APAD: To die with one's boots on.

Meaning: originally to die violently but often used today to describe a person

who dies while still active.

 

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Trying to jump on the bandwagon of poetry, I, an eternal imposter, on the

proverb arranged my thoughts below.

 

    We Chinese avoid the topic like a plague

    and would shun death itself if only we could.

    In the west, the subject seems much less taboo.

    I used to laugh at the ancient Greek notion

    that the best way to go is to die in battle.

    Many moons passed since I heard it

    and nowadays on the idea I am almost sold.

    As we live in a much less martial world,

    to check out with one's boots on sounds not bad at all.

 

Forget it. I'm no poet after all :-)

Because of the influence of Christianity, Western culture is

less taboo about death.

It could be but the Greeks & Romans were pagans BC...

The Old Testament of the Bible was written in B.C.

A good write with a great sense of humor. Love it!

Remembered one words of the 50 Spartans against

100000 Persian Army ---Today !!! we die

Nice! Ur English is so superb, poems only need time&ryhme

哈哈哈哈，In a much less martial world,

Jiu-Jitsu to make dream come true

the Estern should also believe in reincarnation;

doubted how much faith

Thank you. I appreciate it.

Thank you, 暖冬, as always. So there's hope :-)

It might indeed. But I'll settle for our proverb as default.

That's true. Too bad for those races w/o sagas to pass on:-(

The faith is strong but the flesh is weak :-)

Closest Chinese: 鞠躬尽瘁 死而后已。生命不息，战斗不止。but still not the same

Meaning.

 

The main diff is the attitude to death.

Any cultural lessons in there? :-)

In Chinese: Life stop at death. In eng, life does not stop

At death

main diff

At death

That sounds only Marxian Chinese, a blip in history.

Marxian is part of western culture on different root from

Chinese culture

And with Buddhism, the Chinese started to believe in samsara

samsara Is not the same as life does not stop at death

It took 1000 yrs for Buddhism to be accepted by Chinese. And

Final Buddhism in China is a compromise with local teachings (Taoism, Confucianism).

the root of Chinese culture remains as before, not replaced by Buddhism.

1k years seems too short. Another 10k will fix it:)

Nice poem!

You are absolutely right!

Thanks. Couldn’t help trying:)