ศาลาชุมนุม

[mebeim]

Hi everyone, I recently joined this forum because I'm looking for someone who can help me translate a tattoo. A friend of mine got this tattoo, but unfortunately doesn't want to share its meaning with anyone; you can see a photo at this link: http://i.imgur.com/mMDC6eO.jpg (note: the photo should be rotated 90 degrees right in order to read it properly).

Since I don't know a single word of Thai, could anyone be so kind and translate it in english for me? Thank you so much for your time!

[Toffeeman]

As it appears on the tattoo:
ฉันอยู่ตรงไหนไม่
สำคัญเพราะว่าฉัน
รู้จักตัวเอ็งเวลา
มองหน้าต่างฉัน
ฝันที่จะอยู่ตรงนี่

basically 3 sentences:
ฉันอยู่ตรงไหนไม่สำคัญ - Where I am/live isn't important
เพรวะว่าฉันรู้จักตัวเอ็ง - because I know myself
เวลามองหน้าต่างฉันฝันที่จะอยู่ตรงนี่ - when I see a window I dream I am here/when I look out of the window I dream I am there.

Not so sure of the last sentence. 1st one is more literal but doesn't seem to make sense.

Btw that is some tattoo.

[Pirin]

Hi everyone, I recently joined this forum because I'm looking for someone who can help me translate a tattoo. A friend of mine got this tattoo, but unfortunately doesn't want to share its meaning with anyone; you can see a photo at this link: http://i.imgur.com/mMDC6eO.jpg (note: the photo should be rotated 90 degrees right in order to read it properly).

Since I don't know a single word of Thai, could anyone be so kind and translate it in english for me? Thank you so much for your time!

Bad news!

The message said in the tattoo is not clear. On top of that, there are also some obvious spelling mistakes.

Below is the message in the tattoo, whose underlined parts are spelling mistakes.
"ฉันอย่ตรงไหนไม่
สำคัญเพราะว่าฉน
รู้จักตัวเอ็งเวลา
มองหน้าต่างฉัน
ฝันที่จะอยู่ตรงนี้"

Below is the message with no spelling mistake.
"ฉันอยู่ตรงไหนไม่
สำคัญเพราะว่าฉัน
รู้จักตัวเองเวลา
มองหน้าต่างฉัน
ฝันที่จะอยู่ตรงนี้"

Below are two possible ways of how to make the message clearer or meaningful to the reader.
1.
ฉันอยู่ตรงไหนไม่สำคัญเพราะว่าฉันรู้จักตัวเอง
เวลามองหน้าต่างฉันฝันที่จะอยู่ตรงนี้

2.
ฉันอยู่ตรงไหนไม่สำคัญ
เพราะว่าฉันรู้จักตัวเองเวลามองหน้าต่าง
ฉันฝันที่จะอยู่ตรงนี้

[mebeim]

Didn't know there also were spelling mistakes... so is the given translation right? Or is there any other meaning?

[bifftastic]

To me, it looks like the person who had the tattoo done, translated some English sentences into Thai (which doesn't always work well, as the idioms often don't cross over properly) and then had a Thai person write it down (the tattoo looks like hand-written Thai) and then had a non-Thai person do the tattoo (the sentences don't finish at the end of the line, and there are spelling mistakes, as Pirin pointed out).

The meaning, was probably intended to be as was explained in the first reply. It just doesn't scan well in Thai and if a Thai person was reading it, they might not really understand what was meant, aside from the spelling mistakes.

This is why tattoos of English phrases and sentences translated into other languages usually end up with something like this.

It's better to find an equivalent phrase that already exists in the language you want the tattoo in.

[mebeim]

Thank you, I agree with bifftastic: probably my friend got the phrases translated by some Thai person, and tattooed by another one who didn't happen to know Thai at all. It also looks clear to me that the sentence is forced into Thai and doesn't actually come out very well in this form.

By the way I'm assuming the original meaning should be: "Where I am is not important, because I know myself. When I look out of a window, I dream I am there".