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Tatoo in Chinese, in memory of my mother


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Hi everyone,

I was wondering if any members can help me out? I'm a British guy living in London, UK. I lost my mother to cancer recently and I want to get some tatoo's on my arm in memory of her. I've always loved the Chinese language in it's appearance. I'm looking to get some words in Chinese on my arms. These will be words that mean a lot to me in relation to my mother. One of the words will be "forgiveness" and I am working on the other words. Would anyone fluent in Chinese be willing to help me ensure I get the right translations for the English words I identify. I appreciate some of the words I choose may not have a direct translation in Chinese. In this event, I will be looking for the "best fit" in Chinese. Does not need to be a perfect translation. This is a big decision for me to take as I have never had a tatoo and I want to get it right.

Alex 

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First of all, our condolences for your tragic loss. :(
I lost my father 5 years ago, so I know exactly how it feels.

I'm in no way fluent in Chinese, but I am decently fluent in Japanese myself.
But I will reply any way, since chances are that whatever I will write down in Japanese may apply for Chinese as well (except for some simplifications in the characters and radical changes in pronunciation).
For truely Chinese characters, I would ask @linguaholic to come over here, he's fluent in Chinese and he owns this place.

Forgiveness:
勘弁
Literally: "intuition value", could also mean "pardon" and "forbearance".

Best fit:
一番適当
Literally: "number 1 suitable"

I hope this is at least something and good luck.
Just to remind you: Chinese and Japanese are quite a bit different, I gave you characters based on Japanese.
Things may either mean something different in Chinese, or certain characters may not be readable by Chinese people.
But then again, I'm not a fluent Chinese speaker.

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Thanks for your kind words, and thanks for opening up my mind to Japanese as well as Chinese! This allows for more freedom. I was wondering what the difference is between the two sets of words you posted. Is the first one "forgiveness" in Japanese, and if so what is the second one?

Thanks again. I will try and get hold of  @linguaholic

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The second one is "best fit", as it's written in my previous post.
Because I thought you wanted a translation of that one too?

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  • 1 month later...

Not sure if I am too late for this, but 寬恕 would be a better translation for "forgiveness". 原諒 also means to excuse or forgive. 寬恕 best fits your description though. 

I've never actually heard of 勘弁 being used in Chinese..

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