海枯石烂

hǎi-kū-shí-làn

literal meaning: seas dry and rocks crumble
translated: forever, eternity; no matter how long

It takes a long time for a sea to dry up and a rock to crumble to dust, and this idiom is used as a metaphor for the passage of long periods of time. When it comes before the negation of a verb (see Examples below) it indicates that the negated action will never take place no matter how much time passes. When used in this way, it is similar to the English language idioms "when hell freezes over" and "when pigs fly".

It takes a long time for a sea to dry up and a rock to crumble to dust, and this idiom is used as a metaphor for the passage of long periods of time. When it comes before the negation of a verb (see Examples below) it indicates that the negated action will never take place no matter how much time passes.

海

hǎi

sea, ocean

枯

kū

withered, dried up

石

shí

stone, rock

烂

làn

rot, fester, decay

Examples

李荣浩 - 麻雀

Ronghao Li - Sparrow

相信海枯石烂, 也许我笨蛋

Xiāngxìn hǎikū-shílàn, yěxǔ wǒ bèndàn

For believing in eternity, maybe I'm a fool

This lyric uses the idiom to mean "eternity" or "forever". The singer is claiming that thinking something would last forever was naive of him.

齐豫 - 欢颜

Chyi Yu - Huan Yan

海枯石烂形无痕

Hǎikū-shílàn xíng wú hén

Even as the seas dry and rocks crumble, there is no trace (of the passage of time).

This lyric uses the idiom in the negative way, with the singer explaining that even though a long time has passed since a certain event, it doesn't seem that way from her point of view.