proverb · Source-linked selection
If you would fruit have, You must bring the leaf to the grave.
If you would fruit have, You must bring the leaf to the grave.
Historical period not yet established
Understand the thought
Meaning in plain English
The saying makes bringing the leaf to the grave a condition of having fruit. It contrasts a desired yield with a leaf being put away or buried.
What the words are saying
Must supplies a firm instruction, but the actual practice and meaning of grave are not explained. A qualified analogy might concern letting one stage end before another result can be obtained. That application remains editorial; it should not be presented as a horticultural technique or an established original reading. The clear structure is a condition attached to a wished-for result.
Everyday example
A reader identifies the leaf-and-fruit contrast while leaving the unspecified cultivation process open to research.
When to use it
Use it to examine a conditional growth image with its process qualified.
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What it does not mean
The source does not verify a planting technique or explain the exact action intended.
Agent-assisted editorial interpretation. This explains the words; it does not by itself verify their author or earliest origin.
Attribution & collection notes
- Author or tradition
- Traditional
Attribution: traditional - Country attributed
- Not established
A country attribution does not establish the earliest origin. - Historical period
- Historical period not yet established
No sufficiently supported historical placement has been established. Import and download dates are not treated as composition dates. - Recorded source
- A Dictionary of English Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases
Entry 651 · Fruit
A collection's publication date can be later than the words it records.
- Culture
- English