It's a long way to Tipperary

[animal world]

That's what i thought when considering the road toward proficiency in Chinese. The next step was to rush to the dictionary to find out what Tipperary is in Chinese: 蒂珀雷里, dì pò léi lǐ. Considering that Chinese history has had its share of struggle and hardships, the Chinese language must have a plethora of idioms and chengyu to convey the experience of hardship before, hopefully, reaching one's final destination (in the song this is implicitly understood as being able to return home at the conclusion of WW I).

Do you know of any? Please share them with us.

It's a long way to 蒂珀雷里,

It's a long way to go.

It's a long way to 蒂珀雷里

To all the 汉字 I want to know!

[leeyah]

The first thing that came to my mind on reading this was 铁杵成针 >>只要功夫深，铁杵磨成针. Chinese teachers will usually introduce idioms as early as 一年级 with reference to this one to encourage their students >>只要有决心，肯下功夫，多么难的事也能做成功 = as long as you put a lot of effort and patience into something you can achieve even the impossible

Similar proverbs:

落落难合, with the original meaning of long way to go similar to 蒂珀雷里 >>事情很邈远，很难实现, but it seems to have taken on a new meaning meanwhile, referring to 为人孤僻，不易合群. It would be really nice to know how the idiom 落落难合 is used in context. Anyone?

劳苦功高 >>出了很多力，吃了很多苦，立下了很大的功劳 work hard to achieve success

坚持不懈 >>坚持到底，一点不忪懈 keep at it, never give up

百折不回 >>无论受多少挫折都不退缩，形容意志坚强, 也说百折不挠 endure despite many difficulties

河清难俟 >>比喻时间太长，难以等待, but unlike 铁杵成针 it seems to refer more to impatience to get something done .....

好梦难成 >>美好的幻想难以变成现实 (sounds a bit unoptimistic, though)

PS: I could be wrong but perhaps some of these may not imply the happy ending you had in mind. Hopefully someone else will be able to come up with better stuff.

[xiaocai]

I have a very very old-fashioned on here:

宝剑锋从磨砺出，梅花香自苦寒来.

But it sounds really corny to me... I just can't come up with any better ones now. It seems that my chinese level has gone back to junior high standard, or even lower.

[tooironic]

千里之行， 始于足下

("a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step")

[YuehanHao]

Not exactly the same meaning, but a simple and expressive phrase that motivates me in the face of an arduous undertaking is 不到黄河心不死。

约翰好

[xiaocai]

Not exactly the same meaning, but a simple and expressive phrase that motivates me in the face of an arduous undertaking is 不到黄河心不死。

Woah, this is getting a little bit, how should I say, scary now?

The other equivalent of this in Chinese would be: 不见棺材不掉泪.

[animal world]

Nice contributions here. Although learning Chinese has its frustrating moments, i do it for the sheer joy of it. So, i don't see it as a valley of tears, let alone a potential to see the coffin. I do like the 千里之行， 始于足下 and the 不到黄河心不死 ones. Since acquiring proficiency in Chinese is indeed a long journey, i prefer to keep in mind that 爱能移山 (terribly deviating from the spirit of the opening post). So, the trick is to move mountains until you eventually reach the Yellow River. In the process, you might also get a glimpse of 香格里拉. Maybe.

[chrix]

I thought that was 愚公移山

[isela]

My personal favorite is "宝剑锋从磨砺出，梅花香自苦寒来". This is not corny to me at all, but rather a total sense of bravery.

铁杵成针, 坚持不懈, 百折不回(挠） were also really nice!

One needs to be really careful using "不到黄河心不死" though. This mostly means that a stubborn person wouldn't admit his mistakes until he totally fails. Xiaocai was right, this is equivalent to: 不见棺材不掉泪.

I also thought of "水滴石穿“, i.e. constant water-drops can penetrate a stone.