Rub your sore eye with your elbow.

The instruction is deliberately impractical: an elbow cannot rub its owner's eye as a hand can. By proposing an impossible way to touch the sore spot, the proverb makes restraint the point of the joke.

The image may also carry a broader caution against interfering with something that is already troublesome. It suggests pausing before an attempted remedy becomes another source of aggravation.

If someone keeps fussing with an irritation, the proverb could offer a wry prompt to leave it alone. More broadly, it may suit a situation in which repeated efforts to fix a problem risk making it worse.