# 不晒白不晒，不卖白不卖



## BaiYingying

Hi everyone!
I'm having some difficulties with the translation of the following sentence:
盐是国家管制的物品，非经允许不能贩卖，但海水就在那里放着，不晒白不晒，不卖白不卖.
Actually, the first part seems pretty clear to me but I don't understand the meaning of the last 10 characters which, I think, are an idiomatic expression.
Can someone help me, pretty please?
Thank you!


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## xiaolijie

Hi BaiYingying! & welcome to the forum! ( It's nice to see quite a few users from Italy these days )

I'm not sure I'm correct, but the key for undestanding the last 10 characters lies in the the charater 白 (= wasteful). So, because the salt water is already there, it's very tempting to make salt out of it and sell, rather than letting the chance to make money go to waste.


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## mrdrx

agreed！
same phrase like 不吃白不吃 不喝白不喝 不拿白不拿。。。you name it。

if someone offer you some food for free，why not choose to accept it rather than let the chance go to waste？^^


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## Funky_Trance

Agreed with the above.Such sentence structure can be roughly translated as "if doing this won't cost you anything, why not?"


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## Coldie

I remember learning about this usage of the 白 character!

The way it was explained to us is "...for nothing"

So for instance, for "不卖白不卖" in your example, I'd translate as "if you don't sell it, you've avoided selling it for nothing!"

In general,
不X白不X = don't X and you've not X'ed for nothing


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## lixiaohejssz

"不X白不X = don't X and you've not X'ed for nothing" I don't think that is the exact meaning. 
"不X白不X"=Just X it, or you won't have a chance to X it any more.


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## Coldie

Hmm, I'll have to dig out my old Chinese grammar textbooks next time I have a chance, but that's how I remember the teacher explaining it.


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## SuperXW

There's a gag in Chinese reads: 不x白不x，x了也白x，白x谁不x...
For example: 不吃白不吃，吃了也白吃，白吃谁不吃。
If there's some free food, you could say this, the meaning is like: (If) not eating, (What a) waste not eating (is); (even) you eat it, you need (to pay) nothing for eat (it's a treat); (since you need to pay) nothing for eat, who would not eat it?


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## xiaolijie

Thank you SuperXW! You've given a very informative example of 白 .

But just to add variety, here is my interpretation of 不吃白不吃，吃了也白吃，白吃谁不吃:

_If I don't eat it, it's a wasted chance but if I eat it, it isn't worth the trouble. But since it's free, who doesn't want to eat it?_


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## BaiYingying

Thank you very much guys! You've all been superkind, thanks!


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## SuperXW

xiaolijie said:


> Thank you SuperXW! You've given a very informative example of 白 .
> 
> But just to add variety, here is my interpretation of 不吃白不吃，吃了也白吃，白吃谁不吃:
> 
> _If I don't eat it, it's a wasted chance but if I eat it, it isn't worth the trouble. But since it's free, who doesn't want to eat it?_


Hm, just like what you've suggested, the middle sentence seems to have a double meaning: "it isn't worth the trouble/it's free to eat", then it goes to the conclusive sentence.


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## kategogogo

Coldie said:


> Hmm, I'll have to dig out my old Chinese grammar textbooks next time I have a chance, but that's how I remember the teacher explaining it.





> In general,
> 不X白不X = don't X and you've not X'ed for nothing



Hi Coldie, '...for nothing' is another use of 白. There're different ways to translate the character.
我为什么要白帮你啊？Why should I help you for free/for nothing, i.e. I won't help me unless I can something in return
白吃白喝，白用，白拿 sponge off sb, scrounge


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## coolfool

不吃白不吃，吃了也白吃，白吃谁不吃？

Could be, in a way of course, rendered into

Who wouldn’t enjoy a free meal? Just feed oneself before it goes down the drain. But whatever having under one’s belt ends up in vain.

For the similar ones, like 不拿白不拿，拿了也白拿，白拿谁不拿？, and so on and so forth. We may consider the pattern in English as in

Who wouldn’t love sponging (off/on doing) (something) (from somebody)? Just do (it) before forfeit. But whatever one has done winds up going nowhere.

The corresponding Chinese one, i.e.

不做白不做，做了也白做，白做谁不做？

it seems to me, doesn’t make any senses, does it? Perhaps the following revised one does:

做了也白做，白做谁会做？白不做不做。

Who would ever like doing a thankless/no-return/no-reward job? Whatever you’ve done finishes off drawing a blank, one may as well sit relaxed.

In addition to _sponge_, _mooch_ will do, too. And _bum_ will, after a fashion. However, _scrounge_ isn’t qualified, in my book, as it implies stealth, for instance.


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