"Knowing is only Half of the Battle"
From reader "Jarrad B.":
"Hey Tian, congratulations on all of the recognition and review of your Kanji/Hanzi translation website. It's an incredibly nice thing to do for some people who may have gotten Kanji tattoos or other semi-permanent markings. I myself am not as sure as I'd like to be that the tattoo that I got means what it should. I got it under the assumption that it meant "mind", or something akin to that. I'm hoping you can help clarify that for me. Thanks."
The characters in the tattoo are correctly done, except the left one is being used in wrong context.
Even though 知 does mean "know, perceive, comprehend", and in Japanese 知力 does translate to "intellectual power", but it only referring to the ablility to understand.
The more appropriate one should be 智力, in this case it would be referring to the complete comprehension.
posted by tian at
1:39 PM
2 Comments:
This is a little like asking one's partner if they have cheated. Great concept for "peace of mind," if the answer is the one you want. However maybe it's better never to know.
In Japanese, 知力 can also be used to mean 'wisdom.' If taken in that context, the usage of the characters is legitimate (if painfully ironic, in this case!).
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