Timeline for What is the English equivalent to the Chinese/Japanese saying, “塞翁失馬— Life is like Old Sai’s horse”?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
59 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jul 19, 2015 at 5:32 | comment | added | Chris Subagio | Hmm, I wonder why this popped back on the list. I would have thought that the appropriate translation for expressing humility in the face of great fortune in English would have been, "eh, every dog has his day, right?" | |
| Jul 19, 2015 at 5:21 | answer | added | ScotM | timeline score: 1 | |
| Jul 18, 2015 at 3:35 | answer | added | ScotM | timeline score: 8 | |
| Jul 16, 2015 at 17:35 | answer | added | ScotM | timeline score: 11 | |
| Apr 8, 2015 at 14:34 | answer | added | Senex Ægypti Parvi | timeline score: -1 | |
| Mar 27, 2015 at 5:08 | answer | added | Sven Yargs | timeline score: 1 | |
| S Nov 30, 2014 at 13:42 | history | suggested | Ben Kovitz | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
Minor changes: rewording in more-conventional English.
|
| Nov 30, 2014 at 13:06 | review | Suggested edits | |||
| S Nov 30, 2014 at 13:42 | |||||
| Oct 11, 2014 at 21:13 | comment | added | j_random_hacker | @YoichiOishi: No problem, I only mentioned it to excuse the fact that I didn't reply to you sooner. Glad you like the term :) | |
| Oct 11, 2014 at 20:34 | comment | added | Yoichi Oishi | @j_random_hacker. Sorry for mistyping your user name. Thank you for feeding me usage of the interesting phrase. Yea. the core concept of Old Sai's horse story writen earlier than 2100 years ago is retold well with the new word, 'horison effect' in the life today. | |
| Oct 11, 2014 at 13:16 | comment | added | j_random_hacker | @YoichiOishi: Yes, it's a computer science term, but I think it applies very much to ordinary life -- and a lot more often than people realise. Amadan gave a good description I think. (I didn't see your reply to me, I think because you started my name with "i"!) | |
| Oct 11, 2014 at 5:39 | comment | added | Mari-Lou A | There's a tiny tiny font error in the letter -M in: "Ｍonths later Old Sai's horse came back, ..." | |
| Oct 9, 2014 at 7:57 | comment | added | Yoichi Oishi | Amadan. I think I'm getting idea. I was under impression that 'Horizontal effect' is a strict computing or game word from the wikitionary difinition. | |
| Oct 9, 2014 at 6:39 | comment | added | Amadan | Horizon Effect, in plain language, means that if you can only see a certain distance, or you can only predict a limited time, you can make conclusions based on the short term that will prove false in the long turn. The typical computing example the article gives is chess; you can substitute Go (囲碁) if you prefer: a novice can think a move is very strong, but a master might see more into the future of the game, and recognise the weakness in the move. In this story, same idea: you see horse ran away, but getting a fast horse is concealed beyond the horizon, so you are sad. | |
| Oct 8, 2014 at 21:21 | comment | added | Yoichi Oishi | @j_random_hacker. As an old man, I'm not familiar with the word, "Horizon Effect." It seems a computing algorism word according to Wikitionary. I read the explanation, but it was hard for me to understand. I guess you used this word figuratively. I'm curious to know what you mean by "The Horizon Effect is everywhere"? Would you put it in a plain word for me? | |
| Oct 8, 2014 at 17:55 | comment | added | j_random_hacker | Just wanted to say that I was overjoyed to stumble upon this SE question. I remember reading this parable years ago, and have spent many hours searching for more information about it, but lacked the right search terms. It seems to describe such a fundamental truth of life. The Horizon Effect is everywhere. | |
| Oct 7, 2014 at 16:20 | comment | added | MickG |
For the record, the Japanese should be "sai_ou_ ga uma", and the Chinese means "Old Sai loses [his] horse". (NB _ou_ is Markdown not "typeset" to italics)
|
|
| Oct 7, 2014 at 15:00 | answer | added | talrnu | timeline score: 10 | |
| Oct 7, 2014 at 9:13 | history | edited | Yoichi Oishi | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
added 23 characters in body
|
| Oct 7, 2014 at 9:12 | comment | added | Yoichi Oishi | @Mari-Lou. The first case is unlikely. So I borrowed, and transplanted your second line into my question. Thanks for your pointing out possible confusion. | |
| Oct 6, 2014 at 19:24 | history | edited | Yoichi Oishi | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
added 19 characters in body
|
| Oct 6, 2014 at 19:23 | answer | added | user39425 | timeline score: 9 | |
| S Oct 6, 2014 at 18:24 | history | suggested | Ben Kovitz | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
corrected "a lame"; improved wording a litle
|
| Oct 6, 2014 at 17:08 | review | Suggested edits | |||
| S Oct 6, 2014 at 18:24 | |||||
| Oct 6, 2014 at 10:45 | history | edited | Yoichi Oishi | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
added 41 characters in body
|
| Oct 6, 2014 at 9:53 | history | edited | Yoichi Oishi | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
added 6 characters in body
|
| Oct 6, 2014 at 9:48 | history | edited | Yoichi Oishi | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
added 6 characters in body
|
| Oct 6, 2014 at 8:18 | history | edited | Yoichi Oishi | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
added 2 characters in body
|
| Oct 6, 2014 at 6:15 | history | edited | Yoichi Oishi | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
added 43 characters in body
|
| S Oct 6, 2014 at 5:18 | history | suggested | davecw | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
removing redundancy: "around circ." to "circ."
|
| Oct 6, 2014 at 3:03 | review | Suggested edits | |||
| S Oct 6, 2014 at 5:18 | |||||
| Oct 6, 2014 at 2:49 | answer | added | SrJoven | timeline score: 0 | |
| Oct 6, 2014 at 2:41 | vote | accept | Yoichi Oishi | ||
| Oct 5, 2014 at 21:52 | history | edited | Yoichi Oishi | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
added 503 characters in body
|
| Oct 5, 2014 at 20:59 | history | edited | Yoichi Oishi | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
deleted 3 characters in body
|
| Oct 5, 2014 at 19:56 | history | protected | RegDwigнt | ||
| Oct 5, 2014 at 17:41 | comment | added | Araucaria - Him | I think you need to give one more stage of the story so that people get that it's meant to work both ways (something that seems good now can be unfortunate in the future.) | |
| Oct 5, 2014 at 17:18 | comment | added | Pacerier | @Drew, That fable is not talking about "ups and downs". It's more about saying the downs are ups in the future and the ups are downs in the future, in other words, life has "no ups and downs". See sivers.org/horses for more info. | |
| Oct 5, 2014 at 17:15 | comment | added | Drew | Life has its ups and downs. | |
| Oct 5, 2014 at 14:47 | answer | added | bib | timeline score: 30 | |
| Oct 5, 2014 at 13:26 | comment | added | Hot Licks | "It's always darkest before dawn" is one English adage that comes to mind. (Though the literal truth of that is questionable.) | |
| Oct 5, 2014 at 12:15 | comment | added | Martin Smith |
A similar sentiment to that expressed in your penultimate paragraph is in the Rudyard Kipling poem "if". If you can meet with triumph and disaster and treat those two imposters just the same...
|
|
| Oct 5, 2014 at 11:22 | answer | added | Robusto | timeline score: 14 | |
| Oct 5, 2014 at 11:19 | answer | added | congusbongus | timeline score: 35 | |
| Oct 5, 2014 at 11:14 | history | edited | Robusto | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
deleted 2 characters in body; edited title
|
| Oct 5, 2014 at 10:29 | history | edited | Yoichi Oishi | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
added 12 characters in body
|
| Oct 5, 2014 at 9:53 | history | tweeted | twitter.com/#!/StackEnglish/status/518700498795257857 | ||
| Oct 5, 2014 at 9:44 | history | edited | Yoichi Oishi | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
added 5 characters in body
|
| Oct 5, 2014 at 9:38 | history | edited | Yoichi Oishi | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
deleted 4 characters in body
|
| Oct 5, 2014 at 8:29 | answer | added | Mari-Lou A | timeline score: 57 | |
| Oct 5, 2014 at 8:20 | answer | added | WS2 | timeline score: 41 | |
| Oct 5, 2014 at 8:04 | answer | added | Shoe | timeline score: 16 | |
| Oct 5, 2014 at 8:04 | comment | added | ivanhoescott | 塞翁失馬 is Chinese. The Japanese say 人間万事塞翁が馬. Fortune is unpredictable and changeable. | |
| Oct 5, 2014 at 7:49 | answer | added | Blessed Geek | timeline score: 5 | |
| Oct 5, 2014 at 7:45 | history | edited | Yoichi Oishi | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
deleted 1 character in body
|
| Oct 5, 2014 at 7:24 | answer | added | user66974 | timeline score: 15 | |
| Oct 5, 2014 at 7:19 | history | edited | Yoichi Oishi | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
added 1 character in body
|
| Oct 5, 2014 at 7:17 | answer | added | mplungjan | timeline score: 23 | |
| Oct 5, 2014 at 7:12 | history | asked | Yoichi Oishi | CC BY-SA 3.0 |