燕雀焉知鴻鵠之志
yàn​què​yān​zhī​hóng​gǔ​zhī​zhì

how can small people understand the ambitions of the great

  • created sense approved 燕雀焉知鸿鹄之志/燕雀焉知鴻鵠之志 · yàn​què​yān​zhī​hóng​gǔ​zhī​zhì · how can small people understand the ambitions of the great — "Initial import from upstream dictionary"

    燕雀焉知鸿鹄之志 / 燕雀焉知鴻鵠之志

    yàn​què​yān​zhī​hóng​gǔ​zhī​zhì

    how can small people understand the ambitions of the great

    Literally "how can a sparrow know the will of a great swan"; used to mean that common people cannot possibly understand the lofty goals or ambitions of a great person.

    燕雀 (literal) → 燕雀 · yàn​què · swallows and sparrows 焉知 (literal) → 焉知 · yān​zhī · how can one know 鸿鹄 (literal) → 鸿鹄/鴻鵠 · hóng​hú · swan 之 (literal) → 之 · zhī · [possessive] 志 (literal) → 志 · zhì · will

    Changed: simplified, traditional, gloss, definition, pinyin, variant pinyin, variants, separable parts, decomposition

    created sense