He who hopes does not despair — hope and despair cannot coexist; as long as you maintain hope, you have not yet reached the point of complete collapse. Cultivating hope is the practical antidote to despair.
Sicily's history offered constant reasons for despair and constant demonstrations of survival. The people who made it through the worst periods — the famines, the wars, the oppressions — were those who found some minimal reason for hope and held to it. The proverb is not an injunction to false optimism but to the maintenance of the smallest possible flame of hope as protection against the complete darkness of despair. The Sicilian emigrant on the ship to Buenos Aires who maintained hope that things would be better there did not despair, even though everything they had known was behind them. The widow who hoped her children would grow up in health and education did not despair even in her grief. Hope — even minimal, even fragile — was the structural alternative to despair, and the proverb affirmed this as a practical truth.
A Sicilian proverb about hope as the structural alternative to despair. 'Cu spera' = chi spera (he who hopes), 'nun dispera' = non dispera (does not despair). Used as a consolation formula and practical encouragement across all of Sicily.
Encouraging someone on the edge of giving up
Non lasciare andare la speranza. Cu spera nun dispera — finché speriamo, non abbiamo perso.
Do not let go of hope. He who hopes does not despair — as long as we hope, we have not lost.
An emigrant's mantra for getting through the hard early years
Me lo ripetevo ogni mattina nei primi anni a Berlino. Cu spera nun dispera — e alla fine ce l'ho fatta.
I repeated it to myself every morning in the first years in Berlin. He who hopes does not despair — and in the end I made it.
At a cancer ward, speaking of patients who maintained hope
Non è solo psicologia. Cu spera nun dispera — i pazienti che mantengono la speranza reagiscono meglio.
It is not just psychology. He who hopes does not despair — patients who maintain hope respond better.
A simple everyday use of the phrase
— Non so se funzionerà. — Cu spera nun dispera. Proviamo e vediamo.
— I do not know if it will work. — He who hopes does not despair. Let us try and see.