Fist Law?

March 8, 2009 11:52 AM

A friend asked for some help translating some Asian characters (phonetic and meaning I suppose). The poor guy thought that I could help him. I cannot, and I hope one of you can.

Link to image

Many thanks in advance.

posted by thirteen to Writing & Language (12 answers total)

Best answer: On the left: 百折不撓. Pronounced "hyakusetsufuto" in Japanese. "indomitable."

Top-right: 手足情. I think this is Chinese, and not found in Japanese. In Mandarin it would be pronounced "shǒu zú qíng" and I'm really tempted to gloss it as "foot-fist way"— that's a bit glib, but probably not too far off, either. The first two characters mean "hands and feet" in Japanese but as a combination also mean "movement" in Chinese; the third character means "sentiment" in either. This was apparently the title of a Chinese-language movie. Hopefully a Chinese speaker (or more knowledgeable Japanese speaker) will weigh in.

Bottom right: 忠誠. Pronounced "chusei" in Japanese. "fidelity."
posted by adamrice at 12:07 PM on March 8, 2009

Response by poster: Fantastic! I am very grateful.
posted by thirteen at 12:09 PM on March 8, 2009

Best answer: 百 bǎi -- hundred
折 zhé (pronounced "djher" with rising tone) -- bend
不 bù -- not
挠 náo -- bother/scratch

"bend 100 times, do not break"

手 shǒu -- hand
足 zú -- foot
情 qíng (pronounced "ching") -- feeling/passion

hand/foot/passion

忠 zhōng (pronounced "djong" in a very high pitch) -- loyalty
诚 chéng (pronounced "chung in rising pitch) -- sincere/honest

loyalty & sincerity
posted by troy at 12:11 PM on March 8, 2009

(shakes fist and foot at adam)
posted by troy at 12:11 PM on March 8, 2009

百折不撓 has been explained.

手足情 should be read in the Chinese, not Japanese, context. adamrice and troy have the literal meaning, but proverbially, 手足 (or hand-feet) means brothers. So "hand-feet-feeling" actually refers to brotherhood.
posted by hellopanda at 12:24 PM on March 8, 2009

^ 謝謝
posted by troy at 12:32 PM on March 8, 2009

adamrice nails it.
posted by KokuRyu at 1:11 PM on March 8, 2009

One should always be wary of martial art schools mix-and-matching languages and arts. Here we plainly see a supposed japanese style, Kenpo Karate, complemented by chinese expressions. This shows the person who designed the logo has no understanding of what they are doing, and if that person turns out to be involved in the school at a high level this may be indicative of an art not being all it's being made out to be.
posted by splice at 4:05 PM on March 8, 2009

hellopanda is right - 手足情 is about fellow-feeling and brotherly spirit, not hands and feet other than metaphorically.
posted by Abiezer at 7:49 PM on March 8, 2009

And looking it up to check that, turns out it's also some sort of wacky team race involving odd physical contortions but I seriously doubt that's what's meant here, unless the aim is to have your opponent collapse in fits of giggles.
posted by Abiezer at 7:58 PM on March 8, 2009

This is the best online dictionary for Chinese characters that I know of. Takes a little while to find your way around but very friendly.
http://www.mdbg.net/chindict/chindict.php
posted by s2sherwin at 8:25 PM on March 8, 2009

For those who can read Mandarin, zdic.net is a good reference for idioms and proverbs.

百折不挠 ; 情同手足.
posted by hellopanda at 9:51 AM on March 9, 2009