Check my Kanji please

[Gunny]

I want it to say, "Life mirrors pain" Any input would by great.

Regards,

Gunny

[DoctorP]

I'm guessing this is for a tatoo?

[Gunny]

yes it is.

[Mikawa Ossan]

What you have as it stands is "Life, Mirror, Pain". I don't know Chinese, so I don't know how to make a verb for you like that, but in Japanese, it would just be "Life, Mirror, Pain" as you have it now.

[DoctorP]

Someone with more knowledge than myself will be by to help you. At least you had the forsight to ask...too many people don't and get a totally useless translation.

[RockLee]

Hmm, putting 3 kanji signs in a row doesn't necessairily mean it means anything.

命(inochi)= (mortal) life, your own life
鏡(kagami) = mirror
苦(ku) = suffering,trial (this kanji is used in kurushii(苦しい) which means painful,difficult)

It doesn't mean "Life mirrors pain", it' just 3 kanji signs in a row. Nothing more. So basicly it would mean "life mirror suffering", not actually that cool to write on your arm init?

[Elizabeth]

Maybe if the OP would clarify the meaning in English that would help. I do understand, though, the need for brevity of tattoos....

[yukio_michael]

Let me be the first person to explicity advise you not to get an english idiom[?] translated by yourself into a foreign language of which you are largely unknowledgeable tattooed permanantly on your body...

[JimmySeal]

I think that for anyone interested in a Chinese character tattoo, this is always a good one:

我不可讀

It's short and gets right to the point.
What does "life mirrors pain" mean anyway? That doesn't even make sense before it's translated.

[pipokun]

Since Monday is not the day when I drink, I cannot coin good words. I picked up words from Chinese mirror-related words.
1. 破鏡不照 A broken mirror does not reflect. No way to return to your ex-partner.
2. 破鏡重円 A broken mirror fixs again. This has the opposite of No.1.
3. 明鏡止水 A mind as serene as a polished mirror and as still water.
No.3 is the most popular words from Zhuangzi, I suppose most Chinese and Japanese understand the meaning, though it is positive words.

[Gaijinian]

Originally Posted by JimmySeal

I think that for anyone interested in a Chinese character tattoo, this is always a good one:
我不可讀

Seconded (but I think you should add 中文, also...)

[yukio_michael]

Originally Posted by JimmySeal

I think that for anyone interested in a Chinese character tattoo, this is always a good one:
我不可讀

Seems pretty apt.

[4321go]

我不可讀 ? =我不会读?


Life mirrors pain = 生活反映痛苦

[Elizabeth]

Originally Posted by JimmySeal

I think that for anyone interested in a Chinese character tattoo, this is always a good one:
我不可讀
It's short and gets right to the point.
What does "life mirrors pain" mean anyway? That doesn't even make sense before it's translated.

"Pain is a mirror of life" (苦は命の鏡) I think is a more standard (???)
way of rendering it.

[Glenn]

Originally Posted by 4321go

我不可讀 ? =我不会读?
Life mirrors pain = 生活反映痛苦

I was thinking that 会 would be better too, but my Chinese is pretty miniscule.

And that translation into Chinese brings up a point I was going to make about the language being mostly disyllabic now. If you want something more terse you'd have to go with Classical Chinese, which seems to consist mostly of four-character idioms.

I would think that 人生は苦を映す or 人生は苦しみを映す would be the Japanese version. I would think that the latter would be more natural and colloquial, but the former does seem to be possible.

[Elizabeth]

I would think that 人生は苦を映す or 人生は苦しみを映す would be the Japanese version. I would think that the latter would be more natural and colloquial, but the former does seem to be possible.

@Gunny Stick with the Chinese is my greatest advice !

These Japanese versions are giving me a pounding headache that I have no time to deal with now -- does this become in effect the pain that is mirrored (reflected) in an individual life ?

[Glenn]

Hahahaha, a little 苦痛 for you, eh?

Originally Posted by Glenn

I was thinking that 会 would be better too, but my Chinese is pretty miniscule.

I was just thinking I should have said that I was thinking that 會 would be better, as in 我不會說中文.

[Mike Cash]

Important point here, Gunny, so listen up.

The word "mirror" in your "Life mirrors pain" is a verb. The word "mirror" in your three kanji string is not a verb. It's a noun. Hence, the string is not only grammatically incorrect, it renders the intended meaning entirely impenetrable to anyone.

Come to think of it...."Life mirrors pain" is pretty impenetrable in English as well. Is that supposed to be deeply profound? Or am I just a dumbass?

[leonmarino]

I just don't get why on earth people would get words tattood on their body without being able to read it!!

And I'm pretty clueless too on what you're trying to express with "life mirrors pain"..

[Fehrant]

Um, I find the English meaning of "life mirrors pain" quite obvious actually, although I expect a certain skepticism for not being native.

Life reflects pain -- life is the equivalent of pain.

Something among those lines. I don't see why such a big deal is done about the (english) grammatical sense of that sentence. I find it perfectly clear, perhaps too pompous or poetic like Mike inadvertedly suggested.

[Elizabeth]

Originally Posted by Fehrant

Um, I find the English meaning of "life mirrors pain" quite obvious actually, although I expect a certain skepticism for not being native.
Life reflects pain -- life is the equivalent of pain.
Something among those lines. I don't see why such a big deal is done about the (english) grammatical sense of that sentence. I find it perfectly clear, perhaps too pompous or poetic like Mike inadvertedly suggested.

Hmmm....perhaps there is an attempt being made here at being deliberately paradoxical. Pick any other emotion or value as if it were a generative force that came from outside, stands apart from, life itself and to which life is somehow acting in response to as a foreign stimulus. Does it become clearer for instance to replace 'pain' with "Life mirrors joy" "Life mirrors peace" "Life mirrors/reflects/is the equivilant of happiness." ?? It still sounds to me like something a beginning literature student would misuse, not that getting the phrase tattooed in any language will clarify the inconsistency.

[Fehrant]

Then you are saying that in a grammatical sense the phrase is ok, yet the meaning of it all someone falls short of what intends to say? It could be the case, but I still stand by my original statement.

I have taken the liberty of checking up the word on dictionary.com, in which it reads (let's, of course, omit the unnecessary meanings of the word "mirror"):

To reflect in or as if in a mirror: “The city mirrors many of the greatest moments of Western culture” (Olivier Bernier).

Could it not be said that life is an expression of joy and/or sadness? Is it invalid to say that life is about sadness and joy? I would not use "mirror" as my choice of words either, but the intent and the meaning attributed due to context is pretty clear for me, despite the fact that I will agree with you in that the phrase does sound a bit okashii.

Originally Posted by Elizabeth

not that getting the phrase tattooed in any language will clarify the inconsistency.

本当に

[Elizabeth]

Originally Posted by Fehrant

Then you are saying that in a grammatical sense the phrase is ok, yet the meaning of it all someone falls short of what intends to say? It could be the case, but I still stand by my original statement.
I have taken the liberty of checking up the word on dictionary.com, in which it reads (let's, of course, omit the unnecessary meanings of the word "mirror"):
Could it not be said that life is an expression of joy and/or sadness? Is it invalid to say that life is about sadness and joy? I would not use "mirror" as my choice of words either, but the intent and the meaning attributed due to context is pretty clear for me, despite the fact that I will agree with you in that the phrase does sound a bit okashii.
本当に

I agree with you in that life reveals, manifests, and shows pain, joy, happiness or any other emotion (those qualities being reflected intrinsically by and through being alive). Pain mirrors life may be the more logical analogy ?
Because 'to mirror' to me suggests the more realistic process of a reflecting agent or source (pain) projecting or giving out a largely recognizable image of itself in some other, usually lesser, form (life?). The only analogy that comes to mind where "life mirrors" anything makes sense is a phrase like as "Life mirrors art" to refer to a situation in which a series of events or story has been captured in art also then later comes to pass in reality (more commonly it is the reverse : "Art mirrors life"). Stating without any elaboration a City 'mirrors Western Culture' still feels weird, but at least in this instance we're speaking of two entities with common attributes and that are similiar in kind, one of which can be a envisioned as model 'version' of the other. There is a parallel reasoning that isn't there with 'pain' and 'life.' Pain is a part of life but it can't by itself produce or cause it to be reflected as a mirror.

[Fehrant]

Because 'to mirror' to me suggests the more realistic process of a reflecting agent or source (pain) projecting or giving out a largely recognizable image of itself in some other, usually lesser, form (life?)

Very good observation, Elizabeth.

If we think of life as an abstract entity by itself rather than just a term to define the period of time that we human beings live throughout, perhaps this way we can say that this entity out of all the emotions it can reflect, the most powerful one, or at least the one the author of the thread feels touched about, is sadness. As we stand in front of life (life, as the forementioned abstract entity), the only part of life we see (reflection) is its sadness.

Perhaps too far-fetched, eh? I guess I'm starting to sound like a lame poet.

[Bucko]

Would probably more closely to "a life mirror pain" rather than "life mirrors pain". Of course, a 'life mirror pain' is complete nonsense too.