Translating the name 'Risha'

[pramod05bc]

hi...i am planning to get a tattoo done of my girlfriends name on her 23 birthday..which is on the 8 september...and i have decided to get her name engraved on heart..in chinese...i would really need help from you guys here...her name is "RISHA"... its means " born in the lunar month of taurus"....i need a word in chinese which means the same ie " born in the lunar month of taurus"....please help....

i really love my gf and so i have decided to get her name tattooed on me...her name tattooed on me will the best birthday gift for her....she will really like it...please help this...poor lover to surprise his gf on her birthday...

Thanks in advance...

:)

[skylee]

What does "the lunar month" mean?

[liuzhou]

For a start, the concept of Taurus is solar not lunar.

It comes from Greek mythology and has no direct counterpart in Chinese culture. It is therefore untranslatable, but it could be explained in a sentence.

The nearest and shortest I can get is 她是金牛座 which just means "she is Taurus". This is quite informal (spoken) language.

In writing, 她属于金牛座 is more formal. (She belongs to Taurus).

But most Chinese people wouldn't have the faintest idea what you were on about.

Best advice - don't tattoo yourself with things you don't understand.

Edited July 20, 2008 at 11:29 AM by liuzhou

[renzhe]

Also, keep in mind that there is no strict difference between a "bull", "ox", "cow" or "taurus" in Chinese. You can express the difference, but for most purposes (including zodiac), you simply write cow.

So you may end up tattooing a cow to represent your girlfriend, which is never a good idea.

[jslee]

Is there any specific reason why you don't want to have it done in English (because it's easier)?

[jackiebfsu]

my suggestion is to get your name tatooed on her.

[Don_Horhe]

My suggestion is that you don't tattoo somebody's name anywhere on your body. No matter how close you are now, you never know what's going to happen in the future - you might, hopefully not, end up hating each other. I knew I guy once who tattooed his then girlfriend's name on his right arm - they had been together for quite a few years, we all thought they'd end up getting married. He ended up having to cover the entire thing with a huge tiger.

[Hofmann]

What Horhe said.

It's a bad idea to put anyone's name on your body. Why not just get her something?

[BrandeX]

For a start, the concept of Taurus is solar not lunar.

I don't know anything about it, but most websites on the internet list the Indian/Hindu name "Risha" as meaning: "Born During the Lunar Month of Taurus"

From Wikipedia:

* The Indian equivalent of Taurus is Vrishabha

* The Chinese equivalent is thought to be the wise, purposeful Snake, whose lunar month is 5 May - 5 June.

[liuzhou]

most websites on the internet list the Indian/Hindu name "Risha" as meaning: "Born During the Lunar Month of Taurus"

Because they all copy from each other?

The Chinese equivalent is thought to be the wise, purposeful Snake, whose lunar month is 5 May - 5 June.

On wikipedia "is thought to be" usually means "I don't really haven't a clue".

The western astrological zodiac, nonsense as it is, is solar. To be born in Taurus means 'during the time the sun aligns with the constellation, Taurus', traditionally thought to be from April 20 to May 20 but in fact more precisely around May 15 to June 15. Full astrological charts also include lunar information. More mumbo jumbo.

Whatever, it has no bearing on translating the name. Or having something you can't understand tattooed permanently on your body.

EDIT: Just noticed that this is my 1,111th post here. Must have some significant meaning!

Edited July 21, 2008 at 06:58 AM by liuzhou

[imron]

And in any case, I'm not so sure that tattooing snake is going to be any better than tattooing cow

[lemur]

I agree with liuzhou. Random thoughts:

1. Pramod, can't you get an etymological explanation of her name expressed in traditional Indian terms? I'm guessing by your name that you are of Indian descent and probably can get a pandit's opinion on this, na? (This may sound presumptive but it has been my experience that Indians are usually well connected with other members of their cultural community.)

2. What Wikipedia and the other sites are doing is providing a quick-and-easy correspondence between a concept which belongs to Indian culture and another one which belongs to European culture. Taurus = Vrishabha (vṛṣabha) only in a very superficial way.

3. India and China have been in contact for a long time. Rather than use European culture as an intermediary between Indian and Chinese cultures, I'd try to see what the Chinese themselves have to say about Vrishabha. For instance, the Digital Dictionary of Buddhism suggests:

牛王

http://buddhism-dict.net/cgi-bin/xpr-ddb.pl?72.xml+id('b725b-738b')

牙

http://buddhism-dict.net/cgi-bin/xpr-ddb.pl?72.xml+id(%27b7259%27)

However, the second entry probably does not make sense outside of a Buddhist context. People would think "tooth" before anything else.

The DDB relies on Chinese, Japanese and Korean sources and it is a dictionary specialized in Buddhist terminology. There are probably other resources which would be useful to look at. At any rate, what I found in there is by no means the final word on how to approach this problem but illustrates what can be done.

[Lu]

Doesn't India also have at least one pretty-looking script of its own? If Risha is an Indian name, consider having it tattooed in an Indian script. More straightforward, less chance of misunderstanding and mess-up, and just as beautiful.

[trien27]

The word "Taurus" is Latinized Greek. The Romans misspelled many Greek words. In the original Greek, "Taurus" would be Ταυρος, "Tavros" meaning 公牛 "bull" [the -os suffix of "Tavros", tells you that this object described is "male"], the male member of the bovine family which is the opposite of a 母牛 "cow", which is the female of the bovine family. Ox is any member of the bovine family. The scientific name for an ox is Bos Taurus, where "Bos" is most probably where we get the word "bull/bulls?". Taurus, I have explained above.

Lunar month concerns ancient calendars which were based on the moon, such as Indian, Jewish, Muslim, Chinese, etc...

Taurus in Latin = Ταυρος, "Tavros" in Greek, is the name of a well known constellation.

I'd take Lu's suggestion of translating it back into the original language.

Edited August 2, 2008 at 11:54 PM by trien27