七転八起 ＆ 七転八倒

七転八起　－　しちてんはっき
shichiten hakki

七転八倒　－　しちてんばっとう
shichiten battou

Daily Double! Recently I've been (trying to) learn break-dancing, and while I can't claim to have found these while researching ways to not destroy myself as effeciently as I've managed to so far, they are pretty appropriate for that particular topic. Both of them start with "七転", which is easy enough to translate as 7 turns, or - as may be more appropriate to the phrases - the base kanji of "転ぶ", or "ころぶ", to fall. So 7 falls, and 8... 起 means to raise or get up, and 倒 is to fall or break down. I think you can see where this is going...

七転八起's Definition:
七回転んでも八度起きる事、すなわち何度失敗しても挫けずにまた立ち上がり努力を続ける意味。
Translations:
1. Getting back on the horse
2. Never giving up.
3. "The vicissitudes of life"

七転八倒's Definition:
転んでは起き、起きては転ぶという意味で、苦痛のあまり転げ回って悶え苦しむこと。また、混乱が甚だしいこと。
Translations:
1. Writhing in agony.
2. Unbearable suffering.
3. Utter chaos.

This is actually a fun one in that a lot of Japanese people will not correctly read or even translate 七転八倒. One journal I found reminisced about an interview where applicants were asked to read 七転八倒 and then give a definition. Many read it as "nana korobi ya oki", which is actually a variation of the OTHER yoji, "七転び八起き". When asked for the definition, they then gave the definition for 七転八起. Less than 10% of the interviewees got both the reading and the definition correct.



例文：ブレーキングと言うダンス風はマジ適切に命名された。練習で失敗ばっかりすると七転八倒する。でも、いつも文句言わないでもうすぐ立ち上がられるから、七転八起で少しずつ進んでいると言った方が良いじゃない。。。
"Breaking" is an aptly named style of dance. At practice I seem to do nothing but screw up and roll around in pain. But I guess since I never complain and I'm always back on my feet pretty quickly, it'd be better to say I'm getting right back on that horse and progressing bit by bit.