Every land has its own cross. Every place, every community, and every person carries its own particular burden. No life is free from suffering; comparison between different people's difficulties is futile because each bears what belongs to them.
Sicilians who emigrated — to America, to Germany, to the north — sometimes returned with the belief that they had escaped their troubles by leaving. This proverb corrected that idea: every place has its own form of hardship. Milan might have prosperity, but it had cold, anonymity, and discrimination. New York had freedom, but it had isolation and homesickness. The cross is personal and local — it is not transferred by moving. The proverb also functioned within Sicily, reminding those who envied others — the city person who envied the countryside, the farmer who envied the fisherman — that every situation comes with its own weight. It is a proverb of reconciliation with one's own condition, not a call to passivity, but a check on the fantasy that someone else's life is simply better.
Deeply connected to the Sicilian emigration experience and the theology of suffering embedded in popular religious culture; the cross image draws directly from Catholic devotional life.
Comforting a friend who moved abroad hoping to escape problems
Pensava di lasciarsi i problemi alle spalle tornando in Italia. Ma ogni terra havi la so cruci — ne ha trovati altri lì.
He thought he would leave his problems behind by going back to Italy. But every land has its own cross — he found new ones there.
A Sicilian emigrant reflecting on life in Germany
Qui si guadagna, certo. Ma fa freddo, sei straniero, i tuoi sono lontani. Ogni terra havi la so cruci — non esiste il posto senza croce.
Here you earn, certainly. But it is cold, you are a foreigner, your family is far. Every land has its own cross — there is no place without a cross.
Responding to someone who envies a seemingly easier life
Credi che stia meglio di te? Ogni terra havi la so cruci — non sai quello che porta nel cuore.
You think he is better off than you? Every land has its own cross — you do not know what he carries in his heart.
A grandmother accepting her own condition
Non ho avuto la vita che sognavo. Ma ogni terra havi la so cruci. Ho imparato ad amare la mia.
I did not have the life I had dreamed of. But every land has its own cross. I learned to love my own.