# Translation of a tibetan saying?



## ryanorsm

Hey,

I would love to know the translation of the following tibetan saying! Can anyone help?

This is the text:




Thanks!


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## asanga

It says "will breathe". In modern colloquial Tibetan the verb "to breath" is usually _dbugs btang_ (pronounced _uk tang)_ "to send breath", but you also sometimes hear _dbugs rgyag _(uk gyak) "to put/throw breath". _brgyab _(the 2nd word in your picture) is the future tense of _rgyag _"to throw". Where is it from, what's the context?


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## ryanorsm

Thanks so much for your reply! I found it while looking for a tattoo design. I really like the concept of "breathe" and how it has everything to do with life, excersize, martial arts, stress etc etc. It becomes the concept for so many things, that I find important.

I found two tattoos online while searching for "breathe tibetan tattoo" if you click on google images, you'll see pictures of their wrists. Sorry I would paste the links but I cant as a new member. :/


Thanks again!


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## L'irlandais

Hi Ryanorsm,
Why something in Tibetan, rather than Afrikaans or English?


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## asanga

If you're trying to say the infinitive of the verb "to breathe", it should be དབུགས་གཏོང་བ་

If you're trying to say "the breath", it's just དབུགས་

I'm not into tattoos, but from a purely aesthetic POV I think Umé script works better for tattoos than Uchen (the 2 main varieties of Tibetan script), and an Umé phrase or sentence looks better than just one or two words. Some examples of Tsugring calligraphy (IMO the most beautiful style of Umé):

http://images.tribe.net/tribe/upload/photo/45c/8f3/45c8f36c-2190-4496-9fb6-616fe1070f17 

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-s4QHBX2wN...I/WlKfiGtCn-g/s1600/3-Tsugring-example-72.jpg


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## ryanorsm

L'irlandais said:


> Hi Ryanorsm,
> Why something in Tibetan, rather than Afrikaans or English?



The main reason was the aesthetic's of the tibetan script that really interests me.  I was also trying not to be too cliche about it too..


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## ryanorsm

asanga said:


> If you're trying to say the infinitive of the verb "to breathe", it should be དབུགས་གཏོང་བ་
> 
> If you're trying to say "the breath", it's just དབུགས་
> 
> I'm not into tattoos, but from a purely aesthetic POV I think Umé script works better for tattoos than Uchen (the 2 main varieties of Tibetan script), and an Umé phrase or sentence looks better than just one or two words. Some examples of Tsugring calligraphy (IMO the most beautiful style of Umé):
> 
> http://images.tribe.net/tribe/upload/photo/45c/8f3/45c8f36c-2190-4496-9fb6-616fe1070f17
> 
> http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-s4QHBX2wN...I/WlKfiGtCn-g/s1600/3-Tsugring-example-72.jpg



Awesome thank you! I've thought about it and "will breathe" seems to make more sense. To me it means "no matter what i will make it through this, I will just take a couple breaths and continue.." Does that make sense? I currently don't have any tattoos, but I would love to get one, and this just seems like the perfect introduction piece.. Im pretty sold on the Uchen style script tho, its perfect for very small tattoos, like the one I want 

That being said I find the Umé amazing too! Do you have any idioms that you think are in the same context as what I want, in Umé?


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## asanga

OK, I get what you're trying to say now, and dbugs brgyab doesn't really convey it. I'd suggest:



"Whatever happens, _ will keep breathing."

I can't think of any Tibetan sayings involving dbugs "breath", but made up two lines in Tibetan-prayer-style verse:




1) "Breathing in and out, may one remain at ease."
2) Literally says "When one can't exhale, may one exhale."  The idiom dbugs ma phyung "unable to exhale" means "to suffer" and dbugs dbyung "to exhale" means "to find relief, comfort," so it means "When one suffers, may one find relief."

Tibetan sentences don't require a clearly expressed agent, so I've translated them impersonally ("may one remain"), but it could also be translated in the 1st or 2nd person (may I remain, may you remain).

The same sentences in Umé script, tsugring style:



Umé is designed for handwritten calligraphy and this is a computer font, so it's not perfect (some of the strokes aren't connected, others are touching when they shouldn't be, the spacing is a little off, etc.). But I think a tattooist with a good eye for graphic design should be able to touch it up based on the examples I gave earlier, even if they don't know any Tibetan._


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