what can beauty do？

[jiehunzheng]

Does “beauty is as beauty does” mean "you are beautiful when you do beautiful things"?

My question is originated from the movie "Forrest Gump". In the movie, little Forrest says "stupid is as stupid does". It is translated as "蠢人就做蠢事". But I think it should be translated as "做蠢事时才是蠢人" which means "one is stupid when one does someting stupid". I guess my understanding is more logical than "蠢人就做蠢事" and is according to Chinese saying "智者千虑，必有一失，愚者千虑，必有一得".

Am I right? Any comment is appreciated.

[simonlaing]

Yes I think the forest gump quote works because stupid can be an adjective and an adverb.

Beauty is a bit different as you can't really do something in a beauty way, it would change the meaning to say in a beautiful was as in skillful way.

so you should be careful when you want to change english idioms, sometimes you can substitute different adjectives but usually you can't.

In China I think being pretty can help people get jobs and be promoted . Do you agree.?

Have fun,

Simon:)

[jiehunzheng]

Hi，Simon. Thanks for your comment.

But your explanation is very grammar-centric. So I guess you are a Chinese.

Some native understanding of it is also expected and appreciated.

[studentyoung]

My question is originated from the movie "Forrest Gump". In the movie, little Forrest says "stupid is as stupid does".

行愚即愚。

Does “beauty is as beauty does” mean "you are beautiful when you do beautiful things"?

行美即美。Beauty is when you do things beautifully.

Thanks!

[jiehunzheng]

studentyoung: thanks for your comment.

Still waiting for English native speaker's explanation.

[gato]

Well, Forrest Gump in the movie is mentally handicapped (智碍). It's ok for him to say "stupid as stupid does." But I don't know if it's a good idea for you to copy him.

[Quest]

what can beauty do?

Beauty can 一顧傾人城，再顧傾人國。

Not sure if I am off topic or you 不對題...

[Luobot]

Jiehunzheng -- You and Studentyoung are correct.

The beauty is in what you do, if what you do is beautiful.

In other words, good deeds are more important than good looks.

[gato]

I think is his question is whether it's grammatically correct to say “beauty is as beauty does." That's why he directed to question to native English speakers.

[Luobot]

Well, if it was good enough for Chaucer, then I guess it's ok for the rest of us.

Further thought: It's a proverb, so you just take the grammar as it is. The Forrest Gump version is a variation on the proverb. Variations sometimes work, sometime they don't. The Forrest Gump version is actually brilliant because he is revealing that you should watch what he does and get past the way he looks or sounds. Forrest Gump is not what he appears to be.

[gato]

I see. The answer to jiehunzheng would be then that “beauty is as beauty does" is like a Chinese set phrase (成语). Its grammar may be irregular from the modern perspective, but it works because it's a well-established phrase. However, be careful when trying use the pattern to create new phrases of your own. If you said "Chinese is as Chinese does" or "Good is as good does," people probably won't know what you are talking about.

See: http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=392986

Re: Stupid is as stupid does

[Luobot]

Gato - Your explanation is perfect.

[jiehunzheng]

Thank you all for your help.

The URL provided by Gato is great. According to that Web page, the point is that judgment should be based on behavior rather than appearance. This is similar to an old Chinese saying "人不可貌相" which means "do not judge a person by appearance". But my understanding is different in that it is based on the "as" and from the perspective of time. I think the "as" means "At the same time that; while". So my understanding is "做蠢事时才是蠢人". It's meaning similars to "智者千虑，必有一失" which means "even the wise are not always free from error". "愚者千虑，必有一得" is just another way of describing the same thing which means "even the stupid might do something right". This is appropriate for the situation of Forrest Gump. I think "stupid is as stupid does" is not only an excuse of Forrest Gump but also a truth applies to everyone.

The Web pages written in Chinese display first when I use Google for searching. I can not change this behavior because it is out my control. So my chances of getting the right results when the search of English words is completed are diminished significantly. Now I use English Yahoo site for search of English string.

[imron]

The Web pages written in Chinese display first when I use Google for searching. I can not change this behavior because it is out my control.

Offtopic: Actually, you can make it so that it searches in English. Go to google's main page: http://www.google.com and at the bottom of the page on the right hand side, there should be a link that says "Google.com in English" click on this link, and in the future, all your google searches will be done in English pages first. There will also be a link on the main page that will let you switch back to using Google china.

[jiehunzheng]

Thanks for reminding, Imron.

The Google site I visited previously is http://www.google.com/intl/zh-CN/ which has no "Google.com in English" on it. I was so careless.

I am an English-Chinese translator. Now I can switch between Chinese and English rapidly when I am searching.

[renzhe]

An interesting piece of trivia -- in a recent UK newspaper (I think it was the Guardian, not sure), they analysed the origin of the phrase "long time no see", which makes no sense grammatically in English, but is very common.

The explanation offered was that it was a literal translation of "hao jiu mei jian".

Perhaps "Beauty is as beauty does" was also borrowed from another language.