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男兒當自強 is the title of the main theme in wong feihong, i was told its translation is "a man has to stand one's ground", i do not know how verbatim this translation is. 男兒 is man, 自強 is either "his strength" or "from strength", i am not sure about it. As for 當, i am totally clueless what its meaning is.

What would be a verbatim translation? Who can explain the parts in the light of grammar?

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男兒 is MAN

當 is 應當， which means SHOULD，MUST

自 means 自己， SELF

強 is a verb short for 圖強，here 圖 means FIND WAYS TO DO STH，and 強 means TO BE STRONG.

So 男兒當自強 means A man should find ways to make himself strong

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    I think a better translation of "自強" is probably "to attempt to attain self-improvement", since (as far as I know) the "strength" here is abstract (feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, I'm not a native speaker) :-)
    – 八带永
    Oct 28, 2014 at 13:23

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