# У меня есть вопрос о тату...



## LaCxefo

Hello,

   I am planning on getting another tattoo in the near future. I would like it to be in Russian, and I wanted to ask you all to check my translation first. Also, I would like to know if the sentence has the same meaning in Russian as it does in English. The sentence I am would like is:

It is not important how many years you have lived. Only how much you have lived in those years. 

The best I can come up with is:

Это не важно сколько лет вы жили. Только сколько вы жили в те леты. 

If there is a better way of saying this, any advice would be appreciated. Again, I am not sure if the Russian translation conveys the same meaning, so please let me know your opinions on the best way of saying it.


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## gvozd

Oh my God... Who is supposed to see your tattoo? English or Russian speakers? If Russian speakers, you'll be laughed at, no doubt. Sorry Our culture doesn't imply covering body with philosophical scriptures and verses, as far as I know.


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## LaCxefo

Sorry, that's why I wanted to ask you all before I did anything. I've seen Russians with tattoos, so I didn't think your culture was so much different than ours in that aspect. I guess I'll have to come up with another idea... thanks for the heads up.


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## Maroseika

gvozd said:


> Oh my God... Who is supposed to see your tattoo? English or Russian speakers? If Russian speakers, you'll be laughed at, no doubt. Sorry Our culture doesn't imply covering body with philosophical scriptures and verses, as far as I know.



Вы даже не представляете, сколько приходит просьб на профильные форумы написать то или иное философическое высказывание "на латыне".


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## Maroseika

LaCxefo said:


> Sorry, that's why I wanted to ask you all before I did anything. I've seen Russians with tattoos, so I didn't think your culture was so much different than ours in that aspect. I guess I'll have to come up with another idea... thanks for the heads up.



Your Russian text is completely wrong, but I don't think this forum is a proper place for editing the product of the machine translation.
We are trying to help here the people who really learn Russian and come here with their own Russian phrases.


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## gvozd

Maroseika said:


> Вы даже не представляете, сколько приходит просьб на профильные форумы написать то или иное философическое высказывание "на латыне".



Так весь прикол в том, что эти татуировки обязательно должны быть на непонятном соотечественникам языке, разве не так? Я ни разу не видел и не слышал о татухе на русском, являющей собой бездну смысла.


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## Maroseika

Поэтому там тату на русском, а тут - латынь и, возможно, нахуатль.


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## SamSim-18

> Так весь прикол в том, что эти татуировки обязательно должны быть на непонятном соотечественникам языке


На арабском и санскрите было модно. 


> Вы даже не представляете, сколько приходит просьб на профильные форумы написать то или иное философическое высказывание "на латыне".


Вы латынь знаете?


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## gvozd

LaCxefo said:


> Sorry, that's why I wanted to ask you all before I did anything. I've seen Russians with tattoos, so I didn't think your culture was so much different than ours in that aspect. I guess I'll have to come up with another idea... thanks for the heads up.



An addition: I forgot to mention one thing. Russians CAN make philosophical tattoes, but they are written in foreign languages. Mostly in Latin, I presume, but I'm not sure. Long inscriptions in our native language are not popular, for some reason, and seem silly. That are just my observations.


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## SamSim-18

gvozd said:


> An addition: I forgot to mention one thing. Russians CAN make philosophical tattoes, but they are written in foreign languages. Mostly in Latin, I presume, but I'm not sure. Long inscriptions in our native language are not popular, for some reason, and seem silly. That are just my observations.


Так, и что вы предлагаете?


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## LaCxefo

Maroseika said:


> Your Russian text is completely wrong, but I don't think this forum is a proper place for editing the product of the machine translation.
> We are trying to help here the people who really learn Russian and come here with their own Russian phrases.



I have been studying Russian for one year in college. I am sorry my Russian is not very good yet. I speak two other languages in addition to english, and as it turns out, Russian is EXTREMELY hard for native english and Spanish speakers to learn. I am sorry I sometimes have to use a translator for the words I do not know. And I do understand most of what is being said, but it is much easier for me to type in english.  



gvozd said:


> Так весь прикол в том, что эти татуировки обязательно должны быть на непонятном соотечественникам языке, разве не так? Я ни разу не видел и не слышал о татухе на русском, являющей собой бездну смысла.



No, the joke is not that it must be in an unknown language... In our culture, it is better to have a tattoo that says something meaningful than to have a random picture of something. I chose Russian because I am learning it, I think Cyrillic is beautiful, and was unaware that your culture looks down on them. Here, many Hispanic people get tattoos in Spanish, English speakers get tattoos in english, and so on. I wanted to get something that reflected both my interest in foreign language and be a meaningful saying. I didn't come to this forum to be mocked, and for you all to speak russian assuming I do not understand. Clearly, other than telling me not to get a tattoo, this is no help.


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## Maroseika

LaCxefo said:


> I am sorry I sometimes have to use a translator for the words I do not know.


So we are forced to accept the fact that your translation only occasionally coincided with the Google translator verbatim, except for 2 lame changes.

Anyway, please refer to the rules of this forum:

Strict limits on translation and homework help. No proofreading.
These forums respond to specific questions about text. They do not provide free translations. They do not provide proofreading and rewriting of texts.


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## LaCxefo

Well this is quite the useless forum. Do you happen to know of a forum which is actually treated as forum, where I can ask questions and get answers? 

And for the record, I admitted to using the translator. I have ONE year of Russian. In the US, our government puts our linguists through 1.5 years of intensive 8 hour a day 5 day a week courses taught by native speakers simply to obtain a low-moderate fluency. I have only taken 3 classes. I did however date a girl who grew up in Moscow, and I do understand a good bit. My Grammar still needs much work, and my vocabulary is relativley limited. So I came up with how I would have said it, and changed it based on the translator. I still don't know what was so wrong about how I said it, but apparently I have to go to a forum where people arent so pretentious and caught up on rules. The way you all act here makes me seriously reconsider persuing Russian anymore at all.


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## gvozd

LaCxefo said:


> I didn't come to this forum to be mocked, and for you all to speak russian assuming I do not understand.



Nobody laughs at you, you've made this up. To get a tattoo is a very serious matter, and we must warn you about further consequences. Nobody is pretentious, we all wish you good luck


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## rusita preciosa

This is an excellent forum, LaCxefo. People are usually very helpful, but something happens when someone mention the word "tattoo", it prompts everyone give unvanted lifestyle advice for some reason (I'm not an exception). Consider it a cultural difference. Also, sometimes "deep" thoughts that sound good in English sound stupid in Russian. Consider it a semantics difference.

Anyway. If you don't want to be a good girl and get a tatoo in Chinese characters like everyone else, here is an option for you. It is not a literal translation but it is less wordy and sounds somewhat less daft.
*Hе важно, сколько лет ты жил. Важно, как ты прожил эти годы. 
*Literally it means "It doesn't matter how many years you (informal) lived, it matters how you lived these years".

EDIT: to add some value (just in case you are at least somewhat interested in the language):
The expression "how much you lived" (which is the basis of the "pun" you had in mind: how many years / how much), does not exist in Russian, that's why you would have to rephrase and as a result you lose the clever wording.

Also, if you remember Russian grammar, Russian does not hace the present perfect tense (you have done), so you would have to use the past tense; or you would add some wording (e.g. 'so far", "to date" etc...), but it would make the sentense even more awkward.


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## gvozd

rusita preciosa said:


> *Hе важно, сколько лет ты жил. Важно, как ты прожил эти годы.
> *



And now I'm dealing with the bane of my existence - I can never say for sure whether it should be *неважно* or *не важно*.


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## Maroseika

LaCxefo said:


> Well this is quite the useless forum.


It's far not as useless as may seem, especially if you know how to cook it...
A humble advice: come here with your own variant, and you meet here as much assistance as many other learners do. Unfortunately your only aim so far was to get the translation, which is against the rules, because this is educational resource, and not referential or anything like that.
By the way, Russian sector of WR is one of the most liberal; if you apply with anything like that to the English Only your thread would be deleted immediately by the moderators.


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## Maroseika

gvozd said:


> And now I'm dealing with the bane of my existence - I can never say for sure whether it should be *неважно* or *не важно*.


Тут у нас разгул волюнтаризма: "при утверждении они пишутся слитно, при отрицании – раздельно (критерий того и другого смысла обычно устанавливается самим пишущим)" (пар. 71, п. 5).


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## gvozd

Maroseika said:


> if you apply with anything like that to the English Only your thread would be deleted immediately by the moderators.



...in just seconds.


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## cheburashka Gena

gvozd said:


> ...in just seconds.


 а кто здесь модерирует? Тоже потерли ветки за считанные секунды около часа назад. Не первый раз уже замечаю.


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