# A book is like a garden carried in your pocket



## ellindea

大家好！
First of all, does anyone know if this is an actual Chinese proverb? Do you guys know of other proverbs about books or reading? I want to put it on a bookmark for a friend.
This is what I can come up with for a translation for "A book is like a garden carried in your pocket": 
书好像园 (???) 在兜里。 ?
We haven't learned yet how to use verb-based adjectives, so I have no idea how to say "carried." Is 好像 right here for "like"? What about 里?
Thank you in advance!


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## englishelp

I tried to google the Chinese translation of this proverb but did not find any. So here is my not so poetic translation:

"书就好像放在口袋里可以带走的花园"

Literally: A book is like a garden which you can put in your pocket and carry with you.

A bit wordy. But I cannot think of a better phrasing.


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## ellindea

Hmmm, what about something like:
书好像带走的花园在口袋里 ?? Is that even gramatically correct?
Thanks.


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## englishelp

In English, if you have a heavy (meaning long) modifier for a noun ( "carried in the pocket", for example), you can post-pone that modifier to the position after the noun, hence "a garden carried in your pocket".

Chinese does not permit a postponed modifier for a noun. All modifying elements must come before the noun.

Therefore the alternative suggested below sounds awkward to me. 

Maybe someone else here might be able to provide a grammatical and also "beautiful" translation.


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## samanthalee

Results from Google show that many English websites claimed this is a Chinese proverb. While all Chinese websites says it's an English proverb (One even specified that this is an American proverb.)

Taking the sense of the _English_ proverb, I'll probably translate it as 书本是个可藏在口袋里的花园 (Books are gardens that can be kept in pockets).


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## ellindea

So I finally founnd a Chinese site that gives the proverb, and it does list it with other Chinese proverbs.  Here is what they have:
书是随身携带的花园
So I guess it literally translates to "portable and carried garden," right?  I'm thinking if it began as a Chinese proverb, it ended up translated as "carried in the pocket" because that sounds quite a bit more poetic.  Can you guys think of a translation that is more accurate but also poetic?
I also found there the Chinese for the proverb “A book holds a house of gold”: 书中自有黄金屋，书中自有颜如玉 
How would you translate the second part?  “A book holds the color of jade”? 
The website I got these from is:   http://humor.linkstom.cn/humor/new.asp?newID=4636
 The garden one is #31, and the house of gold one is #2.
很谢谢您两位的帮助。


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## englishelp

Ha, I actually wanted to post the "书中自有黄金屋，书中自有颜如玉" one in this thread. But this proverb now carries negative connotations. So I was not sure if it is suitable for a bookmark.

The second part means: "In books there are faces like jades (jades are pale and smooth)". It really just means "In books there are beautiful women".

What this whole proverb means is that: You need to study because, if you excel (in the Imperial Exams in ancient China), all kinds of good worldly things will happen. You will have money (house of gold) and women (faces like jade).

This sounds very utilitarian and really debases the purpose of reading books, which is why nowadays it carries a negative connotation. It nowadays can only be used in flippant situations.


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## about:blank

ellindea said:


> A book is like a garden carried in your pocket
> 书是随身携带的花园



Weird...Lots of Chinese people (at least of my acquaintances) never heard of this Chinese proverb while people who know about it are often from other countries..As far as I know...


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## kbbyrant

we can understang in this way~~~书中自有黄金屋，书中自有颜如玉

"颜如玉“ means a beautiful Chinese girl....that's to say,if you are knowledgable enough, you can find a beautiful girl as your girlfriend~~


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## xiaolijie

kbbyrant said:


> "颜如玉“ means a beautiful Chinese girl....that's to say,if you are knowledgable enough, you can find a beautiful girl as your girlfriend~~


I don't think so. I know many book lovers who are poor and who don't even have a girl friend. 

Seriously, I think 书中自有黄金屋，书中自有颜如玉 basically means reading makes you feel rich (=enriched) and beautiful (=refined). I remember a Chinese a story about someone who loved reading: if he didn't read for 3 days, he didn't dare look at himeself in the mirror, as he felt ugly.


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## kbbyrant

Hmm,well,in ancient times ,in China,people use this proverb to encourage themselves to study hard. Only by this way could they change their destiny.
They will be rich ,meanwhile ,they will get hot girls~~~


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## Queen Z

Free translation：书是可以随身携带的秘密花园。


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## SuperXW

englishelp said:


> Ha, I actually wanted to post the "书中自有黄金屋，书中自有颜如玉" one in this thread. But this proverb now carries negative connotations. So I was not sure if it is suitable for a bookmark.
> This sounds very utilitarian and really debases the purpose of reading books, which is why nowadays it carries a negative connotation. It nowadays can only be used in flippant situations.


I agree.
I recall there seems a third metaphor in this, as 书中自由千钟粟，书中自有黄金屋，书中自有颜如玉……
千钟粟 means thousand baskets of grains...
I'm not sure about its origin and correctness though.


xiaolijie said:


> Seriously, I think 书中自有黄金屋，书中自有颜如玉 basically means reading makes you feel rich (=enriched) and beautiful (=refined). I remember a Chinese a story about someone who loved reading: if he didn't read for 3 days, he didn't dare look at himeself in the mirror, as he felt ugly.


I'm not sure about the proverb's origin and correctness. Maybe you are right. But as time goes by, most Chinese just consider 颜如玉 as "beautiful girls".  There are other ancient sayings chaged their meanings through time, such as 君子好逑, 逃之夭夭 etc.


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## vwillendorf

I am taking a history class which uses the book, "The Essential World History" by William J. Duiker and Jackson J. Spielvogel. Here is a sentence from that book (3rd Edition, page188):"Renowned for its many proverbs, Africa also offers the following:'A good story is like a garden carried in the pocket.'"I think the Africans had no written scripts at that time, so a bookmark won't do the trick.  You'd have to sing it.  Or write it in Arabic which is what the Africans used as a script if they needed one.وهناك قصة جيدة مثل حديقة في الجيبYou can try the Google translator (above translation), but it is always better to ask someone who speaks the language for a translation.But then again, maybe I should write to Duiker and Spielvogel and ask them about their referneces....


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## Serafín33

The Arabic translation by Google you just posted isn't right... It basically says "there's a good story that is like a garden in the pocket", though I admit I've also seen this proverb referred to as Arabic apart from Chinese. Maybe we'll be more lucky at the Arabic forum.

EDIT: Nevermind, after finding a page that called it a Chinese proverb in Arabic, I guess I'd rather take this to the etymology forum.


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## Glauner

书是随身携带的花园

随身: Not a verb: "(to carry) on one's person", "(to take) with one". The verbs are only added here to explain the usage of the expressions.
随身, "with one", works with the only verb of the sentence, 携带 ("carry", "take"), meaning "to carry with one".
Therefore, the proverb says literally: "A book is a garden you can carry with you."
It's not necessary, albeit acceptable, to add "like" - "A book is like a garden you can carry with you", because the sentence is obviously metaphorical.
"In the pocket", instead of "with you", is semantically acceptable.


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## NewAmerica

ellindea said:


> This is what I can come up with for a translation for "A book is like a garden carried in your pocket":
> 书好像园 (???) 在兜里。 ?



  书如兜里的花园。


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## stephenlearner

书如出入相随的乐园。


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## 枫十二

At first glance, I went with "书是随身携带的花园", then I noticed that "in the pocket" thing. what is "in the pocket"? Whether to show off the “garden” or to hide it, the owner has every control. For the other people, it is not easy, at least it needs some knowledge, to see the real beauty of the garden. so I'll use "藏" to keep the meaning of “in the pocket”.

书是藏在兜里的花园。

书是随身携带的花园 doesn't emphasize the meaning of "in the pocket", so I think it slightly changes the original meaning of the proverb, but it is beautiful in another sense. If I had seen it elsewhere, I would have considered it as a beautiful Chinese proverb I've never heard of.


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## Skatinginbc

ellindea said:


> does anyone know if this is an actual Chinese proverb?


沒聽過.  不過我可以偽造一個：
某曰：「*書如園圃懸肘後* (劍若棘林掛胸前)」
古代「肘後」指 放在袖內口袋，隨身攜帶，以便隨時取出觀閱 (如醫書，藥方，信札等等).

Garden (比喻書) 不僅可用來休憩遊覽 (消遣)，更可用來觀察學習 (譬如觀察生態, 學習別人的種植經驗)、陶冶性靈 (譬如種植養性), 等等.  所以我用「圃」這個字來強化 grow (種植) 的概念.  另外，書是作者苦心耕耘，讓讀者摘採其成果.  我認為「圃」較能與「收成」的概念聯結，「花園」則偏重觀賞的意味.  當然，我沒屏棄書的消遣欣賞價值，故使用「園圃」一詞，來暗示書的藝術與實用價值之並存.


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