Sentence Translation for Tattoo

[rn1rnl]

Hello, I am going to get another tattoo written in Chinese characters. I am trying to find the correct translation for the English of "Remember your dreams." The meaning of it for me is living in China has been my childhood dream since I was 9. I got a taste of it for 6 months in Shanghai till my father past away. I am working on getting over their for long term but a few years out still. Basically the tattoo will always remind me of that dream to go back. What are some good translations for it? I don't want to get it incorrect haha

[Jim]

First thought was 守梦; a quick search shows it was used for a film translated "Dreamkeeper" that I've never seen but I think it says you will maintain your dreams in the same way 守节 works. Not a native though so quite likely nonsense.

[arrow]

不忘初心 / 不忘梦想 / 坚持梦想

[Tomsima]

disclaimer: your tattoo will sound like 中國夢 propaganda no matter how it is translated

 

[rn1rnl]

I checked with a few native speakers and they said to do 勿忘初心 and so I did. I had to make sure it meant what it was supposed to mean. Tomsima about your post about 中國夢 Propaganda from my understanding that is on the same level as the American Dream just different meanings to it. I am American and don't follow any live your american dream propaganda and care less about it. Even if it was 中國夢 propaganda, what would it matter?  For me 勿忘初心 means to remember your original intention/inspiration/dream however, you'd like to translate it. Its personal not political.

[Tomsima]

As long as the tattoo is what you wanted, you don't need to prove anything to me! Post a pic, interested to see how it came out

[rn1rnl]

 

This is how it turned out.

[陳德聰]

Decent calligraphy, not a disaster, congrats!

[Publius]

Interesting. I don't know since when 初心 became a popular word. To me it sounds vaguely Japanese.

 

EDIT: Just confirmed. It's not in the 1978年版《现代汉语词典》 or 2001年版《新华词典》, but is in the latest 《现代汉语词典》 and 《汉语大词典》.

On the other hand, it's in every Japanese dictionary I have (>10). There's even a 慣用句 「初心忘るべからず」 with the translation:

勿忘初衷（小学館日中辞典）

不该忘记初衷（講談社日中辞典）

Google Ngram doesn't give any clue, except it told me to add a space in 初心 because "Classical Chinese (before 1900) uses a vocabulary and grammar that differs significantly from modern Chinese." Hmm...

Maybe it's been part of 80、90后s' vocabulary all along like 卡哇伊、宅, I just wasn't paying attention.

 

UPDATE: Found the origin of 初心忘るべからず.

It's from a treatise Kakyo 『花鏡』 written by a Japanese Noh artist Zeami Motokiyo 世阿弥元清 (1363-1443).

The original sentence is 初心不可忘.