- English translation
If a month holds nothing for you, don't bother counting off its days.
- Literal wording
The month in which you have nothing, do not count its days.
- Meaning and lesson
Counting down the days of a month makes sense when something waits for you at its close, such as wages or a ration of provisions. Having nothing in the month means receiving no such pay or provision when it ends, so tallying its days is pointless labor, and the saying advises sparing yourself that trouble.
The underlying advice is to save your energy for matters that actually bear on your own livelihood. Anxiously watching a span of time that yields you no return only adds weariness, so the sensible course is to let it pass without keeping close count.
- When it is used
Suitable when someone is impatiently counting the days of a period that will bring them no pay or provision when it ends. It reminds them that the counting gains them nothing and that they may as well let the time pass unheeded.
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- Colloquial
Cite or copy proverb
How this record reached us: Editorially sourced.
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