English equivalent of a Kannada proverb

Solution 1:

I don't know that there is a direct equivalent in common usage in the English language, that keeps the full sense of your proverb.

The closest I can think of is this quote:

"Malice drinks one half of its own poison." - Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Solution 2:

Cutting off one's nose to spite one's face is quite close but not identical in meaning. From Wikipedia:

"Cutting off the nose to spite the face" is an expression used to describe a needlessly self-destructive over-reaction to a problem: "Don't cut off your nose to spite your face" is a warning against acting out of pique, or against pursuing revenge in a way that would damage oneself more than the object of one's anger.

Solution 3:

A close but not identical proverb is:

if wishes were horses, then beggars would ride.

The important part of the Kannada proverb is that a poor person can't do anything about their complaints more than be angry and gnash teeth.. The English proverb emphasizes that, in the same position of lack of power, they can at least wish for the good things.

What is the point of a proverb? To say this is what you can expect from the situation. For Kannada, it is that without means all you can do is complain; in English, you can wish all you want but can't do anything about it.

Solution 4:

You may be thinking of something like the old saying that. . .

Oft evil will shall evil mar.

In other words, nastiness often hurts itself, just like how anger is its own punishment.

Solution 5:

Not quite a "proverb", but the chorus from She was poor but she was honest is a well-known close approximation to OP's meaning..

It's the same the whole world over,
It's the poor what gets the blame,
It's the rich what gets the pleasure,
Isn't it a blooming shame? (aint it all a bleeding shame? in the version as known to me in the UK).

There's always never go to bed angry (or ...to sleep angry) - advice which may be given for various reasons, including as a preventative for bruxism (tooth grinding, esp. when sleeping). The earliest relevant "citation" for that is Ephesians 4:26–27

do not let the sun go down on your anger