I admit that I am unfamiliar with Bob Marley’s not-too-great hit “No Woman, No Cry;” in fact, the only lyrics I know are the three that appear in the title. Still, I thought I had the song figured out until (somehow) I ended up chatting about it at work today. It turns out, there are at least two ways to make sense of Marley’s lyrics.
I thought “no woman, no cry” is a direct address, imperative sentence: “No, Woman. No cry.” In standard English, Marley would say, “No, Woman, don’t cry.”
However, my coworkers had a completely different take. They thought “no woman, no cry” is an “if, then” statement, i.e. ” If: no woman, then :no cry.” In translation: “If you have no woman, you will not cry.”
Then I found this helpful Wikipedia article which said: “A more accurate rendering of the title in Jamaican patois would be ‘No, woman, nuh cry.’ The ‘nuh,’ which makes a shorter vowel sound for ‘no,’ is the equivalent of the contraction ‘don’t.’” I was right!
It is fascinating how similar yet different Marley’s language is from the American English I’m accustomed to. Which interpretation did you have, or did you have another one?
I’m with you. I always thought it meant “No woman…[don't] cry”.
By: Jason on August 21, 2007
at 4:58 am
I will be honest and say that I never really thought about it. That said, I fall into your ‘don’t cry’ camp.
By: Kyle on August 21, 2007
at 5:36 am
Like you, I was only familiar with the “No Woman, No Cry” part of the song, but I interpreted it like your coworkers did (no woman=no cry). The correct meaning never occurred to me. Interesting!
By: JL on August 22, 2007
at 11:11 am
It’s pretty imperialistic to criticize a Jamaican-born artist for not speaking academic English. To say that there is only one “proper” English is ethnocentric and ignorant. P.S. Bob Marley’s album with the Wailers is widely regarded as the greatest album of the 20th Century (you can ask Time magazine).
By: Cory on January 18, 2008
at 11:09 pm
To repeat myself, “Naturally, one can’t expect Marley to speak perfect English, and maybe one wouldn’t want him to.”
As for the album with the Wailers being one of the best of this century, I don’t agree. The opinion of Time buys you no credibility on my blog (same goes for Rolling Stone. et al.). “But they’re the experts!” you say; yes, I suppose, but I have ever disagreed with the “experts” on a number of aesthetic issues.
All that said, I don’t dislike Bob Marley, and I hope you and everyone else continue to enjoy his music.
By: Nathan on January 19, 2008
at 8:56 am
The woman in “No Woman, No Cry” refers to the Queen of England and the way that they controlled Jamaica. At least that is how I interpreted it!
By: Alex on March 27, 2008
at 7:54 pm
Ok initially I thought the same thing your coworkers did…if there is no woman, then you won’t cry. That was before I even heard the song and listened to their lyrics. But I soon realized that this initial interpretation makes zero sense outside of the title. Each verse is directed towards not forgetting your past, but at the same time, not dwelling on it. I felt that he was saying something along the lines of “Bad things might have happened, and you should always keep them in mind, but don’t worry too much because things will be fine”. Haha am I making sense? In any case, I think Bob Marley was ridiculously talented and ahead of his time. You could tell how much passion he put in every verse, song, and performance. Reggae is understandably not everyone’s cup of tea, but I certainly do believe Bob Marley deserves the respect and recognition he gets as an innovator to the world of music. Kind of like…I don’t really listen to Frank Sinatra but I respect the hell out of him.
Additionally, I think it would be unfair to call out a legend such as Bob Marley on “horrendous grammar”. Hardly ever is proper grammar incorporated in the media. Like you said, most people wouldn’t even expect him to speak perfect English, but at least he has an excuse…it’s not his first language. Not much you can say about everyone else. Although it’s besides the point, I just wanted to bring that up haha.
By: Mikko on April 16, 2008
at 10:41 pm
No woman = no cry
By: Davron on May 31, 2008
at 4:11 pm
f— you all. bob marley is the man and no woman no cry refers to the queen of england. so all you non beleiver-english major-d—heads can crawl into a hole and die. [Edited for profanity]
By: Hugh on June 4, 2008
at 6:47 pm
Jah live!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
By: Hugh C. on June 5, 2008
at 6:46 am
I think it means: If there is no woman then there are no tears.
But when you read lyrics you understand that Bob Marley ment “Woman you don’t need to cry”
By: yashar on June 23, 2008
at 7:08 am
if your not a woman dont cry
By: be a man on July 13, 2008
at 9:23 pm
How can anyone not be a fan of Marley? His music is the purest form out there, and nothing nowadays can even compare. I guarantee that if you gave his music a chance you would learn to love it. I too once hated it and didn’t give it a chance until i sat down and really listened.
By: Jack on July 27, 2008
at 6:58 pm
hey
im a huge marley fan, and i always thought it meant the same as your co workers. but yours does kind of make sense. we cant be sure though! its too bad we cant ask him 
by the way you are a GREAT writer! do you write professionally?
By: Emilee on December 2, 2008
at 8:26 pm
i always thought it meant if you don’t gotta woman then your not going to cry…but yeah listenin to it now it seems like hes telling a woman not to cry…hmm…thats wack i thought the premise i originally thought it had been, was a lot better.
By: Mizz on February 15, 2009
at 12:18 pm
First of all, the Jamaican Patois used for the title of this song is considered another language and NOT grammatically incorrect English. The Patois spoken by Jamaican natives is a mixture and derivative of African substrate languages and European languages. This is similar to the Creole spoken by Haitians, which is often confused as a broken form of French, when it is in fact an entirely new language.
So when Marley says: No Woman, No Cry, it is Patois for woman, don’t cry. Also this song was written for his wife, Rita Marley, whom he eventually left (though never divorced) for another woman; but would later come to regret.
In short, please get your information straight before making ignorant comments.
By: Jewel on May 28, 2009
at 12:59 pm
I stand corrected. What makes it a separate language I wonder, when it has almost everything in common with English?
By: Nathan on May 29, 2009
at 6:53 am
I thought the same as your coworkers, I stand corrected. It adds a lot more to the song with that meaning.
By: Markm on September 9, 2009
at 2:55 pm