不雨不花 - can you say it like that?

I always try to translate everything I see. Yesterday, it was a beautiful quote - can I translate it like this?

不雨不花

You mean you want to make a yojijukugo from that? 不 is more like “un-” or “non-” in most uses.

無雨無花 would make more sense. Of course, when you coin a word there’s some chance people will not understand, but I can ask a native what they thought of it later.

10 Likes

I read this as “no pain no flowers”

7 Likes

No rain, no gain.

9 Likes

Not really awake so I saw read as 不雨下靴

3 Likes

I kinda see “no win no flowers”… although it sounds like it should be rain, i just cant see it at all

I read it as no rain, no flowers, but then I’m not really experienced yet with reading Kanji.

The first time I read it I thought it was “no vain no flowers”, but that didn’t make sense so I tried again and that’s when I got “no pain no flowers” and thought it was a reference to “no pain no gain”

3 Likes

No vain, no blowers.

3 Likes

You are right now I see that most clearly

1 Like

I think in Chinese it means “no” also. Could OP have seen a sign in Mandarin?

1 Like

Ok, I see - I guess it would have made more sense to „transcript“ the picture… :joy: No rain no flowers

Thank you all for your help!!

1 Like

I also asked a friend, she said it might be impossible to say it with Kanji and proposed the following:
雨なくして、花もない

2 Likes

I think in Chinese it means “no” also. Could OP have seen a sign in Mandarin?

No it was just my very pre-N5 way of translating a quote that I saw because I thought I knew the vocabulary… :joy:

Considering how many yojijukugo fit the pattern of 無?無?, I’d strongly hesitate to say “impossible” here. Though to be entirely fair, none of those seem to have English translations that fit the pattern of “no ?, no ?”…

1 Like

This topic was automatically closed 365 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.