You are not gonna like it: another tattoo translation question

[egmonterrubio]

Hello my friends!

I decided to make me my first tattoo, and I'd love it to be in chinese. I have a friend who is learning chinese but it's in the basic levels so I asked him if he could translate some things and couldn't help. I've looked online and found some things. Let me tell you a little bit more about it

 

First: I haven´t decided yet what phrase to use; I know it's not possible to translate literally from english to Chinese, but I want my tattoo to say something like (In no more than 5 charactes):

 

-Never give up.

-Invencible.

-Becoming better every day.

-Live as if you'll die today

 

I found some translations online for Never give up, but i'm not sure what does it really mean:

 

 

 

For invincible I found this

 

 

 

 

The tattoo will be in the side of my chest, I don't know if it makes any difference but wanted you to know ;)

 

 

Thanks a lot.

(PD: If anything is not clear I'm sorry, english is not my first language but let me know if i need to explain something else) 

 

[Lu]

永不放棄 means 'never give up'

排除萬難 means something like 'remove all difficulties', 'overcome all obstacles'

 

Wait for a native speaker to confirm whether these phrases sound good in Chinese.

 

Keep in mind that getting a tattoo in an exotic language does not make it more special, it mainly means that you won't be able to read it yourself. Consider getting a phrase you like in a language you can actually read, pick a nice font and get that tattooed instead.

[skylee]

Consider -

剛毅智仁勇 http://cdict.net/?q=%E5%89%9B%E6%AF%85%E6%99%BA%E4%BB%81%E5%8B%87

Or

堅毅智仁勇 http://cdict.net/?q=%E5%A0%85%E6%AF%85%E6%99%BA%E4%BB%81%E5%8B%87

They don't mean what you want. But they came up in my mind when I read that you want no more than five characters to convey a lot of messages.

[edelweis]

滴水穿石？

http://www.mdbg.net/chindict/chindict.php?page=worddict&wdrst=1&wdqb=%E6%BB%B4%E6%B0%B4%E7%A9%BF%E7%9F%B3

[Demonic_Duck]

They don't mean what you want. But they came up in my mind when I read that you want no more than five characters to convey a lot of messages.

 

My favourite super-concise phrases:

老弱病残孕专座

吃喝拉撒睡

 

I don't think either of them would make a good tattoo though...

 

Also, I think “百折不撓” was suggested by someone (quite possibly skylee herself) in a previous thread on a similar topic. It means you won't yield even after a hundred setbacks.

[egmonterrubio]

Thank you for all your answers.
 

My favourite super-concise phrases:
老弱病残孕专座
吃喝拉撒睡

What do they mean?

 

Thanks

[Demonic_Duck]

老弱病残孕专座 means "seat reserved for those who are elderly, weak, sick, disabled or pregnant".

 

吃喝拉撒睡 means "eat, drink, shit, piss and sleep" (actually, that one's still quite concise in English too, but I guess it seems more concise in Chinese because it's short for 吃饭、喝水、拉屎、撒尿、睡觉).

 

Told you they wouldn't make good tattoos. Though if you do choose to permanently ink one of them on your body, I promise to buy you a drink should we ever meet in person.

[egmonterrubio]

Hahahaha definitely not good tattos, but if i get really drunk some day maybe I end with one of them, thanks! LOL.

[egmonterrubio]

Friends one more question, I've decided to tattoo 永不放棄

Are this correct?:

 

 

if they are, now I have to choose which one I prefer. 

 

Thanks! 

 

 

[Lu]

That second one doesn't say 永不放弃. I can't quite tell what it does say, as the calligraphy is too joined for me to read.

The first one is okay, but I don't particularly like it. That's just my taste though.

[Demonic_Duck]

I think both are correct. Try googling each of the characters along with “草書” and you'll see forms akin to those in the second one. The “放” initially looked a little off to me as most of the 草書 versions retain the 反文 on the right, though some of those google results do indeed write it more like “又”.

 

The first one is in simplified script, which is probably not the best choice for a tattoo.

 

Aesthetically, I also prefer the second one. I'd recommend waiting 'til someone who knows a little about calligraphy can advise, though, because I know nothing about it.

[heifeng]

On a related note, why not just 贵在坚持, see, this is actually used for calligraphy (hence written left to right)....or if that is just too many strokes and characters or there isn't enough skin real estate...the last 2 characters 坚持 would be pretty concise  .

 

Alternates: 

坚持不懈 which is basically never give up

or

锲而不舍

 

Long story short, I don't think there is a shortage of native phrases to express these ideas of never giving up & perseverance, etc.....in fact there are probably hundreds of ways ....these are the types of phrases that must be memorized when one actually studies Chinese...(primarily b/c this is the mentality that is needed to stick with learning Chinese)　　

[GotJack]

To the chap that posted 水滴石穿 , I really like that , and am considering getting it myself, so thanks. Gonna run it past my language partners and classmates and see what they think of it

 

Edit- First person I asked, lolled at it and said it was awful idea for a tattoo