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河清难俟
hé​qīng​nán​sì

life is too short to wait

Definitions Defs Origin Strokes Stroke Words Sentences Sents
河清难俟 河清難俟 hé​qīng​nán​sì
life is too short to wait
It takes too long to wait for something that is unlikely to happen; literally meaning it is hard to wait for the Yellow River to run clear. This idiom is based on the classical text 左传 zuǒ​zhuàn, referring to the rare nature of the river clearing and the brevity of human life.