Well, the meaning I provided is the first meaning that comes to my mind.
FWIW, I did a search on Google Japan for that word, and most of the top hits seem to refer to sexual desires or food. But there’s one interesting page about the difference between gaman and nintai (忍耐: patience; perseverance; endurance), which is close to my understanding. gaman is a more passive and indifferent “got to bear with it till it’s over” feel, and doesn’t carry the same weight as “perseverence.” But that’s just my opinion.
This is the trouble with hanzi/kanji tattoos. Most characters, isolated from context, have quite a number of meanings, and often there’s no direct or easy translation of an English idiom. Add in the fact that a given string of characters sometimes means different things in Japanese and Chinese, and your tattoo can be extremely ambiguous. Someone above mentioned http://www.hanzismatter.com/ which is a great illustration of that. Further, as mentioned, tattooists who don’t read or write in the language you’re looking at are unlikely to be able to do the tattoo in an attractive manner, and I for one would hate to have a poorly-drawn tattoo stuck to me permanently. Also, in some cases fairly subtle details are quite important for meaning; it’s easy for a tattooist to screw up in that respect, and if you don’t speak the language in question (since equivalent Chinese and Japanese characters are often subtly different) you won’t notice and be able to correct them.
Plus it’s just simply an obnoxioous trend and generally a really shallow way to try to look exotic or whatever. If you get a tattoo in hanzi or kanji, rest assured that it puts you in very unpleasant company.
But that’s perseverence, though, isn’t it? Plus an element of overcoming, which *gaman *also covers. If you’re cheering for your favorite in a contest, you tell them gaman. If your friend wishes you well with a difficult boss, they’d tell you gaman. If you want a new car and can’t afford it, your friends will tell you gaman. All of these have some element of perseverence and overcoming. Naturally it isn’t a direct translation, but I think this is a close enough approximation to the OP’s situation.
First of all, the statement about whether or not it is ugly was in response to people who thought I was just looking for a cool looking tattoo to be fashionable.
Second of all, I was not aware that I had to go into my life history to explain why I want to honor the Japanese with the tattoo. I probably went overboard explaining about my daughter’s death, but that was to give a context for the word I’m looking for.
I don’t think you should describe getting a tattoo in Japanese as “honoring the Japanese” so much as fashionably using their culture as an empty symbol of the exotic.
At least make sure to find a tattooist who can read and write the language, because virtually every tattoo I’ve seen in Chinese or Japanese characters is hideously ugly from the perspective of anyone who reads either language - they tend to be very poorly-drawn even when they’re recognizable. If you aren’t literate in Japanese, you probably won’t be able to appreciate the characteristics of good calligraphy, which means you’ll likely find yourself tattooed with something that looks terrible to anyone who knows how to read it.
So you know my life history and know whether I’m doing this to be fashionable or to honor someone who is Japanese that helped me get through a difficult time in my life. If you’re going to use this thread to be judgemental and assume that all of us occidentals have no reason to get Japanese characters tattoos then please don’t reply. I have my reasons and don’t need your permission.
I’m very interested in “nintai”. What would be the best explanation of its meaning?
I’ve been reading this thread with interest and thought I would add one piece of advice:
Since you’re looking for characters from a Japanese perspective, make sure that the characters you choose don’t have some other (possibly negative) connotation in Chinese. For example, I looked up the word corresponding to the characters for the Japanese gaman in my Chinese dictionary, and the translation given was “<Budd.> egotism, self-intoxication”. Whether it carries the same negative connotation the English translation suggests is another story (I don’t know Chinese or Buddhism well enough to say), but it would be something to check into before making the final decision.
The characters for nintai, on the other hand, look like they would be okay in Chinese. My Chinese dictionary translates the word as “patient, forebearing”.
SaintCad, They are merely trying to warn you that a) your tattoo will most likely look ridiculous to anyone who can read the language, and there is no tradition of tattooing written texts onto yourself in Japanese or Chinese culture (dragons and flowers and such, yes, but writing is generally restricted to criminals and prisoners of war as a form of humiliation, not unlike the West actually) b) that since you yourself do not know the language there isn’t really any way for you to determine whether the tattoo will really say what you want it to say, and c) Informed people, even if they can’t read the tattoo, will likely think of you as a shallow trend-chasing frat-boy.
As long as you are aware of it, of course you are free to tattoo whatever you want on yourself.
The writing is ancillary to the main tattoo, that of a hummingbird.
That is why I’m on Straight Dope. I know any translation will be fairly loose and what I’m looking for is nebulous at best. Even using the English terms “inner strength” or “perseverence” is not exactly expressive of what I want to say.
Don’t care. This is for me, not to impress anyone.
I wish I could say that I appreciate the warnings everyone is giving, but I really don’t. My question was never “Is this a cool tat?” or “What’s your opinion of kanji tattoos”. I simply want to know what kanji best expresses what I want to say. Ignore that it is for a tattoo because to be honest, it’s no one’s business why I want to know.
sigh Well, with that attitude…
I don’t suppose I can talk you out of it. You might want to look into composing it in prayer form, which seems to suit your message better than a single word would.
I got my Japanese-speaking friends together and brought that idea up; they think that something like
有意味ように
would be most appropriate for you.
Good luck.
The OP has already been more than duly warned and had his taste thoroughly judged by the peanut gallery, so please, give it a rest now. This is GQ, the OP has brought a question with a factual answer, so if you have anything else to add, it should be in Japanese or Chinese. Not trying to be a mod or anything but your superior attitude is starting to piss me off too.
I want to suggest also to the OP… instead of looking for a direct translation, check out native proverbs or metaphors. Plus, there’s the cultural thing. Let’s assume “inner strength” did have a direct translation and you put it on your arm. In Japanese it would look funny, lacking context, or at best boastful, because “I have inner strength” is not exactly the kind of thing you’d say in Japanese. However, you could use proverbs or sayings, and that would be cool.
Both Chinese and Japanese have sort of a literary tradition of making proverb-like sayings out of exactly four characters. If you pick one of these, the advantages are:
You know exactly what you’re getting
It’s more expressive than what you’ll probably come up with on your own
It really does have some ancient literary panache
Google on “yojijyukugo” (may also be spelled “yoji-gjukugo” or “yoji-jukugo”, or Chinese “chéngyǔ”. You should get some fairly long lists of proverbs… check them out and see if you can find something that works for you.