- English translation
They're like flies: they always crowd onto whoever is too weak to shoo them off.
- Literal wording
Like flies, swarming onto the weak one.
- Meaning and lesson
The image is of flies, which settle in clusters on a creature too feeble to brush them off. Likewise, some people direct their harassment, demands, or injustice at those who lack the strength to resist, because the weakness of the target guarantees that they face no consequences.
The saying condemns this behavior as an especially shameful form of wrongdoing, criticizing opportunistic cruelty rather than recommending it. Picking on the helpless is presented as cowardly opportunism rather than strength. Mistreatment flows toward whoever is least able to push back, and the speaker calls attention to how unfair that is.
- When it is used
Said with disapproval when people pile onto someone who cannot fight back, such as a powerless relative, a junior colleague, or a poor neighbor. It works as a sharp rebuke aimed at the aggressors, not as advice or a comment on the victim.
- Register
- colloquial
Cite or copy proverb
How this record reached us: Editorially sourced.
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