- English translation
The woman washing the body can't see, and the man digging the grave can't walk.
- Literal wording
The (female) corpse-washer is blind, and the grave-digger is crippled.
- Meaning and lesson
The saying pictures a funeral where the woman who ritually washes the body cannot see and the man who cuts the burial niche in the grave cannot walk. It mocks any undertaking handed to people who lack the basic ability to carry it out, so the result is bound to fail.
It can also express pity for someone so unlucky that misfortune stays with them to the grave. Even the final services owed to the dead come out badly, as if hardship refuses to release the person at the last moment. Context decides which sense applies.
- When it is used
Use it wryly when a job falls to people plainly unable to do it, or to lament someone whose bad luck follows them to the very end. It suits informal talk and can sound harsh if spoken near an actual death.
- Register
- colloquial
Cite or copy proverb
How this record reached us: Editorially sourced.
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