CNY Greetings 2009

Now the Chief posted up a rather complete Chinese New Year greeting that did pique our interest somewhat. Only somewhat, becuase we don't have the energy to totally go interpret the actual meaning. But then again, we choose reinforce our dependancy on the Chief on all things Chinese by remaining a banana.

So with all the CNY wellwishings going about, this was what the Chief emailed:


It was only after the Chief added pinyin that we whipped out our Oxford Concise English-Chinese dictionary and managed to make out the characters that was written in the email (you know how it is when certain Chinese characters are comprised of two or more basic characters, it all gets so cramped up we can't make out what it is). Then we had fun using our Zig Calligraphy pen to rewrite it and scanned it in for bigger viewing.

Now here's the pinyin (and we've decided to uglify it a tad by adding numbers to indicate which accent it is):

gong1 xi3 fa1 cai2
wan4 shi4 ru2 yi4
bu4 bu4 gao1 sheng1
yi1 ben3 wan4 li4
cai2 yuan2 guang3 jin4
sheng2 guan2 fa2 cai2
xin1 xiang3 shi4 cheng2
wu2 wang3 bu4 li4
heng1 cai2 jiu4 shou3
shen1 ti3 jian4 kang1

And if that isn't enough, here's what the dictionary translation for each character. Mind you, we aren't translating it as it's supposed to be translated, meaning we aren't translating it phrase for phrase, we leave that for the Chief to tell us one day.

Of course, we're sure it wouldn't make too much sense but neither would it make too much missense too.

Respectful, pleased, issue, wealth
Ten thousand, matter, as if, idea
Pace, pace, tall, move upwards
One, origin, ten thousand, benefit
Wealth, source, vast, advance
Move upward, officer, issue, wealth
Heart, think, matter, become
Nothing, tearful, negative, benefit
Horizontal, wealth, move towards, hand
Personally, body, build, well-being.

We shall stay banana, for we find it much easier to understand the latin languages somehow.

Happy Chinese New Year!