A friend sent me this and I haven't come across any characters that match. What kind of characters are they and please can you tell what is their meaning? Thank you.
I'd like to help, but the image seems to be removed.
Cat - thanks for trying to help. Sorry I broke the link I thought the image was embedded.
I believe they are Japanese Kanji (Chinese characters), and possibly part of a poem. But they don't make much sense in Chinese.
Thanks Cat, and sorry for my delay in getting back to this. I think you're correct saying this is something poetic, probably a couplet. The first two characters 远 [yuǎn]由 [yóu]probably refer to a poem called Yuan You, one of the Chu Ci (Songs of the South); traditionally attributed to Qu Yuan (340? - 278 BCE). Hopefully, I can get the rest but at least it's a start. You're quite talented and 1,000 thanks for your effort.
Very impressive you know QuYuan and ChuCi!
Well, I took another look. The poem written by QuYuan called 远游, which pronounced exactly the same as the two characters from the "poem" you got. But the second character is not the same.
"远由" means "(travel) from a long way(vs shortcut)".
Thank you Cat. I see what you mean...and it's clearer. Would you check 为 and 手 please?
Could 为 be 如 possibly? Could 手 be 平? Happy New Year!
Great effort thank you so much for the extra effort.
Your "(travel)from a long way is all because (I have)no other choice". (依=according to,为=because of/because, 迫=being forced)" is pretty good. From what I've recently learned about the background of the verse, I believe this is military context as in an army being ordered to go on a campaign.
As to the poetry...I think it's possibly done in an ancient style,not Ci nor Qu, very strict, this one is a 2 verse 5 character quatrain and rythym seems to matter more than rhyme. I read a paper on this subject where a scholar was translating a 7 character style quatrain, there is a precise rythym to it.
However, mine is not so ancient, only (and maybe) written in the old style.
Thanks again. I have to see if I can get a better image posted of the troublesome character. I sent some images to Gary but they probably got blocked by a filter.
You are welcome. Glad we can help a little bit.
Anyway, people still wrote poem in ancient style nowadays, so what you were saying is totally possible.