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Subject:Always treasure the time spending together 常珍並屆
Posted By: Super Thu, Jul 30, 2015
Wow, this was indeed a very tough one to translate and without those small characters in the extra pictures that were posted by you, I am not sure I could have translated them. This shows how important it is for anybody who want any of their stuff to be translated, they MUST post pictures of the whole thing. I would not translate anything without detailed pictures because it would not be fair to the translator. Thanks for posting the extra pictures. Can you tell us when and where you obtained this sign? Thanks in advance.
All those small characters written at the right-hand side of your sign listed all of the previous titles of a Qing dynasty official (to show off) and he addressed himself as the humble nephew (some time to show respect, many younger Chinese men would address themselves 愚侄 (the humble nephew) in order to show respect to the older person(s) to whom they addressed. In this case, he called himself 烟愚侄 and I believe that meant he was really a nephew (by blood or marriage, not sure which one) related to the person(s) to whom he was addressing.
The writings at the left says this sign is to celebrate the double 80th year birthdays 八旬(80th)双(double)壽 (birthdays) of both his uncle and his wife. The date of this sign was made in(last sentence at the far left):
民國壬子元年 First Year of the Republic of China (1912)
孟冬月 October (Chinese lunar calendar)
中浣 (middle of the month; between the 11th day and the 20th day)
The four BIG Chinese characters in the middle of the sign are:
常 - often, always;
珍 - using as a verb; to treasure.
並屆 - these two are very tough to translate; usually it means to hold hands together or reaching certain points in life together(their 80th birthday), therefore in this case, since the sign is to celebrate the 80th birthdays of a Chinese couple, the uncle and aunt of the person who gifted this sign, therefore I took the liberty in translating them as:
Always treasure the time spending together.
(or treasure the arrival at this point of life together)
Now of course, I can be wrong, but.....
I hope this helps.
Super
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