I am in the process of building a small houseboat, the
appearance of which is based loosely on the style of a
Chinese flower boat. The idea for this design comes from a
dream I have had many times over the last decade, and I have
decided to name this craft the "Recurring Dream" or
"Returning Dream". Can you provide me with a correct
Chinese translation for this, or something that would mean
the same thing? As I will be painting this on her stern, I
could also use a Chinese transliteration of "Portland
Oregon" if one exists.
Thank you for your time,
- Than -
Answer Hi Than,
What an interesting dream you've been having!
For the name of your boat, now I can think of two names: "Hui2 Meng4" (return dreams) and "Meng4 Ying2" ((things) winding around your dreams). The formal one is a literal translation, while the latter one is more literary, which I borrow from a Chinese idiom, "Hun2 Qian1 Meng4 Ying2", meaning "to lead souls and to wind around dreams"(because you miss someone too much).
For Portland, Oregon, there are official transliterations.
There are two versions of Chinese: simplified Chinese and traditional one, from which you can choose whatever you like, though i recommend traditional ones because they have more strokes thus look better.
Well, I hope I helped. Please feel free to contact me anytime.
