T-shirt text help

[Genai]

I want to print a T-shirt with the message "Stay calm, drink beer" in a 4 character square. The best I have come up with is 留静 喝啤. Does this sound ok or should I rather pick some other characters?

[Kamille]

保持冷靜，喝杯啤酒

That's the best you could translate it, but it doesn't fit your pattern...

[889]

"Does this sound ok or should I rather pick some other characters?"

 

What you should do is stop trying to translate as such and instead just look for a Chinese way of expressing a relationship between beer and feeling good in four characters.

 

(I'd help, but I don't drink.)

[onebir]

放松喝酒?

[Genai]

Good suggestion, onebir. But it's specifically beer 啤酒 that I want to mention, not just any 酒. Would 放松喝啤 make sense?

[Genai]

@889 - not really about feeling good by drinking beer. It's a twist on the British government poster from 1939 asking the population to "Keep Calm and Carry On". The message is that people should keep calm in spite of the state of the world, and carry on as usual, e.g. by drinking beer. Or reading books, or whatever.

@Kamille - 保持冷靜，喝杯啤酒 is of course how you would say it today, but I need to boil it down to four classical characters that would be intelligible to an educated reader, but probably not be understandable as a spoken phrase. 放松喝啤 is what appears to be the best solution so far, but I am not capable of judging. Maybe I should print whatever the end decision will be in some archaic character font...

[Kamille]

Just wanted to attract your attention on this: https://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-hant/Keep_Calm_and_Carry_On

This seems to be the origin of the meme "keep calm and write something you find funny here". 

"Keep Calm and Carry On" is rendered as "保持冷靜，繼續前進"

I really do think "Stay calm, drink beer" would be best rendered as "保持冷靜，喝杯啤酒", but you're free to decide.

[abcdefg]

Would 冷静。。。啤酒 be an option?

 

It's elliptical; doesn't spell it out completely like a formal composition. Still pretty well captures the meaning. Might work on a tee shirt as a four-character square.

[Kamille]

冷静。。。啤酒

This is a verb followed by a noun without connection. 

冷静。。。喝酒 would probably be better. But again you lose the "beer" for "any kind of alcohol".

[onebir]

何必喝啤

Kind of rhymes... if it makes sense

[Kamille]

何必喝啤

 

"Why drink beer"?

[889]

A nine-character seal would give you a lot more flexibility, and on something large like a t-shirt might actually look better than a four-character seal.

[Genai]

@889 - Point taken, I will forget about fussing with four characters and go for 保持冷靜，喝杯啤酒 in some groovy font.

Thank you all for your input!