A Bed of Roses
En un Lecho de Rosas
Meaning:
We say that someone is on a bed of roses when they are in a very comfortable, pleasant situation. On the other hand if someone is not on a bed of roses, they mean that they are going through very difficult times. A similar expression is “A bowl of cherries.”
Origin:
It is said that when Hernan Cortes was torturing Cuauhtemoc so that he confessed where the Aztec treasures were, Cortes complained that he was having difficult times, at which, Cuauhtemoc said that he was not exactly on a bed of roses. Roses are lovely, perfumed, soft-petalled flowers. Well, that is true if we don’t take the thorns (spines) into account. A bed of roses is just a bed of rose petals.
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