Original artwork, not a still
He who has a thousand friends has not a friend to spare, And he who has one enemy will meet him everywhere.
Behind the line
What it means
Our interpretation.
The couplet values every friend, saying that even someone with a thousand cannot spare one. It then gives a single enemy an outsized presence, seeming to appear everywhere. The contrast weighs the importance of preserving friendship against the persistent trouble that one hostile person can bring.
Context reviewed
