- English translation
"Go to sleep so I can cut your throat." — "Well, that's exactly the kind of thing that keeps a man awake."
- Literal wording
He said to him: Sleep, so that I may slaughter you. He said: That is a thing that makes sleep fly away.
- Meaning and lesson
The saying mocks a request that asks a person to assist in their own ruin. One speaker openly announces a harmful intention, sleep till I slaughter you, and still expects the other to relax and cooperate, while the intended victim points out that such knowledge makes the requested ease impossible.
More broadly, it highlights how foolish it is to expect trust or passivity once harm has been made plain. The slaughter is figurative in use, standing for any self-destructive cooperation. Awareness of a threat naturally drives away calm, so demanding tranquility from someone facing known danger is unreasonable and faintly comic.
- When it is used
Use it figuratively, never as a literal threat, to answer someone who wants your help, compliance, or calm acceptance of a plan that clearly harms you. It works as a dry, ironic retort, implying that the request itself gives the game away and makes agreement absurd.
- Register
- Colloquial
Cite or copy proverb
How this record reached us: Editorially sourced.
Report an issue with this meaning: "Go to sleep so I can cut your throat." — "Well, that's exactly the kind of thing that keeps a man awake."