三年五载也不下山一次
“only come down the mountain once every 3 to 5 years.”
THE DIALOGUE REEL
天音山的大师父们
“The masters of Tianyin Mountain”
三年五载 也不 下山 一次
“only come down the mountain once every 3 to 5 years.”
在这里讨饭
“Begging for food here,”
“Something strange is going on—these recluses never leave their sanctuary.”
Eminent masters in Chinese spiritual tradition are revered for total detachment from the secular world; descending to beg indicates either extreme crisis or disguised motives.
LEARNING CHUNKS & PARTICLES
three to five years; several years
A set phrase used colloquially to express an approximate duration of multiple years.
not even once
An emphatic construction used to emphasize extreme infrequency or total absence of an occurrence.
Emphasizes the negation, strengthening the assertion that not even a single instance occurs.
