- English translation
Like an unbelieving blacksmith, he burns whether alive or dead.
- Literal wording
Like the blacksmith of the unbelievers: his life and his death are in the fire.
- Meaning and lesson
The saying pictures a smith who spends his working days bent over a burning forge and who, having rejected God, is expected to burn again after he dies. Fire surrounds him on both sides of the grave, so nothing ever cools for him. The trade is only the image; the saying is no slur on metalworkers.
Applied to people, it marks someone whose misery is total and unbroken, who suffers in this life and has nothing better waiting in the next. More loosely, it fits anyone trapped in hardship from which every apparent escape leads to more of the same.
- When it is used
Use it to describe someone thought to suffer continually, with no relief in life or even beyond death. The proverb invokes a religious condemnation of unbelief, so its tone can be severe or disparaging rather than merely sympathetic.
Cite or copy proverb
How this record reached us: Editorially sourced.
Report an issue with this meaning: Like an unbelieving blacksmith, he burns whether alive or dead.