# To love and be loved



## dawnclover

Hi, i'm new here and I wanted to ask you if any of you could translate the phrase: "To love and be loved" to Japanese (both romaji and kanji so I know how to read it and to write it), please.

This is for a tattoo i'm designing. It's about the goals of life and one of the goals is "To love and be loved", if someone could translate this to me I'd be very thankful!

Thanks in advance!


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## AnubisMarco

Welcome, Dawnclover ^^.

Well, This is my attempt (Possibly is wrong, but I tried it):


愛するし、愛されるために
Aisurushi, Aisareru tameni.

Or

愛して愛されるために
Aishite aisareru tame ni...


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## Locoidiomas

誰にも愛しながら愛されるように

I can't think of a better solution. But then I might have completely failed.


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## dawnclover

Thanks AnubisMarco and Locoidiomas.

Could you write that in romaji please Locoidiomas?

I'll wait for the opinion of someone who's native language is Japanese just to be sure though (since it's for something permanent).

Thanks a lot for your help!


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## Locoidiomas

darenimo ai shinagara ai sareru you ni


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## dawnclover

thanks! i'm just bumping this so someone whose native language is japanese can confirm this to me, because it's for a tattoo and i don't wanna take any chances! I need this as soon as possible, thanks for helping me so far AnubisMarco and Locoidiomas!


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## Aoyama

But if we are talking about a _tattoo_, grammar should be simplified here.
AnubisMarco version is quite faithful, with _tameni _, literally : to love in order to be loved, but maybe too much.
As for Locoidiomas proposal, it is interesting (something like "to be loved while loving everybody") but too long, I dare say.
I'd put :*愛と恋愛の為　**ai to ren ai no tame *, something like : for love and passion (passion being received). I guess that graphically the balance is not bad.


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## kaori

Poetically I'd say:
愛し愛されるために
aishi aisareru tameni

It sounds like a part of love song!

But as Aoyama says I'm wondering if it is good for tatoo.
Maybe you want to know more Kanji for your design.
Hiragana doesn't look cool for us as tatoo, I think.


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## Aoyama

> Hiragana doesn't look cool [for us] on a tatoo


Absolutely.
And using _only_ kanjis will make it perfectly understandable by _Chinese speakers_ also, a considerable increase in the amount of audience ...
But then the problem remains that the whole thing will revolve around just ONE kanji,　愛 ...


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## gsantise

So what did you settle on for the tattoo Dawnclover?


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## Steve Hamilton

Hi Dawnclover,


 If you haven't already decided, you might try taking your question to the Chinese board. As other respondents here have suggested, you'd get a much smarter-looking tattoo design with just a few kanji, rather than a long mixed jumble of kanji and hiragana. Just off the top of my head, your phrase would translate literally as

  愛人被人愛
  ai ren bei ren ai

  or, more fully, as

  愛人和被人愛 (or 愛人與被人愛)
  ai ren he bei ren ai  (ai ren yu bei ren  ai)

The difference between the two versions is just that the second includes the word "and" ("he" or "yu"). But I think the first would give you a much more interesting design, seeing as it is symmetrical either way you read it (a palindrome!):

  愛人被人愛
  love person by person love(d)

If you copy and paste that phrase into Google, you'll see that there are lots of Chinese web pages that include it, or close variations on it.

  Don't forget to post a picture of your tat when  you're done . . . as long as it's somewhere you can show!

  Steve H.

p.s. Note that the examples above use traditional characters. If you want to use the simplified characters (as used in the PRC) the phrase would be 爱人被人爱. Only the character for "love" is different.

p.p.s. Editing back: Thinking about it again, I just realized you could make it even simpler, by cutting out the two "ren's" . . .

  愛被愛
ai bei ai

Love, be loved.


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## Aoyama

I entirely agree with what is above.
One comment : better use 愛 than 爱 .
Another try : 相思相愛 (soushi souai) = reciprocal love, be in love and be loved. A bit different from the original post but close and ...edible.


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## lammn

Steve Hamilton said:


> If you haven't already decided, you might try taking your question to the Chinese board.


 
Hi Steve,
That's a good suggestion. But there are also Chinese people in this Japanese Forum as well. 



Steve Hamilton said:


> 愛人被人愛
> 愛人和被人愛 (or 愛人與被人愛)
> 愛被愛


 
I think the most natural construction in Chinese would be 愛與被愛.
愛人被人愛 and 愛人和被人愛 is sort of clumsy to me.
愛被愛 would mean "(I) love/want to be loved", and so differ from the meaning of "to love and to be loved". Also, this is not a natural construction.



Aoyama said:


> Another try : 相思相愛 (soushi souai) = reciprocal love, be in love and be loved. A bit different from the original post but close and ...edible.


 
Aoyama, I think your suggestion of the Japanese phrase 相思相愛 is wonderful. It also has the advantage that both Japanese and Chinese will understand what it means.


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## Aoyama

> Aoyama, I think your suggestion of the Japanese phrase 相思相愛 is wonderful. It also has the advantage that both Japanese and Chinese will understand what it means.


Thank you for the compliment, that was the basic idea.
As for 愛與被愛, which would rather belong to the Chinese Forum and which is grammatically perfect, I dare think it is "too" grammatical to become a tatoo ...
My only regret about 相思相愛 is that it includes two similar kanjis/hanzis (相). It would be better to imagine something with FOUR different caracters ...


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## lammn

Aoyama said:


> As for 愛與被愛, which would rather belong to the Chinese Forum and which is grammatically perfect, I dare think it is "too" grammatical to become a tatoo ...


 
I'm not sure if 愛與被愛 is "too grammatical".
I just think that it is *too plain* and too straight forward. Something much more romantic should be used as a tatoo...
That's why I _prefer_ 相思相愛 to 愛與被愛.  



Aoyama said:


> My only regret about 相思相愛 is that it includes two similar kanjis/hanzis (相). It would be better to imagine something with FOUR different caracters ...


 
Perhaps the thread starter doesn't mind duplicating the same kanji.
Rather, I think the problem is, 相思相愛 is only suitable for someone who is _already_ in love. If the person concerned is in the stage of looking for a new love, 相思相愛 might not be that appropriate.


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## Aoyama

> Perhaps the thread starter doesn't mind duplicating the same kanji.
> Rather, I think the problem is, 相思相愛 is only suitable for someone who is _already_ in love. If the person concerned is in the stage of looking for a new love, 相思相愛 might not be that appropriate.


All this is quite true ...


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## Flaminius

Here are a few phrases consisting of four different characters.  Needless to say, they are all from Chinese classics:
比翼連理 (_hiyoku-renri_)
琴瑟相和 (_kinshitsu-sōwa_)
合歓綢繆 (_gōkan-chūbyū_)
偕老同穴 (_kairō-dōketsu_)

If you'd like, just as I do, an admixture of kanji and hiragana, the simplest translation is:
愛し愛され

Whether it means the current condition of the tattoo bearer or his ideal is largely left for interpretation.


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## Aoyama

> 比翼連理 (_hiyoku-renri_)
> 琴瑟相和 (_kinshitsu-sōwa_)
> 合歓綢繆 (_gōkan-chūbyū_)
> 偕老同穴 (_kairō-dōketsu_)


さすが　Flam ... (Bon sang ne saurait mentir), I'll have to check all these ...
But then, maybe, 愛し愛され should do it.


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