Chinese poetic titles

I am by no means a poet nor am I poetic with words, but one of my assignments given to me by Cheng boshi at the museum is translating artworks' titles from Chinese to English. It is more difficult than it seems even if there are only three or four characters in the title, which is so much more when translated. A four-character title may be a whole sentence in the English language, and it must be poetic. For example, 红天秋晚 literally translates to Broad Sky Autumn Evening. Now that doesn't sound very eloquent. So, the [my] Chinese-->English artistic translation is The vast sky overlooking a river one autumn evening. The Chinese like words such as "tranquil" and "stillness". Most paintings are of landscapes, waterfalls, and mountain+river with titles including the word 清 qing, which defines "quiet" and "pure". So I do have fun with the titles even though I'm not witty or a literary artist =)

Speaking of Chinese to English translations, I have seen the oddest and funniest sayings on t-shirts. I'll try to take some pictures to show you...because sometimes when you see what kind of person is wearing it, you'll understand why it's funny. But I remember seeing this little 8-year old boy wearing a shirt that said "Marijuana something something" with a pot of it in the center. His grandma's shirt said "Crazy bitch" in gold letters and was splashed studs all over. I have to wonder what goes into the minds of those who design these shirts. Maybe they think of some random Chinese words, insert them into an electronic dictionary thinking they are concocting a clever English phrase, and voila there goes a very inappropriate, yet extremely hilarious, phrase to be stamped on a t-shirt and be sold at street markets for $3. Oh yes, I love Engrish!!