夫妻本是同林鳥

夫妻本是同林鸟
fūqīběnshìtónglínniǎo

Even though a husband and wife were originally birds from the same forest (...when adversity strikes, they fly in separate directions).

Wiktionary

Entry Composition

1 夫妻 fūqī husband and wife; married couple
2 本是 běnshì
  1. (literary) after all
  2. after all
=3 同 tóng
  1. like
  2. same
  3. similar
  4. together
  5. alike
  6. with
=3 同 tòng used in 胡同 hútòng
=3 同 tòng used in 衚衕 hútòng
=4 林 Lín
  1. surname Lin
  2. Japanese surname Hayashi
=4 林 lín
  1. (bound form) woods; forest
  2. (bound form) circle(s) (i.e. specific group of people)
  3. (bound form) a collection (of similar things)
=5 鳥 diǎo
  1. variant of 屌 diǎo
  2. penis
=5 鳥 niǎo
  1. bird
  2. "bird" radical in Chinese characters (Kangxi radical 196)
  3. (dialect) to pay attention to
  4. (intensifier) damned
  5. goddamn

classifiers: 隻, 群