Thread: Another translation request

This is a fascinating question, and it's great to see the lengths to which you've gone to get an answer. Let me just add, as a reader of Chinese, and some Korean and Japanese, that it doesn't even LOOK Chinese.

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

Yeah, I've got a couple of those. I don't read or write Chinese or Japanese Kanji but I've tattooed enough of it on people to know that the symbols on the blade are of the language known as gibberish.

JimmyHAD, I'm sure you've seen this, but for everyone else out there, here is an entertaining blog about all the stupid things that people end up saying when they make poor choices about using Chinese/Japanese in their tattoos.
hanzismatter.blogspot.com

I was in Thailand a couple of years back and there were some Swedish kids staying at the hostel where we were. One kid had just that day gotten a big tattoo on his back that "said his name." When he asked me to read it I hemmed and hawed. I know he got the message that it was gibberish, even though I couldn't bring myself to tell him directly.

One word: Beware!

Originally Posted by manah

So, another translation question.
Joseph Rodgers, Sheffield.

Alex, I just came across a razor that bears some similarity to the etching in your Joseph Rodgers, but comes with no other identification aside from the word "Chinese" in pretty script on the blade. After looking through a few hundred pages of Chinese characters I'm ready to draw the same conclusion as others here: At one time these characters might have been based on something meaningful but were twisted to the point of obscurity. Sorry for the crap image.