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| Adventures in Asian Art | | |||||||
We have many options to create artwork with the Chinese characters / Asian symbols / Japanese Kanji for Carpe Diem on a wall scroll or portrait.
If you want to create a cool Carpe Diem Asian character tattoo, you can purchase that on our Chinese and Japanese Tattoo Image Service page and we'll help you select from many forms of ancient Asian symbols that express the idea of Carpe Diem.
Quick links to words on this page...
Mandarin: bǎ wò jīn rì
This is the closest and most natural way to express this idea in Chinese.
The first two characters mean "to seize" but can also be translated as "take control of".
The last two characters mean "today".
Mandarin: huó zài jīn tiān
Korean: 활재금천
This is not really an eastern concept, so it does not translate into a phrase that seems natural on a wall scroll. However, if this is your philosophy, the characters shown here do capture your idea of living for today or living in the moment. These characters literally say "Live in today" and they are grammatically correct in Chinese.
Note: This kind of makes sense in Korean Hanja, but the grammar is Chinese, so it's not that natural in Korean.
Mandarin: shēng ér wú huǐ
This is how to say "live without regrets" in Mandarin Chinese. This also makes sense in Japanese, but I don't yet have the pronunciation info.
See Also... Live For Today
Mandarin: shēng ài sǐ
Japanese: sei ai shi
Korean: 생애사
This came from a customer's request, but it's not too bad. These three simple characters suggest that you are born, you learn to love, and then exit the world.
Mandarin: xiào ài shēng huó
Japanese: shou ai sei katsu
Korean: 소애생활
In English, the word order shown in the title is the most natural or popular. In Chinese, the natural order is a little different:
The first character means laugh (sometimes means smile).
The second character means love.
The last two characters mean "live" as in "to be alive" or "pursue life".
Please note: This is not a normal phrase, in that it does not have a subject, verb, and object. It is a word list. Word lists are not common in Asian languages/grammar (at least not as normal as they are in English). We only added this entry because so many people requested it.
We put the characters in the order shown above, as it almost makes a single word with the meaning, "A life of laughter and love". It's a made-up word, but it sounds good in Chinese.
Japanese: ima wo i ki ru
This Japanese phrase can be translated as "live for the day", "live for the moment", "seize the day", or "make the most of the present".
Mandarin: xiàn shì
Japanese: gen sei
Korean: 현세
This is a very short way to write "live in the moment" or "live in the now" in Japanese.
This short word is open to interpretation. It's used in Japanese Buddhism to mean "the current epoch" or "the current age" (the current age is but a brief moment in the greater scope of existence). When used in that context, this is pronounced "utsushiyo" or "ustusiyo" in Japanese. Otherwise, it's pronounced "gensei" in Japanese.
Other translation possibilities include:
Live for now
Earthly world
This world
This life
Earthly life
Present life
Present generation
Present incarnation
Current age
This existence
This (momentary) reality
Note: This is also a word in Chinese and old Korean Hanja. While the meaning is more or less the same, this is not recommended for a wall scroll if your audience is Chinese or Korean. This selection is best if your audience is Japanese.
Wall scroll artwork shown on this page is priced as follows:
2-3 characters $39.88 each
4 characters $49.88 each
5-10 characters $59.88 each
After you select your calligraphy, our website will take you through the process of customizing your artwork.
Options for other mounting such as portraits are available for $13 less.
We also offer the services of a famous master calligrapher for a $40 fee on any scroll if you are looking for investment-quality calligraphy.
If you chose our famous master-calligrapher, you also get more choices for silk and paper colors and the option for larger artwork.
All of our calligraphy is completely done by hand in the ancient way.
When the calligrapher finishes creating your artwork, it is taken to our art mounting workshop in Beijing where a wall scroll is made by hand from a combination of silk, rice paper, and wood.
After we create your wall scroll, it takes at least two weeks for air mail delivery from Beijing to you.
Therefore, allow at least 3 weeks for delivery from the time you place your order.
When you select your calligraphy, you'll be taken to another page where you can choose various custom options.
Prices for
custom wall scrolls
shown on this page:
2-3 Characters:
USD $39.88
GBP £24.20
EUR €26.92
CAD $42.74
AUS $43.87
4 Characters:
USD $49.88
GBP £30.27
EUR €33.67
CAD $53.45
AUS $54.88
5-10 Characters:
USD $59.88
GBP £36.34
EUR €40.42
CAD $64.17
AUS $65.88
Customizations that you select may raise or lower the price.
The scroll that I am holding in this picture is a "regular size"
4-character wall scroll.
As you can see, it is a great size to hang on your wall.
(We also offer custom wall scrolls in larger sizes)
Professional calligraphers are getting to be hard to find these days.
Instead of drawing characters by hand, the new generation in China merely type roman letters into their computer keyboards and pick the character that they want from a list that pops up.
There is some fear that true Chinese calligraphy may become a lost art in the coming years. Many art institutes in China are now promoting calligraphy programs in hopes of keeping this unique form
of art alive.
Even with the teachings of a top-ranked calligrapher in China, my calligraphy will never be good enough to sell. I will leave that to the experts.
The same calligrapher who gave me those lessons also attracted a crowd of thousands and a TV crew as he created characters over 6-feet high. He happens to be ranked as one of the top 100 calligraphers in all of China. He is also one of very few that would actually attempt such a feat.
The following table is only helpful for those studying Chinese (or Japanese), and perhaps helps search engines to find this page when someone enters Romanized Chinese or Japanese
| Title | Characters Simplified Traditional |
Japanese Romaji (Romanized Japanese) | Various forms of Hanyu-Pinyin (Romanized Chinese) | |||
| Carpe Diem / Seize the Day | 把握今日 把握今日 | n/a | bǎ wò jīn rì ba wo jin ri | ba3 wo4 jin1 ri4 bawojinri | ||
| Live For The Day | 活在今天 活在今天 | n/a | huó zài jīn tiān huo zai jin tian | huo2 zai4 jin1 tian1 huozaijintian | ||
| Live Without Regret | 生而无悔 生而無悔 | n/a | shēng ér wú huǐ sheng er wu hui | sheng1 er2 wu2 hui3 shengerwuhui | ||
| Live Love Die | 生爱死 生愛死 | sei ai shi seiaishi | shēng ài sǐ sheng ai si | sheng1 ai4 si3 shengaisi | ||
| Live Laugh Love | 笑爱生活 笑愛生活 | shou ai sei katsu shouaiseikatsu sho ai sei katsu | xiào ài shēng huó xiao ai sheng huo | xiao4 ai4 sheng1 huo2 xiaoaishenghuo | ||
| Live For The Day / Seize The Day | 今を生きる 今を生きる | ima wo i ki ru imawoikiru | n/a | |||
| Live In The Moment / Live In The Now | 现世 現世 | gen sei gensei | xiàn shì xian shi | xian4 shi4 xianshi | ||
| If you have not set up your computer to display Chinese, the characters in this table probably look like empty boxes or random text garbage.
This is why we spent hundreds of hours making images so that you could view the characters in the "Carpe Diem" listings above. If you want your Windows computer to be able to display Chinese characters you can either head to your Regional and Language options in your Win XP control panel, select the [Languages] tab and click on [Install files for East Asian Languages]. This task will ask for your Win XP CD to complete in most cases. If you don't have your Windows XP CD, or are running Windows 98, you can also download/run the simplified Chinese font package installer from Microsoft which works independently with Win 98, ME, 2000, and XP. It's a 2.5MB download, so if you are on dial up, start the download and go make a sandwich. | ||||||
All custom calligraphy items are made-to-order in our little Beijing artwork-mounting workshop.
Please note: Rush service can be as fast as two weeks, but regular service is over a month for delivery.
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