- English translation
While alive, they have only flies to eat; when dead, they cannot even obtain burial cloths.
- Literal wording
If they live, they eat flies; if they die, they do not find shrouds.
- Meaning and lesson
The saying presents deprivation as unbroken: there is no proper food during life and no provision for burial after death. By joining these two needs, it depicts poverty that strips away both survival and dignity.
It describes people in utter destitution, whose hardship reaches beyond daily hunger to the final obligations owed to the dead. The contrast conveys sorrow and alarm at a condition in which poverty offers no respite.
- When it is used
Use it to describe extreme poverty that leaves people unable to meet necessities in life or secure burial provisions in death. Its bleak imagery makes it appropriate for grave discussions of severe deprivation, not routine complaints about limited money.
Cite or copy proverb
How this record reached us: Editorially sourced.
Report an issue with this meaning: While alive, they have only flies to eat; when dead, they cannot even obtain burial cloths.