- English translation
Stay together as long as you like; in the end you will go separate ways.
- Literal wording
Keep company, keep company: your fate is to part.
- Meaning and lesson
However many years people share and however close they grow, the saying holds that a parting waits for them at the end. Time together can delay that separation, but it cannot remove it from the course of things.
In practice it can soften a goodbye by treating it as the expected course of things. It can also warn against treating present closeness as permanent and encourage a measured, realistic view of attachment.
- When it is used
Use it when someone grieves an ending friendship, partnership, or household arrangement, or as a gentle caution against assuming any companionship is permanent. It suits a reflective, consoling, or mildly resigned tone rather than blame.
Cite or copy proverb
How this record reached us: Editorially sourced.
Report an issue with this meaning: Stay together as long as you like; in the end you will go separate ways.