Jul 4, 2007 15:31
17 yrs ago
English term

"That what does not kill you makes you stronger"

English to Japanese Art/Literary Poetry & Literature
This is a saying by German philosopher Nietzsche. I have already found Chinese equivalent, but my question is to all native speakers of Japanese whether it is possible to have it translated in katakana system. It is ment to be for artistic purposes. Thank you all for your help.

Discussion

iggety (asker) Jul 4, 2007:
yes, not knowing a foreign language, let alone not knowing much about it:)it is very easy to make a mistake. I based my assumptions of katakana system on few example lines I could find on the net. You are absolutely right, the signs do look weird when put all together and they do not look 'very Japanese' at all, if I can put it this way:) Probably because - as you said - you do not use it as a sole system in writing.

I will definitelly stick to the initial proposal then. I have to say, it was nice to learn a bit more in general about your language. I do work as a translator as well and if you have any queries about Polish language (who knows!) ask away!
iggety (asker) Jul 4, 2007:
thank you Thank you very much for your prompt reply. As for the objective 'me' or 'you', in my native language-Polish, it is translated as 'us':) I think the meaning is what matters. As for katakana, it is a shame it would sound not natural, because the system itself (for someone who does not understand the meaning but only sees the signs) is a true beauty! Would you be so kind and try to write it in katakana, just to see how it looks like, from only esthetical point of view, although I trust in what you said about classical words etc. Thank you very much, you've been very helpfull indeed.

Proposed translations

+1
52 mins
Selected

私を殺さないものは私を強くする

It could be read as "watashi wo korosanai mono wa watashi wo tsuyoku suru".

In fact, I had recently an occasion where I was asked to translate a similar phrase elsewhere. There the objective was "me" instead of "you" as noted, though I have no idea which is a correct version of translation from the original in German. If you try out searching the phrase in Japanese, you'd get more instances of "What does not kill me makes me stronger" than "What does not kill you makes you stronger". I think that is not strange because it's easy to understand this is a universal "you" including more subjective "me" in the definition.

As to your concern about phonetic translation in katakana, I guess you could write it as such, while I may advise this kind of classical words (or maxim, should I say) could be more naturally transcribed with a combination of hiragana/katakana/kanji (in the case of this phrase, it is kanji plus hiragana) .


HTH

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Note added at 3 hrs (2007-07-04 18:32:12 GMT)
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Well, I do not assume katakana would "not sound natural" and I believe some of other native Japanese speakers, translator or not, would consent to this first thought. I was rather talking about the visibility or legibility aspects of the language, but you may initially hear how texts written only in katakana can be awkward for Japanese people in general to read through and even make proper dinstinction between terms/phrases. Usually any Japanese texts displayed in only one writing system (katakana, hiragana or kanji) results in awkwardness while gramatical structures are identical.

Indeed, it is linguistically not very much suitable if you might prefer Japanese texts in katakana-only style. And I'm really not sure whether such display may lead to some visible beauty for non-Japanese native people. Really no idea personally. (I mean, I would not imagine what reactions we'd observe when katakana-only Japanese are viewed by some ones who know nothing about Japanese.) However, if you still would like to request of that, I may interestedly attempt. Here it is:

ワタシ ヲ コロサナイモノ ハ ワタシ ヲ ツヨク スル

I made spaces to make distinction of terms/phrases, but if the definition does not have to make any sense, you would make it no-space style.

ワタシヲコロサナイモノハワタシヲツヨクスル

Wow, it appears to me as if some alien from another planet or, if not, a mechanical message from a computer is speaking to us pretending to be Nietzsche. Funny. Have fun yourself.

Also, please refer to the first line I noted above for how you could pronounce the phrase. By the way, this translation may sound rather "literal", but I only notice those instances online and this would be probably conveying the philosopher's terms most correctly.

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Note added at 5 hrs (2007-07-04 21:07:42 GMT)
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I did not mention you made a mistake nor the katakana signs look weird in any case. It still is Japanese, however, the point is that it's not very common to write that way in a book, newspaper, magazine, personal blog, whatever.

I was not further clarifying, but hiragana, katakana and kanji have thier own specific respective usages. In the case of katakana, we usually use them to note names or nouns derived from foreign origins or languages, especially from the western world, but not restricted. You may get more detailed information here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katakana

Cheers

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Note added at 1 day14 hrs (2007-07-06 05:55:34 GMT) Post-grading
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So you are beginning to learn something of Japanese. ; )
Note from asker:
I have to say I find it a bit difficult to navigate through this page, I have selected your answer as very helpful and added points, but I cannot see it anywhere. Anyway, your explanations are very helpful indeed. Cheers!
Peer comment(s):

agree Choonih Im : I think the explanation about katakana was also agreeable. Great!
9 hrs
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4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "You have claryfied my doubts and helped me to gain more insight into your language, thanks a lot!!"
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