転がる石に苔むさずkorogaru Ishi ni Koke Musazu

A rolling stone gathers no moss　（Perservance pays off; patience is a virtue)滚石不生苔

For the Japanese, moss is something to be admired. Associated with beauty, moss glows on rocks and in pathways of old temples in places like Kyoto. Yet the stone that contitues to tumble will never have moss. So this expression is often used to admonish others to stay put, to continue on in the same job. This expression is also used by some Japanese to mean the very opposite. i.e. keep moving or you'll get old.

一度入社（nyuusha)したら、少々(shooshoo)大変なことがあっても、じっとその会社に勤(tsuto))めたほうがいい。「転がる石に苔むさず』と言われるように職場(shokuba))を余り(amari)変わるのは好ましい(konomashii)ことではない・

Once a person is employed, he or she is better off staying in the same company even when facing hardships. As the proverb "a rolling stone gathers no moss' goes, it is not advisable to job-hop.

It is interesting to observe that the original meaning of the Japanese idiom is the same with the original meaning of the English proverb as shown below. However the meaning of the phrase migrates as time goes by. Whether it is caused by mistakenly taking the literal meaning as its real meaning or by social changes. Nobody knows I guess. Language is a living thing!

The conventional English translation appeared in John Heywood's collection of Proverbs in 1546. Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable also credits Erasmus, and relates it to other Latin proverbs, Planta quae saepius transfertus non coalescit, or Saepius plantata arbor fructum profert exiguum, both of which mean that a frequently replanted tree or plant yields little fruit.^[2] It appears that the original intent of the proverb saw the growth of moss as desirable, and that the intent was to condemn mobility as unprofitable. The contemporary interpretation has turned the traditional understanding on its head.

I think the Chinese idiom 滚石不生苔 is translated from the English idiom and takes both its meanings. A same phrase incorporating two opposite meanings. It is the trick of language :)

因為石頭一再地滾動，就不可能在表面蔓延開來一片青苔，終究只是個光禿禿的石頭。
如果汲汲營營而沒吸收到經驗及閱歷，一切盡是走馬看花。


石頭只要一直滾動著，表面就不會生長出髒髒濕黏的青苔，所以若是安於現狀，就會喪失向前衝的動力及勇氣。