His life was rough and full of setbacks, and his talents went unused.
Tips
history
轗 is a literary character that never stands alone. It appears only in the bound pair 轗轲, a high-register variant of 坎坷 (a bumpy road; a hard, frustrated life). Modern Chinese always uses 坎坷.
register
Literary and archaic only. 轗 survives in classical poetry and dictionaries, not in everyday writing.
The 车 'cart' radical fits the original image of a cart jolting over rough ground, which became the metaphor for a hard life. It is the indexing radical.
