不晒白不晒，不卖白不卖

[BaiYingying]

Hi everyone!

I'm having some difficulties in translating the following sentence:

盐是国家管制的物品，非经允许不能贩卖，但海水就在那里放着，不晒白不晒，不卖白不卖.

Actually, the first part seems pretty clear to me but I don't really understand the meaning of the last 10 characters applied to the context. The source is 明朝那些事儿, fyi...

Can you help me, pretty please..? Thank you!

[skylee]

The seawater is there. If you don't make salt out of it you are just going to waste it, and someone else will do it anyways.

And the seasalt is right there. If you don't trade/sell it you are going to waste it, and someone else will do it anyways.

[BaiYingying]

Thank you Skylee! I'm translating part of the book for my graduation thesis and there're so many expressions that don't sound particularly clear to me... You've been very helpful!

[David Wong]

不X白不X has the meaning of "it's a shame not to X".

[yialanliu]

I think David's more accurate.

There isn't a connotation that someone else will do it. You just do it because it's a shame not too, not because someone else will do it.

[daofeishi]

The 白 here is an adverb which means something like “in vain," e.g. 学习后把知识还给老师就是白学, 'if you forget what you have learned, you will have studied in vain.' Even though you cannot talk about having not done something in vain in English, you can in Chinese. 白 then means something like having missed an opportunity, or that the effects of not doing something will be contrary to the intended outcome of refraining from doing it. 不卖白不卖: If you don't sell it, you will have missed an opportunity. 免费香槟酒不喝白不喝: Don't let free champagne go to waste. (Correct me if I'm wrong, skylee and David)