- English translation
When a man's love for his wife changes, he leaves her for another wife and lays his head on a new pillow.
- Literal wording
He whose love changes changes his pillow.
- Meaning and lesson
The pillow is a figurative emblem of the marital bed, not literal bedding. Changing it signifies an altered intimate household arrangement through a change of wife.
In the saying’s traditional husband-centered framing, a man's changed affection for his wife leads him to leave that marriage and marry another; this reflects the wording's gendered premise rather than a general rule.
- When it is used
Use it to describe, within its traditional husband-centered imagery, a husband whose changed affection is represented as leaving one wife and marrying another; it is not a literal comment on replacing bedding.
Cite or copy proverb
How this record reached us: Editorially sourced.
Report an issue with this meaning: When a man's love for his wife changes, he leaves her for another wife and lays his head on a new pillow.