Need help for a new tattoo...

[Saal]

Hajimemashite,

I need your help cause I want to do a new tattoo with japanese Kanji but I'm not sure about the translation.

I'd like to write : " the deeper, the darker, the better". I don't know if it's possible to use only one Kanji for each word.

It might be easiest to put only "deeper, darker, better" or even " deep, dark, good" but it won't have the same meaning.

I hope you gonna be able to help me but thank you anyway.

Sayonara !!![/list]

[Belton]

The kanji will probably never have the exact meaning you want. It'd need to be at least 3 phrases with hiragana -- 15 characters or so. To get over the nuance of THE deeper, as distinct from deeper, may well require a whole sentence.
Then there's the issue of deep as in measurement or deep as in profundity. dark as in absence of light or as in absence of goodness...

It's one thing to mistranslate on paper or a T-shirt, another to get it done permanently on your body.

If "the deeper, the darker, the better" is what you want, get it done in English.

http://hanzismatter.blogspot.com/

[Saal]

Hajimemashite,

First of all, arigato for you're answer, I perfectly understand what you mean and that mâles sense.

I'm in Thailand right now and you say that I should do it in english. Obviously I couldn't or even in Thai but I'm really into japanese language and civilisation so that why I want to do it in japanese. But again thank you so much.

I was thinking about write that in my tattoo : 深い暗い良い

Do you think it means " deeper, darker, better".
Deeper about depth, darker about the feeling of deep depth and better as well.

Hope you'll see what I mean and that you'll can help me again.

Best regards.

[zaciroth19876]

You wouldn't really need to use "deep or dark" use 闇 (yami) which implies darkness and a sense of foreboding, some may say evil. Or say 闇が良い　(Yami ga yoi) which would basically be the "deep or dark is good".

[Belton]

I was thinking about write that in my tattoo : 深い暗い良い

Do you think it means " deeper, darker, better".　

Not really. that’s an unconnected list of adjectives.

I'd say
より厚く、より暗く、より良く
if anything.
deeper darker better

which isn't the same as
the deeper (and) the darker (something is) the better (that thing is)

and I'm not at all sure the exact meaning you want for deep and dark. The above could be a motto for a potholing club.

But I wouldn't trust my translation at all. seriously.
And I wouldn't get someone who can't read or write Japanese to etch it into your skin with needles.

If you really want to do this I'd wait until you know enough Japanese that you can be 100% sure of what is written through your own skills rather than trusting in strangers on the Internet.

[Javizy]

I was thinking 深く暗いほど良い. ほど has the meaning of 'the more ~ the ~er'. It can be written using the kanji 程 too.

I agree with what Belton has said though. You can't rely on our translations for something like this, and even if they are accurate, they might not carry the same nuance or 'coolness' you feel that the English does. The original message will exist only in the English translation in your head; everyone else will just see the approximate Japanese.

I'd also have reservations about letting a non-Japanese tattoo Japanese on me. Even if he had a guide showing the correct stroke order, it still takes a lot of practice to make it look good. I've seen plenty of kanji/hanzi tattoos that look like they were written by shougakusei. In fact, I haven't seen one that looked anything close to authentic (I live in the UK).