铁杵磨成针
Grind an Iron Rod into a Needle
A thick iron rod looks nothing like a needle, yet the story says steady effort can slowly change it.
有个很有名的故事，说李白小时候不想读书，跑出去玩。路上，他看见一位老奶奶坐在溪边，拿着一根铁棒在石头上磨。李白问她在做什么。老奶奶说：“我要把它磨成针。”这话听起来太夸张了，可也正因为夸张，大家一下就记住了。后来，人们常用“铁杵磨成针”这个故事来告诉人：你现在觉得太难的事，只要一直做下去，也可能真的慢慢做成。
One famous story says that when Li Bai was young, he did not want to study and ran off to play. On the way, he saw an old woman by a stream, grinding an iron rod against a stone. Li Bai asked what she was doing. She said, “I am grinding it into a needle.” The idea sounds impossible, and that is exactly why people remember it so well. Later, people used the story to say that even a task that seems far too hard right now may still be finished if you keep going long enough.