- English translation
When you have nothing else to turn to, all you can do is cry.
- Literal wording
The resource of the one who has little is his tears.
- Meaning and lesson
The saying observes that someone lacking wealth, influence, or allies has no real way to answer hardship. Here the person meant is anyone with scant means or power, not only a beggar. Where others could pay, bargain, or fight their way out, the powerless have nothing left but their own weeping.
It blends compassion with resignation. Tears are framed as the only recourse available, not as a trick or ruse. It can excuse a person's tears as the only response open to them, or soberly note that grief, however sincere, achieves little for those without the means to act.
- When it is used
Said when someone in misfortune can only grieve: to describe another's plight with sympathy, to excuse one's own tears, or to concede gently that a weak party's heartfelt protest carries no practical force.
- Register
- Vernacular proverb
Cite or copy proverb
How this record reached us: Editorially sourced.
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