- English translation
Go on, all of you, foul me as you like; it was fate that left me in your hands.
- Literal wording
Piss on me, all of you; it is only time that left me to you.
- Meaning and lesson
The speaker dares everyone present to defile him however they please, using a crude colloquial verb for urinating or defecating, then excuses them in the same breath. Time is what handed him over to these people and to their era, so any reproach belongs to time and not to those who mistreat him.
The tone is resigned and sarcastic. The crude invitation lays bare how he is being treated, while the closing clause pulls blame away from the people and lays it on time, heard as the age or circumstances he now lives in or, more broadly, as fortune, not clock time.
- When it is used
Fits a bitter, self-mocking complaint from someone who feels mistreated by those around him yet blames time rather than them. Its crude verb makes it offensive in polite settings, restricting it to informal talk among listeners who will catch the irony rather than hear a genuine insult.
- Register
- Colloquial and coarse
Cite or copy proverb
How this record reached us: Editorially sourced.
Report an issue with this meaning: Go on, all of you, foul me as you like; it was fate that left me in your hands.