Help translating

[AngXi]

Hello all, new to the site - it seems perfect for what I'm looking for i.e., all things Chinese. Would someone be able to help translate a couple tattoos? My girlfriend is worried that what she think it says may not be what it says.

Really appreciated!

Chris

[Shelley]

Hello,

Not too easy to read, a straight on picture of each would be easier. Are these temparary tattoos? I hope so cos If you are not sure don't do it:) Shelley

[jbradfor]

Left one: 希望能夠让你长得多 -- I hope you are capable of allowing yourself to continue to grow?????

Right one: 我爱我的人生命起伏 -- I love the ups and downs of my life????

I'm really not sure about either translation, I know someone can do better.

[Kenny同志]

Bad Chinese, bad tattoos.

[Lu]

Bad Chinese, bad tattoos.

I agree. These don't look temporary, unfortunately.

On the upside, the writing looks quite nice.

[roddy]

It's always useful if people can tell us what they're meant to mean. Then we can try and figure out how we got to the actual tattoo.

Left one: 希望能夠让你长得多 -- I hope you are capable of allowing yourself to continue to grow?????

I suspect it's 希望(我)能夠. . . maybe meant to mean 'I hope I can help you grow'? Maybe linked to the flower at the base of the neck? The translations look like machine jobs to me - it obviously means something, but without knowing what you're left guessing.

Like Lu says, the actual writing's not bad, but anyone Chinese who sees it might be left scratching their head a little. Could be worse.

With a bit of trial and error you can get the left one out of Google translate by putting in 'hope to be able to make you much longer.' Maybe she's going to extend the plant every year.

[skylee]

The one on the left wishes something to grow a lot, and the one on the right enjoys life by going up and down.

[muirm]

Maybe the left one isn't (我)希望 or 希望(我), but rather 希望 as a noun meaning something like "Hope can let you grow more".

[roddy]

Ah, that would make more sense.

[creamyhorror]

On the upside, the writing looks quite nice.

Yeah, it's quite funny that the characters are fairly well written but the Chinese is ungrammatical/somewhat nonsensical.

[AngXi]

I am really enjoying the responses that I'm getting! Thank you so far for your contributions.

I agree that most people get Chinese characters tattooed without veryifying what they're getting tattooed means what they think it to mean. Unfortunately for my friends' case, they're not temporary tattoos and I think she may be sorely disappointed with the answers that I'm getting here.

Anymore advances/ educated guesses would be welcome in the mean time!

Thanks

[roddy]

Can you just tell us what they're meant to mean?

[大肚男]

To be honest I don't think many people who get Chinese tattoos care about the meaning.

If you live outside of where the language is spoken, a good looking tattoo is a good looking tattoo, no matter what it say

[Lu]

If they didn't care about the meaning, they wouldn't come up with a nice English motto and translate it into bad Chinese, they could just get something simple like 爱 or 福. I think they actually care quite a lot about the meaning, but have no concept of foreign language.