- English translation
May neither the high prices nor the man who measures the grain ever return.
- Literal wording
May God bring back neither high prices nor the grain measurer.
- Meaning and lesson
This is said when an unwelcome condition has ended, expressing the hope that it will not return. The dismissal extends to the hardship itself and to a person associated with it in the speaker’s memory or blame.
It conveys emphatic rejection: the speaker wants the whole disagreeable situation gone, including anyone seen as tied to it. The grain measurer is an image for an associated individual, not a judgment about people in that occupation generally.
- When it is used
Use it when an unpleasant condition has passed and a speaker sharply rejects its return, sometimes also dismissing an absent person linked to it. Its wording invokes God in a forceful wish or imprecation, so religious sensitivity may matter in translation and setting.
Cite or copy proverb
How this record reached us: Editorially sourced.
Report an issue with this meaning: May neither the high prices nor the man who measures the grain ever return.