The latest news that Serena Williams lost the semi-final round of U.S. Open to an unseeded Italian player, Roberta Vinci, whom Williams had never lost in the past reminded me of Japanese proverb, 'Jouzu-no tekara mizu ga ochiru,' of which literal translation is ‘Water leaks even from expert's hands,’ meaning even a perfect expert makes a mistake, or loses chances, which can be never retreived like shed water.
We have several proverbs in the same token such as 'Kobo mo fudeno ayamachi' – Even Kobo (774 -835), a Japanese Buddhist saint known for a master of calligraphy makes a mistakes of stroke, and 'Sarumo kikara ochiru' meaning “even a monkey (who should be a master of tree climbing and hopping around branches) falls from a tree.”
Are there English proverbs or idioms that figuratively describe that an expert or perfect player makes a great mistake sometimes?
Best Answer
There are a couple of classical references: Homer nods, or Even Jove nods (formerly well-known, as in this Kipling quote; but nobody seems certain whether there is a Latin original, or somebody just 'upgraded' the reference).