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今笑い後で泣く ima warai ato de naku Laugh Now, Cry Later

今笑い後で泣く (ima warai ato de naku), laugh now, cry later, puts an English motto into Japanese. The motto is in print by 1920, and its thought is as old as Luke in the King James Bible. This study sets it beside Japanese proverbs of its own, 楽は苦の種 and one that runs the other way.

Japanese Scroll of Laugh Now, Cry Later (ima warai ato de naku) — Calligraphy by Eri Takase
Laugh Now, Cry Later今笑い後で泣くima warai ato de naku

Original art by Master Calligrapher Eri Takase

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Abstract

今笑い後で泣く, laugh now, cry later, is Japanese for an English motto whose thought is old in English (Luke 6:25 in the King James Bible of 1611, and a proverb recorded from 1530) and whose words are in print by 1920, in a Welsh one-act comedy. By 2008 a Canadian border-service handbook reads the paired laughing and crying masks of a gang tattoo as Laugh now, cry later. The Japanese sentence is in no book that the National Diet Library's full text reaches under its own spelling, though a 1990 book says 今笑って後で泣く. Japanese says the same thing in its own proverb, 楽は苦の種、苦は楽の種, known from about 1752, while the one proverb with the motto's words, 今泣いた烏がもう笑う, runs the other way.

Overview

The sense. Enjoy it now and pay for it later: the warning, or the shrug of someone who has already decided. The English carries both, and so does the Japanese.

The words. 今 ima, now; 笑い warai, the continuative of 笑う, laugh; 後で ato de, afterward; 泣く naku, cry. Plain modern Japanese.

The text in English. The English is the original, and the Japanese fits it word for word.

The historical record

1530 and 1611. The thought in English. Older English forms put the laughing first and the weeping second, as the motto does. Luke's sixth chapter, in the King James Bible of 1611, reads Woe unto you that laugh now! for ye shall mourn and weep [1]. Tilley's dictionary of English proverbs records Some laugh in the morning that weep at night from Palsgrave in 1530 [2], and Mieder's dictionary of American proverbs gives Laugh before breakfast, cry before sunset, with the same first citation [3]. These are the motto's thought, not its words, and no witness here links the motto to any of them.

1752 to 1880. The thought in Japanese. Japanese has the motto's thought as a proverb of its own. 楽は苦の種、苦は楽の種, ease is the seed of pain, pain the seed of ease, is glossed by the 日本国語大辞典 as 楽をすると、あとで苦を味わわなくてはならない, take your ease and you must taste pain afterward, with a first citation in the 浮世草子 笑談医者気質 of 1774 [4]; older still, the Zen master Hakuin reports, about 1752, an old master who brushed the pair for whoever asked him for calligraphy [5]. Its shorter sibling, 楽あれば苦あり, where there is ease there is pain, has a first citation in a kabuki play of 1880, and ことわざを知る辞典 says it was on the Edo いろはかるた [6].

1891. The proverb that runs the other way. 今泣いた烏がもう笑う, the crow that was crying a moment ago is already laughing, is said of a child's quick change of mood [7]. The 日本国語大辞典's first citation is Saitō Ryokuu's 門三味線 of 1895 [7], but Yamada Bimyō has it in 園の二葉, a book the National Diet Library dates 1891: ふゝゝと今泣いた烏が笑ひ出す [8]. In Natsume Sōseki's I Am a Cat a nun sings it, keeping time [7]. It means fickleness, not consequence, and it runs from tears to laughter, so it is not this saying.

1920. The four words. The oldest witness found for the motto's words is a one-act comedy printed in Cardiff in 1920, Naunton Davies's A Monologue for Me, where a playwright says of the world: The world lives to laugh now and cry later on [9].

1966 to 1983. A title, a song, a saying. Smile Now, Cry Later, the motto's sister, was a record by Sonny Ozuna and the Sunliners, as Cash Box names them in August 1966 [10]. A song called Laugh Now and Cry Later was registered for copyright in 1970, as a sheet in January and as music in June [11]. By the early 1980s the four words are a stock line: a character says Laugh now, cry later in a 1980 novel [12], and a 1983 Boston Globe article calls it an emotional installment plan [13].

2008. The masks. The Canada Border Services Agency's tattoo handbook gives the pair of laughing and crying clown faces or masks four readings: Laugh now, cry later; Play now, pay later; My happy life, my sad life; Smile now, cry later. It calls the style typical among Latin and Asian gang members [14]. No witness found dates the pairing of the masks with the motto.

The Japanese sentence. 今笑い後で泣く is in no book in the National Diet Library's full-text search of the public-domain books, which ends near 1946. Six spellings, historical and modern, return none [15]. The Library's wider full-text search, which reaches later books, finds no book with the scroll's spelling either. The te-form is there, in a 1990 book on faith: 人間は、今笑って後で泣くより、今泣いて後で笑った方がよい, better to cry now and laugh later than to laugh now and cry later [16]. Kotobank, JMdict and Weblio have no entry for the sentence.

What is not a source. No author was found for the English motto, and the oldest witness for its words is the 1920 play, as far as the Internet Archive's full-text index reaches. Neither Luke, nor the English proverbs, nor 楽は苦の種 is shown to be its ancestor; they are the same thought, said earlier.

A reading

The English motto has two voices, and the record keeps both. Luke and the proverbs warn: the laugh will be paid for. The tattoo shrugs: the one who wears it already knows the price. The Japanese sentence holds both, the way the English does. I expect a Japanese reader to hear the warning first, from 楽は苦の種. The swagger comes with the English, and the scroll says it plainly, in honest Japanese. Its one neighbor in words, the crying crow, runs the other way, from tears to laughter.

References

  1. Luke 6:25, The Holy Bible, King James Version (1611), at Wikisource. https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Bible_(King_James)/Luke
  2. Morris Palmer Tilley, A Dictionary of the Proverbs in England in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries (University of Michigan Press, 1950), M1176, Some laugh in the MORNING that weep at night, first citation 1530 Palsgrave.
  3. Wolfgang Mieder, ed., A Dictionary of American Proverbs (Oxford University Press, 1992), p. 362, s.v. laugh, no. 10, Laugh before breakfast, cry before sunset, 1st cit.: 1530 Palsgrave.
  4. 「楽は苦の種苦は楽の種」, 精選版日本国語大辞典 (初出 笑談医者気質, 1774) and デジタル大辞泉, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/楽は苦の種苦は楽の種-655824
  5. 白隠, 於仁安佐美 (about 1752), in 大橋春崖, 上村義秀 編, 白隠広録 第1輯 (天眼寺, 1902), p. 111, scan 227. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/823443/1/227
  6. 「楽あれば苦あり」, 精選版日本国語大辞典 (初出 木間星箱根鹿笛, 1880) and ことわざを知る辞典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/楽あれば苦あり-655823
  7. 「今泣いた烏がもう笑う」, デジタル大辞泉, 精選版日本国語大辞典 (初出 門三味線, 1895) and ことわざを知る辞典 (使用例 夏目漱石, 吾輩は猫である, 1905–06), at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/今泣いた烏がもう笑う-435773
  8. 山田美妙, 園の二葉: 家庭教育 (青木嵩山堂, dated 1891 by the NDL), scan 19. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/887082/1/19
  9. Naunton Davies, A Monologue for Me: A Comedy in One Act, E.P.C. Welsh Drama Series no. 32 (Cardiff: The Educational Publishing Co., 1920), p. 12. https://archive.org/details/monologueformeco32cove
  10. Cash Box, 13 August 1966, snippet view, Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/cashbox28unse_2
  11. Library of Congress, Copyright Office, Catalog of Copyright Entries, Third Series, vol. 24, January–June 1970: part 5, Music, Laugh now and cry later, words, music and arrangement by Matthew Belcher and Nathaniel Keitt, 15 June 1970, EU188511; part 1, Books and Pamphlets, Laugh now, and cry later, sheet, Matthew Belcher, 29 January 1970, A126967, snippet view, Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/catalogofco1970324512lib · https://archive.org/details/catalogofco1970324112lib
  12. Frank Gerber, The Gentle Losers (Roslyn Heights, N.Y.: Libra, 1980), snippet view, Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/gentlelosers0000gerb
  13. The Boston Globe, 18 April 1983, snippet view, Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/per_boston-globe_1983-04-18_223_108
  14. Canada Border Services Agency, CBSA Tattoo Handbook (2008), Clown faces / masks. https://archive.org/details/cbsa-tattoo-handbook
  15. National Diet Library, next-generation digital library full-text search on 今笑い後で泣く, 今笑ひ後で泣く, 今笑うて後で泣く, 笑い後で泣く, 今笑って後で泣く and 笑って後で泣く, 0 books each. https://lab.ndl.go.jp/dl/
  16. 日向美則, 信仰と解脱 (1990), snippet view, National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/13204219

Authors

Tim Jackowski (Systems Architect, Takase Studios, LLC) · 典 Ten (Anthropic Claude Fable 5.1, Takase Studios, LLC)

AI written · Ten wrote the history. Tim Jackowski commissioned it and answers for it.

Checked · Grok 4.6 (xAI), 2026-09-06, citations of the grouped history this one was split from (history_sayings_rendered_409_969_975_997_990_998_1000, seven sayings); its one contradiction is in another text, and the Lab counts it could not check include this one. The 2026-09-30 gate (ten-s368) rewrote this history and was not part of that check.

Cite as: Tim Jackowski and Ten, "Philology of 今笑い後で泣く (ima warai ato de naku)," Takase Studios, 2026, https://takase.com/library/philology/ima-warai-ato-de-naku.