expression
few people live to be seventy
A classical Chinese expression from Du Fu's poem, used to reflect on the rarity of reaching age seventy. In modern Japanese, it is a literary or proverbial phrase, not used in everyday conversation.
「七十古希」という言葉は、杜甫の詩に由来する。
The phrase '七十古希' comes from a poem by Du Fu.
祖父は七十古希を実感しているようだ。
My grandfather seems to feel the truth of the saying that few live to be seventy.
From a line in a poem by the Tang dynasty poet Du Fu: '人生七十古来稀なり' (Human life: to reach seventy has been rare since ancient times). The phrase is a condensed form of that line.