what does 塞翁 mean in 塞翁失马? I recently read about this idiom and its story. I know what it actually means. But when it comes to character by character translation, I struggled. I asked some of my Chinese friends, but they didn't reply. I checked from a dictionary application named Pleco. It shows:

塞: strategic pass, tactical border position
翁：elderly man, father, father-in-law, a surname

The mobile app of Baidu Translate just returns saiweng as the meaning when I type both. When I search for one by one, it shows:

塞: stopper, a place of strategic importance
翁: old man, father, a surname

So, this made me confused. My Chinese is not really good. I wanted to ask: 塞翁 is the name of a person or means &quot;old man&quot; as translated in English versions? Or is there any other meaning when it comes to character by character translation?
Also when I need to romanize it, should I write as &quot;Saiweng&quot; or &quot;Sai Weng&quot;?
Any help would be highly appreciated.
Baidu Baike has character by character explanation:

塞：边界险要之处；
翁：老头：老人。
塞翁：边塞的老头儿。

The explanations of you found is correct, and &quot;塞翁&quot; means an old man living in a tactical border position.