石の上、三年 translation question

konichiwa minna! (hope that is right, will try work on typing in kana after learning more kanji)

I have a sentence question. I saw this line, "石の上、三年" as someone's signature on another forum earlier today. Since all the kanji are first year kanji, I was pretty excited that I was able to decipher each kanji's meaning. (Since that's all I've been studying last week while on vacation) However, when I was done, I couldn't figure out what the heck they were trying to say.

I do know that ...

石 is ishi, which means stone. pebble.
の is a possessive particle.
上 is "a" or sometimes read as "ue" and has other readings of the on and kun variety.
三 is san, of course, which is the number 3.
年 is nen or toshi. Which refers to 12 months or a year. Like a school year. Gakko nen, I believe.

Anyhow pronunciation wise, it would be something like, "Ishi no a, san nen. Or maybe, Ishi no a, minen. I still have a lot to learn regarding on and kun readings.

However! I'm getting sidetracked. Barring the pronunciation, I have no idea what the sentence is trying to say.

It sounds like the sentence is saying, "the stone's sky, three years."

Am I misreading this somehow, or perhaps the meaning is obscured and meant for the author only ... or am I missing something rather basic? Maybe the kanji is just someone's name and their name is pronounced ishinoa, and that they are a junior in highschool? But that doesn't seem right to me, as I don't think Hiragana would be part of someone's name.

Any help would be appreciated, even if it is to say that it also seems obscure.

ishi no ue, sannen.

On top of [a] rock, three years.

Not sure where it's from or if there's a reference I'm not getting, but there you go.

nice gaijin said:

ishi no ue, sannen.

On top of [a] rock, three years.

Not sure where it's from or if there's a reference I'm not getting, but there you go.

Click to expand...

A Japanese proverb: sitting on a stone for 3 years

Ohhh, I see. I looked it up Wikipedia, and this is what I found just now.

石の上に三年 ishi no ue ni san nen

* Literally: Three years on the rock.
* Meaning: It takes a long time sitting on a stone before it becomes warm. Expect to work at something for three years before you see results.

I'll have to extend my Japanese study to include proverbs too.

Arigatou Gozaimasu

paryn said:

Ohhh, I see. I looked it up Wikipedia, and this is what I found just now.

石の上に三年 ishi no ue ni san nen

* Literally: Three years on the rock.
* Meaning: It takes a long time sitting on a stone before it becomes warm. Expect to work at something for three years before you see results.

I'll have to extend my Japanese study to include proverbs too.

Arigatou Gozaimasu

Click to expand...

塵も積もれば山となる

Put a pet rock on your desk to collect dust.

ﾊ-ﾊ-

My desk is dirty enough as it is

To be precise, it's 石の上にも三年。