can be sensitive, avoid using it casually in conversations involving grief, bereavement, or emotional crisis.
Cite or copy proverb
How this record reached us: Editorially sourced.
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