- English translation
The mourner sings her lament, and every woman present cries over her own loss.
- Literal wording
The lamenting woman laments, and each woman there weeps her own weeping.
- Meaning and lesson
At a funeral the hired mourner, in a lament traditionally performed by women, recounts the qualities of the dead and the weight of the loss. Each woman sitting in the gathering, moved by that lament, weeps for the one she herself has lost, so a single mourning occasion holds many separate griefs.
Taken more widely, the saying observes that people gathered for one shared occasion each attend to their own concern. The common event supplies the moment, yet what every participant feels and expresses springs from their own circumstances rather than from the matter at hand.
- When it is used
Suited to a shared gathering, especially one marked by sorrow, where each person turns the common moment toward a private loss. Its image comes from women's funeral mourning custom, not crying generally, so take care before using it lightly around someone actually bereaved.
- Register
- Colloquial Arabic
Cite or copy proverb
How this record reached us: Editorially sourced.
Report an issue with this meaning: The mourner sings her lament, and every woman present cries over her own loss.