Sunday, August 15, 2010

from: W.J. H.
to: tiangotlost@gmail.com
date: Sun, Aug 15, 2010 at 11:43 AM
subject: Please Translate Ex-Boyfriend's Tattoo

My ex seems to think that his tattoo means "Hell's Warrior". The fella isn't the brightest crayon in the box and I would honestly be very surprised if he managed to get an accurately translated kanji tattoo in rural Idaho. Care to clarify it's meaning?

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Top two character 地獄 does mean "hell", however by itself alone does not mean "warrior".

4 comments:

  1. In Japanese 地獄 is pronounced "jigoku" and means "hell", but warrior would be 武士 (bushi) or 武人 (bujin), so another character is needed. 地獄の武人 would be closer to "Hell's Warrior". (the の is equivalent to 's)

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  2. In Japanese, 武 itself means "military" and could be interpreted, without any other characters as "military person", but Fugashi is right that it would be sorta weird if it's not 武士 or 武人. A single character for "warrior" would be 侍.

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  3. 地獄武 in Japanese could be sorta close to 'Braving Hell' because the bu can mean 'valor' or 'bravery' as well...

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  4. @Fugashi

    >(the の is equivalent to 's)

    Well... it's also 'of' so 'warrior of hell' would be a bit closer, but the concept is the same.

    I still think jigoku bu could be also be 'Braving Hell' in some kind of weird alternate universe Japanese, since 'bu' is valor or bravery, in a military setting.

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