Say What? It never rains but it pours / There is always calm after a storm

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Welcome to our next installment of "Say What?" Today we'll be exploring two complementary sayings: one about everything happening at once, and the other about the aftermath of (or prelude to) such events. With examples from Saiyuki.


It never rains but it pours.

This proverb, first recorded in 1726, refers to the idea that when something occurs—usually something negative—it is often followed by many other instances of similar kind. In other words, an unpleasant event will only be the first of many unpleasant events in a person's day, week, or even year. What's interesting is this proverb was published twice in 1726, once as the title of a book by English physician John Arbuthnot, and again as an essay written by Jonathan Swift and Alexander Pope. It seems the saying was very popular that year!

This particular saying isn't difficult to work into your stories since we still subscribe to the idea that bad (and good) things happen in clusters:

"Aw, man," Gojyo griped as a group of youkai brandishing weapons leapt into the road in front of them. "Can this day get any worse? First I run out of cigarettes, and then the stupid monkey eats the last of the fish at breakfast. Then we have to ford a stupid stream—my socks are still damp!—and now we have to deal with a bunch of jerks before we can set up camp for the night."

Hakkai smiled. "You know what they say, Gojyo: It never rains but it pours."

There is always calm after a storm (or "the calm before the storm").

This saying is much older than it never rains but it pours. Dating back to the 1200s, there is always calm after a storm means that there's always a period of quiet after a great upheaval (or there's a lull before a time of great activity or excitement, if you're going with the calm before the storm).

The Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs notes that the original is from Ancrene Riwle, a rulebook or manual for anchoresses, in which the proverb was written

Iblescet ibeo thu laverd the makest stille efter storm.

This translates to "Blessed are you, Lord, who makes a calm after the storm."

First used in the U.S. in 1680, in Voyages of Radisson, this proverb has continued to see use in multiple publications, such as in the Ladies' Home Journal in 1988:

"I'm actually starting to view the age of thirty-nine as the storm before the calm. As I hear tell, many women reach a state of grace at forty."

It's pretty easy to reference this saying in your stories, especially if you're exploring a moment of quiet or reflection after a lot of action:

Goku stretched and sat up, looking around. "Wow," he said softly. "I can't believe nobody tried to attack the camp last night. We've been fighting off Kougaiji's flunkies all week!"

"Hmm," said Hakkai. "Well, there is always a calm after a storm, Goku."

You can also use the other version:

Sanzo glared at his newspaper, and Goku leaned over his shoulder to look at the headlines. "What is it, Sanzo?" he asked.

Sanzo snapped the paper shut and whapped Goku with it. "Stop breathing on me! We haven't been attacked for almost two weeks, and we've been in India for a month. We should be fighting every day."

"Oh," Goku said, "I get it. You're worried this might be the calm before the storm."

And there you have it! Whether you choose to use one or both of these sayings, they should be fairly simple to work into your stories, especially if you're writing a tale of trial, tribulation, and trouble. After all, even the most chaotic adventure probably has moments of downtime—the calm either before or after a storm, if you will. And if you're piling up the drama? Well, then it's not just raining for your poor characters, it's pouring.



Sources:

"After a storm comes a calm." Random House Dictionary of America's Popular Proverbs and Sayings, Gregory Titelman. Random House, 2000.
"The calm before the storm." Thefreedictionary.com
"It never rains but it pours." The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms, Christine Ammer. Houghton and Mifflin, 2003.
"It never rains but it pours." Thefreedictionary.com
"It never rains but it pours." Random House Dictionary of America's Popular Proverbs and Sayings, Gregory Titelman. Random House, 2000.
Simpson, John and Speake, Jennifer. A Dictionary of Proverbs, Oxford University Press, 2008.