Thinkpads Forum

Found inside a T30 display cover:



Just curious - what does it mean?

Best regards,
singbad

LOL! What gives...

The original: 人在天涯, 身不由己
A more common variant: 人在江湖, 身不由己

Word by word translation...

人-men
在-in
天涯-literally the edge of sky; 江湖-literally river and lake
身-body
不-no, not, negative modifier
由己-my control

The whole phrase means something like... "It's not of my own choices, I have to adapt to the world." It's generally used to excuse oneself of making certain actions (including but not limited to cruel and/or immoral ones), and/or as an expression of one's inability to control of his/her own life (i.e. the insignificance of the self in the larger world).

If anyone knows of an equivalent English idiom, please chime in.

Cheers.

"one must howl with the wolves"?
But why put this on the back of a display cover?

Along those lines, it could be a 'note' from a disgruntled assembly line worker with a hangover on Monday morning,
and could perhaps be translated as: up yours, too!

Thank you. I was just wondering.

loyukfai wrote: The whole phrase means something like... "It's not of my own choices, I have to adapt to the world." It's generally used to excuse oneself of making certain actions (including but not limited to cruel and/or immoral ones), and/or as an expression of one's inability to control of his/her own life (i.e. the insignificance of the self in the larger world).

If anyone knows of an equivalent English idiom, please chime in.

Perhaps "Don't hate the player, hate the game."?

Don't kill me, I'm only the messenger. (From ancient Greece after the battle of Marathon).

Don't shoot me, I'm only the piano player.

I was only acting under orders. (Nuremburg trials.)