留下 from chinese into english help me express this sentence

[Luchini]

I love Chinese language, and I want to know how can I express in chinese the next sentence: "I was left (with) the desire to dance with her". I mean that I wanted to do something but I couldn't, I keep to myself that desire to dance with her, that desire kept inside of me, I tried to do it by myself: ”我被留下了跳舞跟她的欲望”。/

”我留下了跳舞跟她的欲望”。If you understood what I try to say in English please tell me if I wrote it good in chinese, if not, please correct me. Thank you in advance.

[陳德聰]

Hi there, and welcome to the forum!

 

I am not quite sure I understand what you are trying to say. Do you mean that you had this desire, but then because you did not finally dance with her, in the end all you had left was the desire?

 

I have one suggestion though before you reply to clarify: you can say 跟她跳舞 instead of 跳舞跟她. So your sentence would be “我留下了跟她跳舞的欲望” but it is not clear that this means what you want it to mean.

[889]

As always, context counts, so you first need a sentence explaining you didn't have the nerve to ask her to dance. Then you can say something like, 可是我永久保留跟她跳舞的欲望。Work 我的心里 in there somehow if you want to hearts-and-flowers this.

 

[XueChou]

我把想和她跳舞的想法藏在了心里，that desire kept inside of me----藏在了心里（heart），

[Luchini]

陳德聰，what I try to say, is something like "All I have left to me is ..." But really is  "I was kept or I kept to myself with the desire to dance", I kept / I have left to myself / I was left the desire to go to the movies but I couldn't go, I mean a desire that one wants to do but couldn't do it,  I couldn't make it and that desire is still keeping / is still staying inside of me, I couldn't get it out, but I couldn't make it. If you already understood what I try to express please help me express it in Chinese

[Shelley]

It might help to know what you plan to do with this sentence.  Some things just don't translate well and the meaning you intend may well be lost.

 

If this is for a tattoo I would suggest you think twice and then think some more.

[Luchini]

13 hours ago, 陳德聰 said:

 

I am not quite sure I understand what you are trying to say. Do you mean that you had this desire, but then because you did not finally dance with her, in the end all you had left was the desire?

 

I have one suggestion though before you reply to clarify: you can say 跟她跳舞 instead of 跳舞跟她. So your sentence would be “我留下了跟她跳舞的欲望” but it is not clear that this means what you want it to mean.

  

How about this one:  一直留下了给我跟她跳舞的欲望，I have been left with the desire to dance with her.

[dwq]

Consider using 剩下 (e.g. 我心裡(只)剩下... / (只)剩下...在我心裡) instead of 留下 for "be left with...".  In this case, 留下 sounds more like an active action; 我留下... is closer to "I kept..." and 被留下 is a mouthful and not commonly used.

 

Also, 欲望 can be taken somewhat negatively (it is often something you need to control and bad things happens if you don't), 願望 is a possible alternative.

 

[Luchini]

Thank you DW it was useful to me to know that 被留下 is not commonly used but I also thought that   那一直剩下了给我跟她舞蹈的愿望 could be the sentence that I want to express. Thank you

[somethingfunny]

Rather than using the 被 construction, it might be more helpful to try expressing what you want to say her as the subject of the sentence.  Maybe something starting with 她给我留下了...

[Beelzebro]

On 3/31/2018 at 7:05 AM, Luchini said:

 I also thought that   那一直剩下了给我跟她舞蹈的愿望 could be the sentence that I want to express.

 

舞蹈 is a noun so can't be used here. "To dance" is 跳舞 as you had in your earlier sentence. The grammar of the first half of this sentence doesn't really work. Here's what I would say:

 

我心里只剩下跟她跳舞的愿望 - all that was left in my heart was the desire to dance with her (seems a bit melodramatic)

or

我心里还留下跟她跳舞的愿望 - in my heart was left the desire to dance with her (this is a better way to say it imo)

 

One other comment I'd like to add is that I have the feeling that there may be a better word than 愿望. I'm not a native speaker and I don't feel qualified to speculate on the connotations of the difference Chinese translations for the English word "desire".

 

On 3/31/2018 at 6:17 PM, somethingfunny said:

Rather...

 

This is off-topic but were these (https://www.chinese-forums.com/forums/topic/55731-fun-composite-four-character-characters/) pictures taken in Birmingham? If so, we may know each other haha.