- English translation
Trying to fix it, he only made it worse.
- Literal wording
He set out to apply kohl to her eyes, but blinded her.
- Meaning and lesson
The image is of someone who reaches for kohl as a treatment for the eyes and ends up destroying her sight completely. The saying draws its force from the gap between an aim of healing and an outcome of total loss.
Applied more broadly, it marks an attempt at repair that, instead of improving matters, finishes ruining them. Attention rests on the result: the fix itself becomes the cause of a worse state than before.
- When it is used
Apply it when someone steps in to correct or mend a situation and the intervention leaves things far worse than they were, the attempted remedy itself producing the damage. The point is the sharp reversal from intended repair to completed ruin.
Cite or copy proverb
How this record reached us: Editorially sourced.
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