- English translation
Children grow up and cut hair grows back; it is the one lying in the grave I mourn.
- Literal wording
The child grows big and the hair is raised up again; my grief is for you, O dweller of the grave.
- Meaning and lesson
When someone dies and leaves young children behind, the saying redirects sorrow. The children will mature over time, just as cut hair grows back, so their hardship is treated as real but temporary. Grief belongs to the person who has died and now lies in the grave, meaning the tomb rather than mere soil or earth.
The proverb contrasts renewal with finality. It does not deny that orphaned children suffer; it ranks the losses. Growth continues for the living, but the dead have lost everything for good. It is a sober reflection that mourning should focus on the one taken, and should not be presented as callous toward the children who remain.
- When it is used
Suited to mourning talk when a parent dies leaving young children, as a way of turning sympathy toward the deceased. Its frank comparison may seem blunt, so it fits intimate or traditional settings better than formal condolences addressed to the bereaved family.
- Register
- colloquial
Cite or copy proverb
How this record reached us: Editorially sourced.
Report an issue with this meaning: Children grow up and cut hair grows back; it is the one lying in the grave I mourn.