A bit of Chinese

Andreas Stötzner
Andreas Stötzner
in Miscellaneous News
I apologize for this is being off-topic, but I would like to ask if anyone here is able to translate this small piece of Chinese text. Background: the material is inherited from a German marine who served in China around 1912/13.
Any help is appreciated, thanks a lot in advance.

Comments

  • Sérgio Martins
    Sérgio Martins
    edited January 2021
    I'm not fluent, so I'd still try to confirm it with someone who is but the character sequence doesn't make an intelligible word for me, so I think it's that man's name – likely a phonetic approximation.

    The individual character sounds are ke'er baitai; 克 (ke4) 而 (er2) 拜 (bai4) 太 (tai4). If you input those characters in google translate, or another character recognition software, it should give you approximate phonetics.
  • Andreas Stötzner
    Andreas Stötzner
    Ah – there’s another find from him: the man’s name was Kilbert, so that reading could go in the right direction.

  • Sérgio Martins
    Sérgio Martins
    That certainly tracks.
  • Hrant Հրանդ Փափազեան Papazian
    Hrant Հրանդ Փափազեան Papazian
    @Andreas Stötzner I won't flag it (because it's ungracious, plus TypeDrawers would hide it was me) but this is definitely off-topic. There are correct –if less convenient– places to ask.
  • Hin-Tak Leung
    Hin-Tak Leung
    @Andreas Stötzner I would say @Sergey Malkin is correct - it is a transliteration, a vaguely meaningful phrase approximating the sound of the name. But perhaps a reasonably clever one : the phrase could be thought of as one of those clever-soundimg cryptic fortune cookie messages/advices: "get some self-restraint in order to reach the top".
  • Andreas Stötzner
    Andreas Stötzner
    Sérgio and Hin-Tak, thank you.

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