It Cannot Be Helped

仕方が無い (shikata ga nai): there is no way, so it cannot be helped. 仕方 is a way of doing and が無い is there is none, and the phrase is what a Japanese speaker says when a thing is beyond changing and must be accepted; the dictionary glosses it as unsatisfying, with nothing to do but accept. It has been in Japanese speech since at least the 1530s. Hepburn's dictionary of 1872 gave the first English, no resource, and filed the sentence under resignation.