Translation Request - Stranger in a Strange Land

[redstar]

Hi All

New to the forum and I was hoping that someone might be able to translate the following phrase into Chinese for me (for a tatoo I'm considering). The phrase is: Stranger in a strange land - or A stranger in a strange land. I've done some searches on google, translators, etc, and the two translations I've got from that are:

陌生人在奇怪的土地

and

陌生人在一個陌生的土地

I know online translators aren't great - certainly not good enough for me to base a tatoo on so I was hoping maybe someone here could help me out with this?

Many thanks

[Kenny同志]

九月九日忆山东兄弟

王维

独在异乡为异客， 每逢佳节倍思亲。

遥知兄弟登高处， 遍插茱萸少一人。

The first part of this poem, "独在异乡为异客", fits your English perfectly. So IMHO, 异乡异客 is justified in your context, though there is some overlap between 异乡and 异客 because when you are in a strange land(在异乡) you are, with no doubt, a stranger（异客）.

[gougou]

陌生人在奇怪的土地

This actually means "a stranger at weird earth". Just to corroborate your point about the reliability of online translators...

[roddy]

Heinlen's tale is translated as 异乡异客 if that's of any use.

[redstar]

Hi everyone - thanks so much for all the replies. They've actually inspired me to think about learning the language - it seems complex, but wonderful.

So from what I can gather - 独在异乡为异客 - seems to be the best translation of stranger in a strange land? Sorry, it's all a bit new and confusing!

[redstar]

EDIT to above post (sorry for posting again, but there doesn't seem to be an edit function and I wanted to add to my last post

I ran 独在异乡为异客 through a couple of online translators and it comes up as: A stranger in a strange land alone - is this what it actually says?

[skylee]

It is. Don't like "alone"? Drop the "獨" at the beginning and it becomes 在異鄉為異客 (no specification of number). And take a look at my blog article called "在異鄉 為異客".

In case you are not aware, the line 獨在異鄉為異客 is so famouse it is almost like a set phrase. And as kenny said it fits your English phrase perfectly.

[redstar]

Thanks for the clarification, Skylee - and everyone else for your help - you're stars!

[redstar]

Hi Folks - one final question regarding this translation. I think I am going to go for traditional rather than simplified characters but I am not 100% as to whether they should be printed vertically or left to right in order to be read correctly. Does this make any difference?