«اِلْمِرِيسِي يِرْمِي الرَّيِّسْ مَحَل مَا يِكْرَهْ»

The saying pictures a boat's skipper (the rayyis, here a ship's master rather than a political chief) at the mercy of the Marisi, a named southerly wind regarded as harmful. However skilled he is, the wind overpowers his steering and pushes the vessel toward a place he never wanted to reach.

Applied to people, it describes doing something one would never freely choose because circumstances leave no other option. The person is acting neither from preference nor from carelessness but is carried along by events, so blame for the outcome rests largely on the pressures that compelled it.

Use it when someone explains or excuses a choice they made unwillingly because events left no alternative, such as taking an unwanted job or moving somewhere unplanned. It can be said sympathetically by others or offered by the person concerned in self-defense.