156Japanese idiom 四字熟語
山あり谷あり
やまありたにありYama ari tani ari
“There are mountains, there are valleys.”
The meaning
No life is a plain. Heights and hollows alternate for everyone — knowing it makes the peaks humbler and the valleys less final.
At the origin
A common expression for life's ups and downs.
The characters
- 山 yamamountain
- あり arithere is
- 谷
- あり
In practice
In a hollow, recall a past climb: the road goes on.
Themes
In the collections · Nanakorobi