Help translate my tattoo please

[tmie23]

So I got this tattoo when I was young and in college . I had a friend of my brothers draw it up as she was supposedly fluent in the language and knew what she was doing . I'm now having people come up and tell me many different versions of what it says and as expected I'm slightly anxiety ridden over it so if anyone could help I'd greatly appreciate it .. Thanks !

[skylee]

Show us the tattoo.

[Shelley]

To post a picture you need to click on the "More Reply Options" button at the bottom right of the reply box.

 

Then you click on "Browse" at the bottom left and then navigate to the file on your computer of your picture. Then click "Attach This File"

 

Then we should be able to see your picture.

[tmie23]

Sorry ! Hopefully this works now

[Publius]

生残者(せいざんしゃ) seizansha

It's Japanese, not Chinese (the glyph for 残 is different).

It means 'survivor'.

[tmie23]

Thank you thank you so much . I really appreciate it

[Shelley]

Is it what you expected? What did you ask for?

[Publius]

You're welcome, tmie23.

 

The Japanese word has a single, unambiguous meaning.

 

But we Chinese don't use that word. We say 生还者 or 幸存者. So my first reaction when I saw your picture was like, "What the.... What does it even mean? 天生残疾??" I guess that's where your anxiety comes from.

 

Just tell them it's Japanese.

[陳德聰]

Question re: "(the glyph for 残 is different)". I didn't see any apparent differences between the Japanese and Chinese writing of this character... Unless I'm missing something?

I think it simply means different things in Japanese and Chinese, since it's not a word in Chinese but is a word in Japanese. But the intended meaning is immediately apparent to someone who speaks Chinese and English, IMO. It just has the connotation of being disabled or maimed in Chinese.

[lips]

"(the glyph for 残 is different)".

The simplified Chinese character has only two horizontal strokes in the RHS.

[Publius]

Yes. It's the same character (or grapheme in Unihan parlance) 残 (Unicode U+6B8B), but realized slightly differently. On the right-hand side, it has three horizontal strokes (㦮) if you use a Japanese font (e.g. MS Gothic, MS Mincho), and two horizontal strokes (戋) if you use a Chinese font (e.g. SimSun, SimHei). The difference is the result of two separate attempts by Japanese and PRC governments to simplify the traditional character 殘 (Unicode U+6B98) which is still used in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau.

 

While Classical Chinese has left us with a wide range of meanings, the primary sense of 残 in Japanese is 【残余】 (remainder; remnant; residue), 【残存】 (remaining; survival; residual). 残 appears in high-frequency verb 【残る】のこる (vi. to remain; to be left), less frequent 【残す】のこす (vt. to leave (behind/over); to save; to reserve), and also in compounds such as 【生き残る】いきのこる (vi. to survive), 【心残り】こころのこり (n. regret; reluctance), As an aside, a Japanese word 【残念】ざんねん, which is almost synonymous with 心残り, has been borrowed back into Chinese to mean 遗憾、可惜、不甘心、无语等等.

[陳德聰]

My mind just got blown... I guess I just don't count while I read :T