"He who digs a grave for another, ends up in it." (tiny video)
(Is this a saying outside Denmark too?)
Update: it's in many languages, clearly, and it's always a hole/trap/pit. And looking at it again, I can see that the Danish saying can be read that way too, and it makes sense.
Yes, there is such saying in Czech, and I believe also in Russian.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds like a lame version of this Chinese saying:
ReplyDelete"He who seeks vengeance must dig two graves"
Before the days of mechanized back-hoes small enough to use in a cemetery, like those little Bobcats,
ReplyDeletethe cemetery's caretaker also doubled as its grave-digger. And the usual dimensions being 3 feet by six feet by six feet deep, that fellow did have to get into the other's grave in order to finish it. How do I know? I lived across the street from our town's cemetery. Very quiet neighbours, but depressing scenery. And even the so-called rich & famous hardly ever get visits from their relatives after the 'planting'. When you're gone, you're gone.
In hungarian, it is not grave, put that big hole you dig in the earth to catch animals, especially wolfs. So if you dig that (i don't know the english word) then you fall in it yourself.
ReplyDeleteI meant: If you dig that for somebody else.
ReplyDeleteThere are similar thoughts in an old Hebrew Proverb. (They refer to digging a "pit", not a "grave"...)
ReplyDeleteThinking about it, maybe the Danish saying can be read as a pit/trap also. Makes more sense.
ReplyDeleteRay, maybe you're lucky, they say death awareness is good for spiritual progress, and I could believe it.
Lebanon and arab countries : "He who dug a hole for his brother, and then fell in it."
ReplyDeleteمن حفر حفرة لأخيه فوقع فيها
I *know* it's not a grammatically correct and complete sentence. And that's just the way it's said.
French : "Lo, the trickster got tricked, who thought he was tricking."
Tel est pris qui croyait prendre.
And I had heard of that Chinese proverb. The Chinese do have a way with words. :-)
"He who runs in front of car, gets tired
He who runs behind car, gets exhausted
Much more exhaust to smell if behind Humvee"
Ray,
I've lived for two years right next to a cemetary in Marseille, on StPeter Street (really, that was the street's name!). Didn't have a direct view of it, but I really enjoyed the calm, and I think the apartment was available and the rent was very reasonable precisely because of the location. And at 15 minutes' walk from the University, too!
A lot of shops on that street were for funerary ornaments and the likes, with that eerie blue lighting at night. I like the ghostly atmosphere it creates. Never bothered me.
I can testify, the dead are far more pleasant neighbors than the living! :-)
"When you're gone, you're gone."
I don't really wish for people to visit my grave regularly. I'd rather they just remembered me, the "me" that was alive and had fun with them. And please, PLEASE, don't talk to the slab, 'cause the skull ain't listening! I just find that silly, really. I intend to move on with the journey of discovering What Lies Beyond.
'sides, like I've already said many times, take whatever spare parts can relieve a sick living poor sod, and let sod grow when the rest returns to Mother Nature... if it's not too toxic from all those additives they've put in our food. (Honestly, to practice anthropophagy, one must not only be crazy, but also very stupid or desperate! I pity da worms, word!)
I wouldn't be surprised if what grew turned out to be astro-turf...
Aniko said...
"(i don't know the english word)"
I'm guessing it's "booby-trap". A trap for catching boobies, meaning here someone dumb enough to fall in it (no, not busty blonde Playmates!).
Compare with the french "attrape-nigaud", which is identical in etymology. Or, more racily, with "piège à cons / à couillons" ; even better, since "con" and "couillon" are both slang terms for stupid, derived from sexualized body parts.
I love linguistics. Especially cunny linguistics. ;-)
So much for respecting a grave topic!
You may be a cunning linguist, but I'm a master debater.
ReplyDelete"I don't really wish for people to visit my grave regularly."
Me neither. In fact I don't want a grave at all. When it's done it's done.
"In fact I don't want a grave at all."
ReplyDeleteWell, you've got to decide what to do with the waste when you go, don't you? And cremation is very out of fashion now, what with the CO2 problem and all.
I suppose very few people want a grave at all. But we can't live forever...
If cremation were to be out of the question (sounds silly), then just dump the body on or under earth in the wild, let it go.
ReplyDeleteEolake said...
ReplyDelete"...dump the body on or under earth in the wild, let it go."
Yeah. Under...as in a grave, Eo...please! Imagine just leavin' yourself on the ground and pity the person that trips over your body...on a nature walk (or...shudder to think...a picture session)! YIKES! And then there's gotta be an investigation as to who this dude is; is it a missing person...blah, blah, blah. Perhaps you could include a note...engraved on a dogtag sorta thing identifying yourself and...that you just wanted to lie...*there* rather than in the ground! Hopefully, everybody wouldn't mind stepping over ya, as they moved on! lol! Imagine the "wild" filled w/the *non-grave populace* laying there! ;-) Cremation is a good way...if, as you mention, Pascal, there was a way to get it done in a more eco-friendly way. :-)
"Wer anderen eine Grube gräbt, fällt selbst hinein".
ReplyDeleteAt least we agree on this subject, worldwide, and obviously throughout all cultures.
Is it because of the same inner feelings, that all people seem to share?? (Responsibility, conscience, terms untwisted by religion, state,etc).
I'm commenting too much, but I'm only practizzzing my English. I'll shut up for a while.
;-)
And even the so-called rich & famous hardly ever get visits from their relatives after the 'planting'. When you're gone, you're gone.
ReplyDeleteI don't really get this whole visiting of dead loved ones. Leaving flowers on the grave. All that jazz. When they're gone, that's it. Sad but true. I live in the real world. You're worm food. It's kind of obscene the amount of money spent on casket, headstone, funeral service, and all the flowers, etc. that come later.
I agree, and I've blogged about it.
ReplyDeleteI *don't* believe we're a body only, and that makes it even sillier to keep paying tribute to a dumb carcass.
Well, we agree about that part, but I haven't seen any proof that there's anything more than the physical to us. The soul=consciousness and that is purely physical.
ReplyDeleteThat doesn't mean there isn't anything else. We can't say the soul doesn't exist but no on can say that it does. And, unfortunately, they're the ones who have to produce proof.
'Nuff said!
-Stan "The Man" Lee
The survivors have the job of getting rid of the body (no, Eolake, I don't think it is a good idea to scatter dead bodies in the woods as others leave plastic bags after a picnic :-), and, more, of coping with the fact that the other is not there any more. If there is a grave to visit, it is more meant for the survivors, in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteI didn't mean "in the wild" so much as "in the open".
ReplyDeleteWell, anything that gets rid of the damn thing without too much fuss.
TC Totally Commented...
ReplyDelete"Eo...please! Imagine just leavin' yourself on the ground and pity the person that trips over your body..."
Yeah, man, pick yourself up already! Show some spine! (On second thought... better put that spine back in where it belongs.)
And won't someone think of the children?
"Imagine the "wild" filled w/the *non-grave populace* laying there!"
Yeah, the dearly departed would give us Night of the Leaving Dead. Oh, BTW, you still have a vertebra showing.
"Cremation is a good way...if, as you mention, Pascal, there was a way to get it done in a more eco-friendly way. :-)"
You can always try composting... Let earthworms digest you into ready-for-use fertilizer. A small way to pay back Nature for all those components.
"I live in the real world. You're worm food."
Joe, you're a zombie? Et tu, Dickus? And there I thought it was just advanced old age and a little failing body hygiene.
This explains so much... [Like your very unhealthy attraction to reading the posts on my blog!]
Oops! Careful, you dropped a finger. Let me get the duct tape. And dont just stagger there, have a seat. There, next to Mummy and the iron maiden.
"It's kind of obscene the amount of money spent on casket, headstone, funeral service, and all the flowers, etc. that come later."
Are you telling us you don't throw away your rotten thawed meat in silvery silk trash bags? What next, flush your dearly departed goldfish in the toilet? With the common refuse?
Doubting Eo said...
"I *don't* believe we're a body only, and that makes it even sillier to keep paying tribute to a dumb carcass."
"Dumb carcass"? That's not a very nice way to speak about my friends, mister. No matter how unsophisticated, sedentary, overweight, unkempt and unattractive they may be!
Anyhoo, if we ARE a body only, there's precious little left of interest when it starts festering for real. Time to say Uncle. Right, Morticia ma chérie?
Joe the Ponderer said...
"We can't say the soul doesn't exist but no one can say that it does."
Sure they can. People all around me say it every day! They can't back it up, but this doesn't stop them from saying it... Saying it, or spraying it, whatever.
For the record, I do believe there is a soul. In some very mysterious, totally unrelated to Christian imagery sort of way.
Or maybe I'm just ordinarily narcissic... ;-)
But let's be honest : the thought of a soul, perduring after death, is the only way to philosophically tolerate our human knowledge of the unavoidable end without diving head first into a life of senseless sensual debauchery.
Not that I'd mind the opportunity for some senseless sensual debauchery... ;-) I've just read that the Eros Centers in Germany are cutting prices because of the crisis.
[Whoa! Thundering typhoons outside right now. Good thing I'm writing offline. The cat came back from his stroll wetter than a female canadian beaver at mating season. And the dang pussy went straight to my bed, dripping all over!]
Doubtiful Joe quoted...
Stan "The Man" Lee"
And yet you claim you're not a true believer?
Giddouttahere! I'm sure you think you have a soul.
Or, failing that, you don't lack spirit. :-p
Aniko "the Blade" noted...
"The survivors have the job of getting rid of the body"
Mm, yeah, see? Well spotted, missie. Not as easy as it sounds, see? Nobody must be the wiser, yeah? Ya don't just dump a stiff like dat anywhere, or people might start askin' questions, see. An' den, da boss, he ain't gonna be too pleased, sure thing.
"as others leave plastic bags after a picnic"
Ah, yeah, plastic bags, now dat's a clever idea, see? Disguise it as ordinary trash, m'yeah, dat's it! Dem coppers will never see it comin', right under deir noses! That's usin' your noggin, now, good thinkin'. Let's do dat, Anthill Mob.
"and, more, of coping with the fact that the other is not there any more."
Dibs on his Tommy Gun! Whoa, and on his girlie mags, too. Look at dem pin-ups, woo-hoo! (Hmm, what's a Dom, aye?)
"If there is a grave to visit, it is more meant for the survivors, in my opinion."
Double five from Go? In jail... but just visiting! Now, watch out how many of them doubles you roll, or folks will get suspicious, see? Like Bernie Mad Oaf, he got greedy, rolled too many doubles, now he got life in da slammer! Dum-dum.
"Well, anything that gets rid of the damn thing without too much fuss."
[Humpf! Ooph!] The damn thing would be less trouble if you didn't eat so much! [Dumb carcass...]
What do I look like, a moving company? I'm in the Plumbers' Union, fer cripes sake! I handle da paperwoik! I *don't* dig ditches or ditch buggers.
I almost didn't pay attention to the movie link! What a loss that would've been.
ReplyDeleteSo, about the movie:
"Serves you right, you big meanie!"
;-p