Short translation

September 14, 2008 5:15 PM

Can someone translate the Asian (I presume) symbol and text on this baseball hat? Pic1 Pic2
posted by exogenous to Society & Culture (5 answers total)

Best answer: Dragon . . .
posted by troy at 5:20 PM on September 14, 2008

Best answer: yeah.. in the second picture just tilt your head to the right and read it in english.
posted by meowN at 5:27 PM on September 14, 2008

Best answer: Pic one is (in Japanese, at least—I don't know if the reading of the character differs in Chinese) "ryu—", dragon.

Pic two is stylized english "dragon", twisted about 120 degrees clockwise.
posted by cortex at 5:27 PM on September 14, 2008

Best answer: The Chinese reading of that character is "lóng" (rising tone on the 'o'). Bonus question: what's the usage of 龍 vs. 竜 in Japanese?
posted by mr_roboto at 5:40 PM on September 14, 2008

竜 is on the Joyo Kanji list, as the replacement form for 龍, which is not on the list. 龍 is still on the list for names, though, and most people know it, so except in documents that stick very closely to the Joyo Kanji list, you'll find both used with abandon.

If you go looking on the net you will also find plenty of arguments about whether 竜 and 龍 refer to different kinds of imaginary worm-beasts (竜 is actually attested to in older documents than 龍), but probably the distinction that is most commonly seen nowadays is "竜 for European-style dragons and/or dinosaurs, 龍 for Chinese-style dragons". Of course even this is not "official" and YMMV depending on what you read.
posted by No-sword at 6:19 PM on September 14, 2008 [2 favorites]