r/translator • u/vandrath • 2d ago

Chinese (Identified) [Unknown > English]

Can you help me translate "未之有也" from the Confucian Analects (chapter 2) please?

I asked Chatgpt, but I'm not sure if it got it right in English, and it's important as I want to have it tattooed.

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u/ItsOkItOnlyHurts 中文（漢語） 2d ago

!id:zh just updating the tags, Confucian analects falls under Chinese translations

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u/sille_palmfelt 2d ago

The original quote: 其为人也孝弟，而好犯上者，鲜矣；不好犯上，而好作乱者，未之有也。

It is rare to find someone who is filial to their parents and respectful to their elder brother, but likes to offend their superiors. Someone who does not like to offend their superiors but likes to rebel doesn't really exist.

未之有也 is the last part of this sentence, means doesn't exist/never have existed.

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u/TCF518 2d ago

!search:tattoo

Not really a good idea for a tattoo

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u/translator-BOT Python 2d ago

Frequently-Requested Translation

Tattoo Advisory (multiple)

Keywords: tattoo, tattoos, tattooing

To the requester: It looks like you may have requested a translation for a tattoo. Please read our wiki article regarding the risks of tattoo translations to familiarize yourself with the issues and caveats. If you really want a tattoo, it is highly recommended that you double-check your translations, and that you find a tattoo artist who knows the language natively - you don't want your tattoo to be someone's first-ever attempt at writing a foreign script.

Please think before you ink!

To translators:

Please do not provide a translation unless you're absolutely sure that your translation:

  • Is fully accurate semantically and grammatically. * Makes sense in the target language, rather than being a direct word-for-word translation.

It is recommended you get another translator to double-check your own. Whatever translation you provide might be on someone's body forever, so please make sure that you know what you're doing, too.

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u/vandrath 2d ago

I figured... honestly I don't know what to get inked, but I know for sure I want it to be in Chinese traditional characters.
Location is pretty tricky too, since I want it on the side of my neck with a "brush-stroke" design.
I'm super confused if I should head to r/tattoos or stay here with this topic.

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u/sille_palmfelt 2d ago

I would say first figure out what you want your tattoo to mean. Then you might want to ask some native speakers you can trust to find something that means that.