少年老いやすく学なりがたし

Japanese

Kanji in this term
少	年	老	学
しょう Grade: 2	ねん Grade: 1	お Grade: 4	がく Grade: 1
on’yomi		kun’yomi	on’yomi

Alternative spellings
少年老いやすく學なりがたし (kyūjitai) 少年老い易く学成り難し

Etymology

Calque of Literary Chinese 少年易老學難成 (shàonián yì lǎo xué nán chéng). From Zhu Xi's poem 《偶成》.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ɕo̞ːnẽ̞ɰ̃ o̞ija̠sɨᵝkɯ̟ᵝ ɡa̠kɯ̟ᵝ na̠ɾʲiɡa̠ta̠ɕi]

Proverb

少(しょう)年(ねん)老(お)いやすく学(がく)なりがたし • (shōnen oiyasuku gaku narigatashi) 

1. if you do not study when you are young, you will grow old quickly without accomplishing much learning