Czego nie bierze Chrystus, to fiskus porwie
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What it means
What Christ does not take, the taxman will grab — death and taxes are the two inescapable certainties of life.
English equivalent
Nothing is certain but death and taxes.
Vocabulary
- brać — to take
- Chrystus — Christ (here: death)
- fiskus — the treasury, the taxman, the state
- porwać — to snatch, to grab
Grammar note
Genitive of negation: 'czego nie bierze' — the object is in genitive because the verb is negated.
Cultural context
A darkly humorous proverb reflecting the Polish experience of both mortality and heavy taxation.
Intermediate
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