Meaning of these few characters ?

[Kherith]

Hello guys,

 

Can you help me translate these few characters . Strict meaning and best english translation please Thank you very much

 

[edelweis]

不痛不强

no idea what it means actually

 

Edit: oh, look here, seems to be a (bad?) translation for "no pain no gain"

[Kherith]

Yes thats what I had, I wanted to know if you would translate it the same and if it is correct

[Tiana]

I think it basically means: one can not (不) become strong (强) without (不) going through pain (痛).

From the basic meaning, you can make it less literal in the translation in any way that may suit your purpose.

[renzhe]

It literally says "not ache not strong".

It's not idiomatic Chinese, but the general idea is basically what you want.

[Kamille]

It just looks like a translation from the English though. It's a bit sad, especially since there are real Chinese sayings with this meaning. Check "一分耕耘，一分收穫" for example.

http://tw.18dao.net/%E6%88%90%E8%AA%9E%E8%A9%9E%E5%85%B8/%E4%B8%80%E5%88%86%E8%80%95%E8%80%98%EF%BC%8C%E4%B8%80%E5%88%86%E6%94%B6%E7%A9%AB

[lingo-ling]

Painless and weak.

[Kherith]

So what would be the best translation for "no gain, no pain" ? What Camille said ? Or mine is ok ?

[skylee]

Consider -

吃得苦中苦

方為人上人

http://www.mdbg.net/chindict/chindict.php?page=worddict&wdrst=0&wdqtm=0&wdqcham=1&wdqt=%E5%90%83%E5%BE%97%E8%8B%A6%E4%B8%AD%E8%8B%A6%EF%BC%8C%E6%96%B9%E7%82%BA%E4%BA%BA%E4%B8%8A%E4%BA%BA

[Demonic_Duck]

As far as I can tell, “不痛不強” isn't a set phrase that would be known to Chinese people, it's a translation that follows the form of phrases such as “不见不散” (we won't leave until we see each other), but it might be a bit confusing because people could associate it more with “不痛不痒” (not getting to the heart of the matter). The problem is that the grammatical structure “不A不B” can sometimes mean "if not-A then not-B", but in other contexts it can also mean "neither A nor B".

 

Kamille's suggestion of “一分耕耘，一分收穫” isn't bad, but it's more about hard work and diligence, less about pain.

 

I like skylee's suggestion best. “吃得苦中苦，方為人上人” - only if you can endure the worst hardships can you become the best.

[Kamille]

but it's more about hard work and diligence, less about pain.

 

Oh well that's actually precisely how I interpreted it. I always thought it was about the pain resulting from hard work and thus actually a metaphor for hard work.

 

I looked it up and found this, which is consistent with my feeling:

http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/no+pain,+no+gain

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/no+pain,+no+gain

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_pain,_no_gain

 

I don't know OP's feeling about this saying?

[skylee]

I like lingo-ling's interpretation. It is fun and kind of creative.

[Demonic_Duck]

Oh well that's actually precisely how I interpreted it. I always thought it was about the pain resulting from hard work and thus actually a metaphor for hard work.

 

Sure, the pain is the result of hard work, but the emphasis is on the pain, rather than the hard work itself. There's a lot of overlap with that and your suggestion, but a switch of emphasis.