"Look at life cold" in kanji
- Thread starter Neq
- Start date
Chidoriashi
In imagination land
- 2 Feb 2007
- 824
- 63
What is that suppose to even mean in English exactly?... Do you have a negative outlook on life or something?
- Thread starter
- #4
Sorry, I have had a mistake !!! , the phrase "look at life cold" IS NOT the phrase that I want to traduce to Japanese kanji. I want to traduce this other "look at life coldly" to Japanese kanji. It isn´t a negative phrase, is like to say to have cold blood, but not the same. I want to traduce this," look at life coldly", please say me it perfectly because it for a tattoo. Thank you
undrentide
Japa'n vagyok
- 18 Jan 2006
- 3,652
- 310
Such a phrase cannot be written in kanji only, you'll need to use kana as well.
That would not look very cool - so pipokun suggested four kanji compound which might convey something similar if not exactly the same thing.
Those four kanji compound do not require kana because they are originally Chinese.
If you want the phrase in kanji only, maybe you should ask Chinese people instead, thought I'm not sure if the phrase would look cool for Chinese speakers, and if it is for tattoo, make sure the artist can write/copy hanzi (kanji in Chinese) correctly, there are already too many tragedies (for the one who got the tattoo - or comedies for those who look at the tattoo) out there.
- 8 Aug 2005
- 7,316
- 3,727
Is there a reason you want it in a language you can't read or write? Do you even realize that a direct translation will make little sense? You can't take an idiomatic phrase and expect it to make sense in any language... 
Chidoriashi
In imagination land
- 2 Feb 2007
- 824
- 63
Neq I am still not exactly sure what you are trying to say.. Do you want to say you are cold-blooded? Because in English, that means you are an evil person. In any case, nice gaijin is correct. You probably will not be able to translate it directly into Japanese. Speaking at least two languages yourself, you should know that things that sound cool in one language probably don't sound as cool in another when translated directly, especially when they are as different as English and Japanese are. So anyhow, could you state differently what it is you want a tattoo of?
And be careful who you go to, if the artists make a mistake you will look just as funny to Japanese, as they do to English speakers when wearing nonsensical English T-shirts.
And be careful who you go to, if the artists make a mistake you will look just as funny to Japanese, as they do to English speakers when wearing nonsensical English T-shirts.
becki_kanou
Sumo Freak
- 20 Jul 2008
- 163
- 11
冷静沈着 means "calm,cool and collected" as in being cool and not getting disturbed by small things. Perhaps this is what you meant? "Look at life coldly" doesn't sound cool (or make a whole lot of sense) in English, let alone Japanese.
I would also advise you not to get a tattoo in a language that you (and likely the tattoo artist as well) cannot read. You are setting yourself up for disappointment and regret. Why not get whatever phrase you want in a language you do speak? Then you can be sure it is correct and that the font looks cool.
Please note that I'm not saying this because I'm anti-tattoo either, I have several myself, but I know exactly what they all are and chose them with care.
I would also advise you not to get a tattoo in a language that you (and likely the tattoo artist as well) cannot read. You are setting yourself up for disappointment and regret. Why not get whatever phrase you want in a language you do speak? Then you can be sure it is correct and that the font looks cool.
Please note that I'm not saying this because I'm anti-tattoo either, I have several myself, but I know exactly what they all are and chose them with care.
grapefruit
先輩
- 2 Sep 2008
- 500
- 9
If there is a mistake in kanji, an additional 1 Billion people will laugh at it. 
- 6 Jan 2007
- 318
- 22
This is usually the point where some people I know would suggest the proper kanji to be 俺は馬鹿, 漢字知らず野蛮人, or 物凄い気違い.
And I'd tend to agree with their offerings.
I really think the OP should visit Hanzi Smatter 一知半解 and read some cautionary tales of stoopid kanji tats.
Tony
And I'd tend to agree with their offerings.
I really think the OP should visit Hanzi Smatter 一知半解 and read some cautionary tales of stoopid kanji tats.
Tony
- Thread starter
- #14
Now, I will explain what "look at life coldly " means, I took the idea from a poet. He has a phrase very cool " cast a cold eye on life ", but not is a devil phrase. I think that to have cold blood isn´t necessary for evil persons. A good person can have cold blood because it is clear and calm, and I want to put in a tattoo a phrase like a cast a cold eye on life. Then cast a cold eye on life is the phrase what has inspired me, and it is similar to say look at life coldly.
Ashikaga
もちもちした食感
- 19 Feb 2008
- 2,220
- 84
One needs to remember that Japanese is a living laguage. It is not just a bunch of cool looking "symbols", each of which means something deep.
When you write, say, "Cast a cold eye on life" in Japanese, that is exactly how it reads to the eyes of someone who speaks it. In other words, "人生を冷静に見ろ" means literally that (Look at life calmly) and NOT a seires of characters that together, signify what the original line of the poem says.
What IS the original line that you are quoting anyway? Is it in Spanish? If so, why are you not using the original line instead of trying to translate it into Japanese? My guess is that it is because it would look silly to have it in Spanish. Don't you think it'd look rather awkward in English, too? It might not be as easy for you to see since you're not as fluent in Japanese as you are in your native language, but it'd look silly in Japanese as well.
Having said that, it is YOUR tattoo and if it means that much to you to have that phrase in Japanese tattoed on your body, what you have come up with does make sense and grammatically sound, so go for it. As long as you're happy with it, it would not matter what others might think. Reading the posts here by some of the members who know the language, you should have a pretty good idea by now as to what the typical reaction would be like if someone who understands Japanese saw your tattoo.
When you write, say, "Cast a cold eye on life" in Japanese, that is exactly how it reads to the eyes of someone who speaks it. In other words, "人生を冷静に見ろ" means literally that (Look at life calmly) and NOT a seires of characters that together, signify what the original line of the poem says.
What IS the original line that you are quoting anyway? Is it in Spanish? If so, why are you not using the original line instead of trying to translate it into Japanese? My guess is that it is because it would look silly to have it in Spanish. Don't you think it'd look rather awkward in English, too? It might not be as easy for you to see since you're not as fluent in Japanese as you are in your native language, but it'd look silly in Japanese as well.
Having said that, it is YOUR tattoo and if it means that much to you to have that phrase in Japanese tattoed on your body, what you have come up with does make sense and grammatically sound, so go for it. As long as you're happy with it, it would not matter what others might think. Reading the posts here by some of the members who know the language, you should have a pretty good idea by now as to what the typical reaction would be like if someone who understands Japanese saw your tattoo.
- Thread starter
- #17
Sir Ashikaga, I want to put me a tattoo in Japanese because here in Europe to put tattoos in Japanese alphabet is in fashion. Almost all the people who put a tattoo with phrases these days put it in a Japanese way because it is in fashion now. The original line is in English, is from a poet who won the Nobel prize a lot of years ago. So 人生を冷静に見ろ, has it sense ? is it totally correct? Does it mean "look at life cold"?Thank you.
undrentide
Japa'n vagyok
- 18 Jan 2006
- 3,652
- 310
冷静に could mean in a calm/level-headed/non-emotional manner, coldly, coolly, dispassionately, evenly, matter-of-factly, unflappably, etc.
(Nuance may vary depending on the context.)
人生を見ろ literally means "look at (a/the) life", it is an imperative form.
It is grammatically correct, but I don't know if it really conveys the original idea you or the poet have, or it has the same connotation (maybe not).
If it were to be printed on a T-shirt, I'd say go for it, but I really cannot recommend it to be written on your body permanently...
If it is a set phrase like 明鏡止水 or 冷静沈着, it is OK (though not really great) from the native speaker's perspective, but when it comes to a phrase like 人生を冷静に見ろ, it just looks either odd/weird/silly/awkward/strange/funny.
I understood that it is a fashion in Europe NOW, but will it be fashionable for ever? I doubt it. You can throw away a T-shirt which became out of fashion or when you're tired of it, but it is not so easy with a tattoo on your body.
But it is your body after all if you are adamant about it, I find no reason to convince you not to get it tattooed.
(And I strongly recommend to visit this website before going to a tattoo parlour. If you ever have it tattooed, you don't want it to be mirrored or with the wrong kanji, do you?
(Nuance may vary depending on the context.)
人生を見ろ literally means "look at (a/the) life", it is an imperative form.
It is grammatically correct, but I don't know if it really conveys the original idea you or the poet have, or it has the same connotation (maybe not).
If it were to be printed on a T-shirt, I'd say go for it, but I really cannot recommend it to be written on your body permanently...
If it is a set phrase like 明鏡止水 or 冷静沈着, it is OK (though not really great) from the native speaker's perspective, but when it comes to a phrase like 人生を冷静に見ろ, it just looks either odd/weird/silly/awkward/strange/funny.
I understood that it is a fashion in Europe NOW, but will it be fashionable for ever? I doubt it. You can throw away a T-shirt which became out of fashion or when you're tired of it, but it is not so easy with a tattoo on your body.
But it is your body after all if you are adamant about it, I find no reason to convince you not to get it tattooed.
(And I strongly recommend to visit this website before going to a tattoo parlour. If you ever have it tattooed, you don't want it to be mirrored or with the wrong kanji, do you?
Charles Barkley
TNT Basketball Analyst
- 14 Jun 2007
- 560
- 12
Sorry for the long quote, but is the poem you are talking about the end of this one by Yeats?
Swear by what the Sages spoke
Round the Mareotic Lake
That the Witch of Atlas knew,
Spoke and set the cocks a-crow.
Swear by those horsemen, by those women
Complexion and form prove superhuman,
That pale, long-visaged company
That air an immortality
Completeness of their passions won;
Now they ride the wintry dawn
Where Ben Bulben sets the scene.
Here's the gist of what they mean.
II
Many times man lives and dies
Between his two eternities,
That of race and that of soul,
And ancient Ireland knew it all.
Whether man die in his bed
Or the rifle knocks him dead,
A brief parting from those dear
Is the worst man has to fear.
Though grave-diggers' toil is long,
Sharp their spades, their muscles strong.
They but thrust their buried men
Back in the human mind again.
III
You that Mitchel's prayer have heard,
'Send war in our time, O Lord!'
Know that when all words are said
And a man is fighting mad,
Something drops from eyes long blind,
He completes his partial mind,
For an instant stands at ease,
Laughs aloud, his heart at peace.
Even the wisest man grows tense
With some sort of violence
Before he can accomplish fate,
Know his work or choose his mate.
IV
Poet and sculptor, do the work,
Nor let the modish painter shirk
What his great forefathers did.
Bring the soul of man to God,
Make him fill the cradles right.
Measurement began our might:
Forms a stark Egyptian thought,
Forms that gentler phidias wrought.
Michael Angelo left a proof
On the Sistine Chapel roof,
Where but half-awakened Adam
Can disturb globe-trotting Madam
Till her bowels are in heat,
Proof that there's a purpose set
Before the secret working mind:
Profane perfection of mankind.
Quattrocento put in paint
On backgrounds for a God or Saint
Gardens where a soul's at ease;
Where everything that meets the eye,
Flowers and grass and cloudless sky,
Resemble forms that are or seem
When sleepers wake and yet still dream.
And when it's vanished still declare,
With only bed and bedstead there,
That heavens had opened.
Gyres run on;
When that greater dream had gone
Calvert and Wilson, Blake and Claude,
Prepared a rest for the people of God,
Palmer's phrase, but after that
Confusion fell upon our thought.
V
Irish poets, earn your trade,
Sing whatever is well made,
Scorn the sort now growing up
All out of shape from toe to top,
Their unremembering hearts and heads
Base-born products of base beds.
Sing the peasantry, and then
Hard-riding country gentlemen,
The holiness of monks, and after
Porter-drinkers' randy laughter;
Sing the lords and ladies gay
That were beaten into the clay
Through seven heroic centuries;
Cast your mind on other days
That we in coming days may be
Still the indomitable Irishry.
VI
Under bare Ben Bulben's head
In Drumcliff churchyard Yeats is laid.
An ancestor was rector there
Long years ago, a church stands near,
By the road an ancient cross.
No marble, no conventional phrase;
On limestone quarried near the spot
By his command these words are cut:
Cast a cold eye
On life, on death.
Horseman, pass by!
Swear by what the Sages spoke
Round the Mareotic Lake
That the Witch of Atlas knew,
Spoke and set the cocks a-crow.
Swear by those horsemen, by those women
Complexion and form prove superhuman,
That pale, long-visaged company
That air an immortality
Completeness of their passions won;
Now they ride the wintry dawn
Where Ben Bulben sets the scene.
Here's the gist of what they mean.
II
Many times man lives and dies
Between his two eternities,
That of race and that of soul,
And ancient Ireland knew it all.
Whether man die in his bed
Or the rifle knocks him dead,
A brief parting from those dear
Is the worst man has to fear.
Though grave-diggers' toil is long,
Sharp their spades, their muscles strong.
They but thrust their buried men
Back in the human mind again.
III
You that Mitchel's prayer have heard,
'Send war in our time, O Lord!'
Know that when all words are said
And a man is fighting mad,
Something drops from eyes long blind,
He completes his partial mind,
For an instant stands at ease,
Laughs aloud, his heart at peace.
Even the wisest man grows tense
With some sort of violence
Before he can accomplish fate,
Know his work or choose his mate.
IV
Poet and sculptor, do the work,
Nor let the modish painter shirk
What his great forefathers did.
Bring the soul of man to God,
Make him fill the cradles right.
Measurement began our might:
Forms a stark Egyptian thought,
Forms that gentler phidias wrought.
Michael Angelo left a proof
On the Sistine Chapel roof,
Where but half-awakened Adam
Can disturb globe-trotting Madam
Till her bowels are in heat,
Proof that there's a purpose set
Before the secret working mind:
Profane perfection of mankind.
Quattrocento put in paint
On backgrounds for a God or Saint
Gardens where a soul's at ease;
Where everything that meets the eye,
Flowers and grass and cloudless sky,
Resemble forms that are or seem
When sleepers wake and yet still dream.
And when it's vanished still declare,
With only bed and bedstead there,
That heavens had opened.
Gyres run on;
When that greater dream had gone
Calvert and Wilson, Blake and Claude,
Prepared a rest for the people of God,
Palmer's phrase, but after that
Confusion fell upon our thought.
V
Irish poets, earn your trade,
Sing whatever is well made,
Scorn the sort now growing up
All out of shape from toe to top,
Their unremembering hearts and heads
Base-born products of base beds.
Sing the peasantry, and then
Hard-riding country gentlemen,
The holiness of monks, and after
Porter-drinkers' randy laughter;
Sing the lords and ladies gay
That were beaten into the clay
Through seven heroic centuries;
Cast your mind on other days
That we in coming days may be
Still the indomitable Irishry.
VI
Under bare Ben Bulben's head
In Drumcliff churchyard Yeats is laid.
An ancestor was rector there
Long years ago, a church stands near,
By the road an ancient cross.
No marble, no conventional phrase;
On limestone quarried near the spot
By his command these words are cut:
Cast a cold eye
On life, on death.
Horseman, pass by!
undrentide
Japa'n vagyok
- 18 Jan 2006
- 3,652
- 310
Cast a cold eye On life, on death.
Horseman, pass by!
冷たい目を向けよ 生に 死に
騎馬の者よ 過ぎ行け！
(Traslation by Hiroshi Suzuki)
鈴木弘訳 『W.B. イェイツ全詩集』
The last two lines are the epitaph of the poet.
Meaning of 明鏡止水 : See the post #5 by pipokun
Meaning of 冷静沈着 : See the post #11 by becki Kanou
Horseman, pass by!
冷たい目を向けよ 生に 死に
騎馬の者よ 過ぎ行け！
(Traslation by Hiroshi Suzuki)
鈴木弘訳 『W.B. イェイツ全詩集』
The last two lines are the epitaph of the poet.
Meaning of 明鏡止水 : See the post #5 by pipokun
Meaning of 冷静沈着 : See the post #11 by becki Kanou
- Thread starter
- #25
So 冷たい目を向けよ 生に means "cast a cold eye on life", NOW I NEED MORE PEOPLE TO CONFIRM IT BECAUSE I WANT TO TATTOO ME THIS PHRASE OF THE TRADUCTION, I have decided it. And other question, if I tattoo me this phrase in the arm, can I put it first five letters, and below the other five letters? that is to say: 冷たい目を, in this form tattooed in my arm.
向けよ 生に
向けよ 生に
