bad luck; unlucky; calamitous; wretched

(coll.) muddleheaded

light and shade

dark and gloomy

difficult to understand; cryptic

overcast; gloomy

vague; ambiguous; veiled; obscure

abstruse and unfathomable (idiom)

to bide one's time, waiting for an opportunity to stage a comeback in public life (idiom)

to conceal one's strengths and bide one's time (idiom); to hide one's light under a bushel

lit. wind and rain darken the sky (idiom); fig. the situation looks grim

conditions of extreme adversity (idiom)