Need a translator for one sentence please

[lexi]

Can please somebody translate the following sentence for me into chinese:

who does not understand my silence does not understand my words

Its for a tattoo and I already asked a lot of people, i hope you can help me out.

Thank you

[Kenny同志]

It is way too long for a tattoo.

In modern Chinese, it would be something like 不懂我沉默的人，也不懂我言语。

[gato]

Maybe 不懂沉默不懂刺青。

[roddy]

You know what would be really deep and and meaningful? Leaving a few square inches of skin blank, to represent your silence. Just get a thin black line around it to draw attention.

[Kenny同志]

Good work, Gato. How about “不懂我沉默者，不懂我言语”？Does "words" here denote the tattoo?

[SiMaKe]

I like roddy's suggestion the best as most aptly (and cleverly/subtlely) conveying the message.

But if the OP really has to have "this" tattoo, then do either of these (more in the fashion of a 成语) work?

懂我懂沉默 (as a contra-positive, this is logically equivalent to the initial statement, but I don't think it is as "poetic"(?))

or

懂沉默懂我 (while not logically equivalent, maybe more poetic?)

[lexi]

thank you for your answers, it really helped me a lot and i am certain that i want this tattoo

special thanks to roddy, i really like his idea

many thanks

[Jane_PA]

支持kenny2006

[skylee]

懂我懂沉默 (as a contra-positive, this is logically equivalent to the initial statement, but I don't think it is as "poetic"(?))

or

懂沉默懂我 (while not logically equivalent, maybe more poetic?)

I wonder if people would be able to understand their original meanings as in the OP when they see such tattoos.

[SiMaKe]

@kennywoo2006

Does "words" here denote the tattoo?

I don't believe so, but no one really knows what the OP had in mind.

FWIW, this quote, in a slightly different form, is, at least in one place, attributed to Elbert Hubbard, a 19th century editor, publisher and writer.

"He who does not understand your silence will probably not understand your words."

I suspect Elbert wasn't talking about tattoos. :rolleyes:

[Edit]

@sklyee

I wonder if people would be able to understand their original meanings as in the OP when they see such tattoos.

Probably not since it's been "simplified" so much. But I'm not even sure I completely understand Elbert's quote.

Can we "apply" to have the short version registered as an official 成語 so then people can look it up? ;)

[Kenny同志]

@kennywoo2006

Quote

Does "words" here denote the tattoo?

I don't believe so, but no one really knows what the OP had in mind.

Me neither.