Tattoo—福之為禍, 禍之為福

[claybanksjohnson]

大家好，

 

  I'm a Mandarin Chinese language student planning on getting some ink, in xingshu style calligraphy. The old man and the horse is a story that means a lot to me, and I'd like to have my tattoo based on that text in the Huainanzi.

 

  So, my question is this: to a native speaker, does the phrase "福之為禍, 禍之為福" have a sense of literary value, or does it feel cultured? I'd spoken with some about people about the chengyu "塞翁失马, 焉知非福" and the main complaint was that it sounded like a cliche/trope, and that it lacked literary value and nuance.

 

  (For context: I'll be putting the first four characters on my right forearm, and the last four characters on my left forearm.)

 

  I'd appreciate any feedback you might have!

[Demonic_Duck]

It has a nice sense of balance between the two seemingly self-contradictory statements, so would work well for a left/right split.

 

It probably doesn't seem particularly "cultured" or "nuanced", because the story/phrase is so well known. However, it's a much better choice than the chengyu itself, because the chengyu is just a summing up of the story, rather than the statement of a principle.

[skylee]

The whole idea of getting a tattoo in Chinese characters does not sound "cultured" or "nuanced" to me.