New Members danielfns Posted March 9, 2013 at 12:34 AM New Members Report Posted March 9, 2013 at 12:34 AM Hello! I wanna know how is the representation of "Be like water" in tradicional chinese, the popular phrase cited by Bruce Lee... I look around internet but i found many different ways to write this... Oss. Quote
lingo-ling Posted March 11, 2013 at 03:11 AM Report Posted March 11, 2013 at 03:11 AM Two problems: 1) Bruce Lee's original quote was in English, so any Chinese versions are translations, and these vary from translator to translator. 2) The imperative form of "Be!" in English is not easy to translate into Chinese. I've come across 如水無形 "formless like water", "思維如水" "water-like thinking" and a few others. Quote
skylee Posted March 11, 2013 at 03:35 AM Report Posted March 11, 2013 at 03:35 AM 1) Bruce Lee's original quote was in English, so any Chinese versions are translations, and these vary from translator to translator. I agree. Perhaps you could consider 上善若水. It comes from Laozi, not Bruce Lee, and it does not mean the same thing. Well it means that we should be like water, but not the way Bruce Lee interpreted it. Ref -> http://forum.daoisopen.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1446 Quote
Hofmann Posted March 11, 2013 at 03:57 AM Report Posted March 11, 2013 at 03:57 AM That's where Bruce Lee might have gotten it anyway. As 如 can be a stative verb though, a valid translation is 如水. Quote
New Members danielfns Posted March 11, 2013 at 12:05 PM Author New Members Report Posted March 11, 2013 at 12:05 PM Thanks a lot for the help! I had already seen the Laozi quote, but like you say, doesn't mean what i really want... The Hofmann suggest: "如水", seems the closest that I'll get of a translation... Quote
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