Butterfly Posted January 20, 2010 at 01:43 PM Report Share Posted January 20, 2010 at 01:43 PM Hello all, can you give me your translations for this sentence? Or these words? What do you think? Thank you very much for your help. Regards Butterfly Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skylee Posted January 20, 2010 at 03:43 PM Report Share Posted January 20, 2010 at 03:43 PM I think they are too long and complicated for a tattoo. And they are not consistent. The first character is a simplified character, whereas the rest are traditional characters. Bad choice if this is a tattoo. The first four characters are about a famous story. Take a look -> http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Zhuangzi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrix Posted January 20, 2010 at 03:45 PM Report Share Posted January 20, 2010 at 03:45 PM (edited) the characters are consistent, it's probably a Japanese font. (in simplified script, the character would be 庄) EDIT: here for easy comparison: traditional script: 莊子 simplified script: 庄子 Japanese: 荘子 Edited January 21, 2010 at 01:03 AM by chrix Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skylee Posted January 20, 2010 at 03:57 PM Report Share Posted January 20, 2010 at 03:57 PM I see. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrix Posted January 20, 2010 at 04:13 PM Report Share Posted January 20, 2010 at 04:13 PM .... but I can't really make sense of 舞空陽光 other than it's about the butterfly dancing around in the sunlight. The only hit google comes up with for this combination is this very thread. So the question for the OP would be what the source is.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbradfor Posted January 20, 2010 at 05:42 PM Report Share Posted January 20, 2010 at 05:42 PM "Zhuangzi dreaming he is a butterfly dancing in the open (sun)light?" Makes no sense to me either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LongwenChinese Posted January 20, 2010 at 06:47 PM Report Share Posted January 20, 2010 at 06:47 PM 莊is the traditional Chinese version of 荘. The bottom left part is different. The second part doesn't make sense to me, either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Butterfly Posted January 20, 2010 at 11:58 PM Author Report Share Posted January 20, 2010 at 11:58 PM I have this on my backbone: 荘周夢蝶 "Butterfly dreams" (chinese history) And I am looking for an extension. I thought maybe this make sense, because I don´t like the normal stuff like: love, friends, family,.... Propably you can help me and give me another suggestion ? Thanks in advance Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trien27 Posted January 24, 2010 at 05:19 PM Report Share Posted January 24, 2010 at 05:19 PM (edited) What people still don't understand is this: I'm quoting Sammo Hung from "Martial Law", a show which used to be shown in the US: "Don't wear anything you can't read." Same advice goes for anything in any other languages. Even tattoos! Well, first off, you already have that etched onto you forever unless you get the incorrectly written 荘 back to 莊, which is in the original Chinese. 莊周夢蝶 = "Doesn't know whether it's 莊周** dreamed that he morphed into a butterfly or whether the butterfly dreamed that it had morphed and became 莊周."* not "Butterfly dreams". 夢蝶 = "Butterfly dreams"? But if you only get a half of it translated, then what about the other half. What happened to the "dreamer", in this case, 莊周 [in the first part]? 蝶 has no real meaning by itself, only when it's combined with other characters does it have a meaning of "butterfly/butterflies". Butterfly/ butterflies = 蝴蝶. 舞空陽光 doesn't make sense: 舞 = to dance 空 = air; space; emptiness = short for "airport" in Japanese Kanji or Korean hanja. 陽光 = sunlight Source: *成語詞典/莊周夢蝶 **莊子's personal name was 周, here he's referring to himself. 莊子[369-268 BCE] was a philosopher from the Kingdom of Song during The Warring States period [476-221 BCE] Edited January 24, 2010 at 05:58 PM by trien27 grammar error Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrix Posted January 24, 2010 at 05:21 PM Report Share Posted January 24, 2010 at 05:21 PM have a look at post #3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Outofin Posted January 24, 2010 at 05:43 PM Report Share Posted January 24, 2010 at 05:43 PM I briefly mentioned the story of the butterfly here It's a beautiful story. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Butterfly Posted February 8, 2010 at 04:26 PM Author Report Share Posted February 8, 2010 at 04:26 PM @Outofin: I like your post about the song I love flowers. Do you have an idea to extend my tattoo? I am looking for 4 other signs. I want something, which make sense in combination with my existing one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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