266Japanese proverb ことわざ
泣く子と地頭には勝てぬ
なくことじとうにはかてぬNaku ko to jitō ni wa katenu
“Against a crying child and a local lord, no one wins.”
The meaning
Some forces argument cannot reach — a child's tears, a powerful man's whim. The proverb teaches where to stop debating and seek another path.
At the origin
The jitō was the seigneurial steward of medieval Japan, famously intractable.
The characters
- 泣く nakucrying
- 子 kochild
- と toand, with
- 地頭
- に
- は
- 勝てぬ
とParticle“And, with” — or opens quoted words.
In practice
Facing the unarrangeable, save the argument: go around.