To desire and not have is sure grief
The Florios of Sicily“To desire and not have is sure grief” is a Sicilian proverb that names the suffering of longing without fulfillment. Its compact pairing of desire and deprivation turns an intimate feeling into a general statement about human experience.
Wording and Source
The proverb appears in Sicilian as “Addisiari e ’un aviri è pena di muriri,” followed by its English rendering, “To desire and not have is sure grief.” The attribution identifies it as a Sicilian proverb, presenting the line not as an individual character’s speech but as inherited communal wisdom.
Meaning and Function
The saying links wanting directly to pain: the desired thing remains absent, and that absence becomes a source of grief. Its blunt formulation makes no promise that patience or effort will bring satisfaction. Instead, the proverb captures the emotional cost of the distance between what one desires and what one possesses.
Narrative Significance
Set apart as an epigraph-like statement in the chapter headed “Sulfur,” the proverb offers a lens for reading the material that follows. The chapter situates its period amid economic revival under Ferdinand II and a conflict over Sicily’s sulfur, as British and French buyers seek to purchase it below market prices. Against this backdrop of contested value and frustrated claims, the proverb’s broad language of desire and lack resonates beyond private feeling without specifying a single character or outcome.
