Translation Into Thai Please!

[doran91]

Could someone please translate these two phrases into Thai please

Looking to get one of these phrases in Thai as a tattoo

I have done it through google translate but obviously want something a bit more concrete

We're the Builders of Our Destiny

Don't Look Back In Anger

Thank You

[coolhandjoe]

Try google translater it's free, but worthy of a second opinion.

[bifftastic]

I think with these kind of phrases it will be possible to translate them but the meaning will often not carry over to the Thai language. What you would, in my opinion anyway, be better off looking for, is a phrase that may have a similar poetic resonance.

Sadly i don't know any others who are more expert than I may have some insight for you.

sorry

[doran91]

Thanks for the replies

Ye I've tried translating the two phrases through google translate so I guess I was hoping for a second opinion on this

The Don't Look Back In Anger has translated to 'Do Not Look Back In Anger' which I'd be happy to have however I was just checking if it made sense ie in the right order because I wasn't sure if google translate just did a direct translation or changed the phrase to be in the correct order with regards to Thai

And yeah I understand that they may not be able to be directly translated because after trying google translate, it translates 'We're the Builders of Our Destiny' to 'We're the creators of our destiny' which is the correct sense, however because they are song lyrics I was hoping there was a way of having it stay the same

Here are the two phrases after putting them through google translate

Could you have a look at them and let me know how they read please

ไม่ได้มองย้อนกลับไปในความโกรธ -This is meant to be 'Don't Look Back In Anger' เราผู้สร้างของโชคชะตาของเรา - This is 'We're The Builders of Our Destiny'

[ELCata]

There are many sites with Thai proverbs which might have a similar meaning. There are a couple of candidates here:

http://en.wikiquote....i/Thai_proverbs

กว่าถั่วจะสุกงาก็ไหม

• Transliteration: Kwar thua ja suek, nga kor mai
• Literal: Before the nut is cooked, a sesame is burnt.
• Meaning: Don't let issues hang for too long until they're all burnt.

ความพยายามอยู่ที่ไหน ความสำเร็จอยู่ที่นั่

• Transliteration: Kwam pa-ya-yam yoo tee nhai, kwam sum-red yoo tee nun
• Literal: Where there is a will, there is a way.
• Meaning: Try your best, and there's success.

How long is your arm.

[bifftastic]

well right off the bat for 'don't look back in anger' google has thrown a spanner in the works for you

instead of อย่า (yaa) for 'don't' it's used ไม่ได้ (mai dai) which has a couple of uses, before the verb มอง (mong) 'look' it would mean 'did not look' (mai dai mong)

after it would mean 'can not look' (mong mai dai)

'don't look' would be อย่ามอง (yaa mong)

However, I'm not confident that the whole phrase can be accurately translated, my Thai skills aren't good enough to know if it would work or not.

But I'm fairly sure, if you do get a literal translation, you stand a pretty good chance of it being nonsense in Thai word for word translations, as far as I know, just don't work.

The meaning in the song 'don't look back in anger' has a poetic value in English, like there's no point looking back on your life with regret or anger at the past. It also reminds people of the song and invokes their memory of it.

If you do a literal translation into Thai, the best you'll get is probably something like 'don't look over your shoulder whilst being angry' like when you're walking down the street. It just won't have the underlying meaning in Thai, you'll end up with a tattoo that if a Thai person reads it will say something like 'what are you looking at?' so ...why would you want that?

I don't want to piss on your chips or anything, I know the Thai script looks nice but imagine if you saw a Thai person with 'what are you looking at?' tattooed on them in English, what would you think?

Edit, just saw elcata's post...i think that's a much better idea, an actual Thai proverb or saying that has real meaning in the Thai language

Edited February 22, 2011 by bifftastic

[bmore99]

a site with a lot more Thai proverbs to choose from:

http://www.thai-language.com/id/589868

[keo]

Thanks for the links to the proverbs ELCata and bmore99!