- English translation
Pity anyone whose body an incurable disease has seized.
- Literal wording
O the woe of the one into whose body the incurable affliction has entered!
- Meaning and lesson
The saying grieves for anyone whose body has been taken over by a disease that will not go away. Here the word usually meaning 'harm' names a chronic, incurable illness rather than a general hurt or injury. The sufferer cannot expect to recover and must simply live with it.
The exclamation expresses sorrow and pity for the afflicted, not a curse on them. It stresses how serious a permanent ailment is compared with a passing sickness, and that the person struck by one deserves sympathy. It concerns bodily illness; figurative readings such as moral or social corruption are not supported without clear context.
- When it is used
Fits moments of sympathy, when speaking of someone stricken by a lingering, incurable ailment, or reflecting on how hopeless such an illness is. Keep the tone compassionate and avoid directing it at the sufferer in a way that sounds like condemnation.
Cite or copy proverb
How this record reached us: Editorially sourced.
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