Help translating a word please

[Victorg]

Im hoping someone here can help me out with the Chinese character or characters for 'Progress'. Its part of a tattoo that I would like done to represent commitment to my training in the martial arts.It would be part of the phrase 'Passion, Pain, Progress'

Ive found the characters for both passion and pain, just need this last one and im set.

Thank you!

http://chineseculture.about.com/library/symbol/blcc_passion.htm

http://chineseculture.about.com/library/symbol/blcc_pain.htm

[djnori]

passion -- 激情 // 酷爱

pain -- 痛苦

progress -- 进步

[imron]

How about using a Chinese phrase instead (haha, thanks for the idea Heifeng), something like:

只要功夫深

铁棒磨成针

Which is maybe rather loosely translated as: as long as you have a deep level of effort and persistence, you can grind an iron bar into a needle.

It's maybe nicer because to a Chinese person reading it, it will convey your meaning a lot better than 3 random words that may or may not carry the same connotation they do in English. A Chinese person will almost certainly be familiar with the story behind this phrase which talks about one of China's famous poets and how he came to realise the importance of effort and persistence in order to become successful.

Also, for martial arts purposes, this phrase is nice because it mentions 功夫 - which here are used to mean effort and persistence, but which are the same characters as Gongfu (Kungfu).

[YETIboy1230]

只要功夫深

铁棒磨成针

these days i am really trying hard to hide my astonishment how deep all you guys dig into chinese culture.many times i was amazingly shocked when i saw "wen yan wen" here. i can't simply put my feeling into words...any words including chinese fail me..

'Passion, Pain, Progress'

i am putting a alternative here:)

i don't assume that you have chinese font installed.so i will explain in english here[but mostly i can't translate exactly proper] and put the chinese characters in a image

the character i suggest for "passing" is "@1_chi"....it gets the meaning from a phrase"@2_chi qing' with a connotation that "you are very very crazy about something"

the character for "pain" is "@3_jian"...it is picked from a famous sentence in a chinese traditional book called "@4_yi jing"....some think the earlist description for "wu shu[kung fu]" is contained in that sentence.."@5_tian xing jian,ju zi yi zi qiang bu xi"..the whole sentence ,in some sense,means"we should depend ourselves rather than others to get sanity and immortalisation like universe do",it also imples persistence,self-dependent and other connotation that i can't get:cry:

the last one for "Progress" is "wu"...."@6_wu" and "@7_jing" is heavely used in martial art stuff....it means you should have a deep introspection to understand what martial art brings you and it is the very understanding that will lead to your progress...yup...it is yet another implication not a direct meaning ....but that is true to our culture,when we want to indicate something,literally,we will prefer a implicit way,expecially in "@8_tang shi song ci" and plus,the poets in china prefer short words with a deep implication too

hope it can give you a little help..

[HashiriKata]

Ive found the characters for both passion and pain, just need this last one and im set.

Thank you!

http://chineseculture.about.com/libr...cc_passion.htm

http://chineseculture.about.com/libr.../blcc_pain.htm

Victorg, you just can't rely on something out of context to put on your body. Can you be sure that the words you found do not mean "I'm stupid" when put together? Even when alone, the word you found for "pain", for example, is not the same "pain" that you're looking for. So, please forget the idea before you feel like chopping of part of your body to get rid of the tattoo!

PS: Watch out as well for the 1st word as suggested by YETIboy1230. If used unwisely, it also means "idiotic"!

[YETIboy1230]

If used unwisely, it also means "idiotic"!

wow..wow..yup....you are quite right......(sh) ...but please keep quiet.[secretly]i will treat you later[/secretly].. ...well..just kidding...it means "idiotic" in most cases under the phrase"白痴“...but there is an exception

do you know a very phrase "猪头"(literally pig headed ,for those can't see hanzi)?...haha..hmm....it is very happy and romantic to be called "猪头"...you must be in the know:) .....well...sometimes ones are very lucky to be called"白痴"(literally,idiot) too in mainland...maybe someday you will be affectionately called "白痴”..haha...or you are being called for the time being.....are you?

[Victorg]

Thank you HashiriKata for the heads up That is why im am here looking for help!

so what would be the best way to do this? Or is there no way to exactly translate this phrase into Chinese

Thank you all for your help!