Can you translate this?

[Weronika]

I tried, but I didn't find all of the characters. Please help

[nnt]

Transcription :

財源廣進

生意兴(興)隆通四海

财(財)源茂盛达(達)三江

It's a mix of traditional and simplified characters.

[Weronika]

Thank you! Yes it was freaky for me too.

財 - I didn't know how it can be a simplified character, but now I see it isn't.

What does it mean in english? I see it is about business, 3 river, sea.. ?!

Thanks!

[Xiao Kui]

It's a wish for financial success and prosperity.

My amateur attempt at translation is:

(may) business prosper like the four seas

(and) income (or financial resources) flourish like the three rivers.

It's really common to hang up signs like this in businesses in China. I always notice them in restaurants, sometimes along with shrines to a moneyor prosperity god. A lot of times there's a sign about money "rolling in" but I can't remember it word for word.

[WangLongju]

.

Good start. Let's tweak it a bit:

> > 財　源　廣　進

money - resources - wide - enter

May money and treasures be plentiful, or

May the money roll in, or

May you earn a lot of money

(This was actually mentioned here last year.)

> > 生意　兴隆　通　四海

business - thrive - across (through, via) - four seas

May your business thrive across the four seas

(Note that 通 tong1 does not mean 'like' here, that would have been 如 ru2.)

> > 财源　茂盛　达　三江

money - thrive/flourish - reach/extend - three rivers

May your riches flourish and extend to the three rivers.

(Note that 达 da2 does not mean 'like' here, that also would have been 如 ru2.)

From here we get:

Far and wide trade booms,

here and there money comes

and

Home and abroad business thrives,

hither and thither profit arrives

From here we get:

business booms far and near,

profit nets there and here

Finally, from here we get the not so elegant and less than literal

Business is thriving

reaching out to the five continents of the world

Revenues are accruing

flowing in from the four corners of the earth.

.

[Weronika]

Wow thank you so much! I have two more "roll" like this. I'll photo them and see how you can translate that. It' super

:*

[andychao]

Xiao kui, you are so funny... :mrgreen:

four seas.......three rivers...hahahhaha

Actually, in Chinese, 'three rivers' and 'four seas' is not the mean of how many rivers and seas, it's a collateral saying of 'the whole world' or 'all over the world' etc.

In Chinese, there are many sayings like this,

when we are writing something like couplets, we normally try to made theos sentences rhyming and having the same meter and often forming a complete thought or syntactic unit

, we called it as 'rhyme' and 'symmetry' , then we try to express our means in some different ways, just like we use 3 rivers and 4 seas to tell that it is as big as the whole world.

[Weronika]

andychao: now chinese is more more difficult after you said that :cry:

How a foreign people can know these things?

[andychao]

ZOZO:

That's exactly the mystery and interests of the Chinese, and that's reason why lots of foreigners were infatuated with Chinese.

However, to explore it is a long process that you are not noly supposed to keep learning Chinese but also need to stay in China many years for a good atmosphere.

anyway, a language is use to communicate, but not explore, like those GRE words, some of them we never use even all our lifetime. so I suggest that u could ignore them and focus on those basic things.In this case, hopefully a few year later, you will find it is no longer as complicated as it use to be.

[Weronika]

dear andychao, thanks, yes I know that these things won't be problem after few years, but now there are just problems

ok no, there are beautiful things too

I hope I can go to China in my life