Mortality

Death ultimately places every person in the same condition, regardless of rank, wealth, achievement, or worldly distinction. The saying stresses the leveling power of mortality.

Survival, however humble or undistinguished, is preferable to grandeur, strength, or reputation once death has ended it. The contrast stresses that modest continued life has practical value, while an impressive status without life does not.

The image treats gray hair as a visible sign that life is moving toward its end. Like blossoms announcing a later stage in a plant's cycle, age marks the approach of mortality without specifying when death will come.

Death cannot be persuaded to pass someone by. The image of deafness makes refusal and pleading equally powerless against it.

Death is the one outcome no one can escape. However uncertain the course of a life may be, its end is inevitable.