Literal translation
to take off one's skin
Meaning
to wear oneself out working hard
Explanation
This expression means to wear oneself out working hard, to give oneself to an effort so intense it becomes almost physically painful. The verb leva carries the sense of removing, taking away, and pèu means skin: to take off one's skin literally evokes work so harsh it would tear away the very casing of the body, a strong image conveying effort at the limit of human endurance. This image joins the related one of bursting an animal or a part of oneself through work, and belongs to a set of Provençal expressions that describe physical toil in terms of exaggerated bodily mutilation, a common device for underlining the intensity of labour without resorting to abstract description. The register is familiar, used to evoke, with a touch of admiration or weary complaint, particularly hard work, often manual or agricultural, carried through to exhaustion. It is used both to speak of oneself, in a tone of tired complaint, and to describe someone else's toil whose merit or excessive zeal one wishes to underline. The expression testifies to the direct, concrete relationship Provençal maintains with the body to express extreme physical states.