Lost in translation
- Thread starter Tako
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The7thSamurai
Master of the Universe
- 4 Feb 2005
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Don't know what's natural but I think you'd probably use が to mark 音楽.
undrentide
Japa'n vagyok
- 18 Jan 2006
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All of them are grammatically correct.
But I would say 最高の恋人 for "the best lover".
The best:
To me 最もよい or 一番よい sound a bit like literally-translated-from-foreign-language somehow. 最 of 最上 already mean "the most/top" so combining it with 一番 (the most, first) is redundant.
Lover:
恋人 is better. It is like sweetheart, girlfriend/boyfriend, etc.
愛人 implies that it has something to do with affair out of marriaeg, cheating, concubine, etc.
は or が？:
If it is just a normal statement, は is better.
音楽は最高の恋人だ。 (Music is the best lover)
If you want to emphasize that it is music, nothing else, which is the best lover, then you should go for が.
音楽が最高の恋人だ。
(It is music that is the best lover.)
- Thread starter
- #4
here i am! in fact i'm italian... that sentence is taken from a song i love, i wanna tattoo that sentence somewhere over my body.
yes, i think 恋人 fits better
well, being a tattoo i think i won't write "hiragana"... just kanji...
音楽最高恋人 is a sentence so easy that can be understood without "grammar kana" don't u think?
- 8 Aug 2005
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if you love the phrase, why not get the tattoo in the language in which it is sung, instead of a translated approximation in a language you don't understand?
Taking the hiragana out of the sentence makes it no longer Japanese--it just becomes a string of kanji. It'd be like getting a tattoo that says "musicbestlover." If that is what you want, good luck to you. check out hanzismatter.com for other people who don't really care about linguistic integrity.
Taking the hiragana out of the sentence makes it no longer Japanese--it just becomes a string of kanji. It'd be like getting a tattoo that says "musicbestlover." If that is what you want, good luck to you. check out hanzismatter.com for other people who don't really care about linguistic integrity.
Maybe what you want is something more like 音楽是最高的愛人?
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- Thread starter
- #7
you misunderstood.... i love japan and japanese language. I studied japanese for 4 years and I got the 3rd level of JLPT . I wanna write that sentence in japanese to imprint on my skin the moments that that sentence suggests me and my love for Japan. I asked here the correct translation because i was not sure of mine. As Undrentide said, my translation seems translated literally.
I wasn't saying i hate hiragana..... l love hiragana, i just thought that this sentence...that is simple...could be written just in kanji. If you think that in this way doesn't sound "japanese" i can use the correct form with hiragana... no problem with that.
Undrentide... i suppose you are Japanese. Do you think too that without kana makes it no longer Japanese?
- Thread starter
- #9
well i think i'll use the correct 100% japanese form 
音楽は最高の恋人だ
mmh.. some purist could ask for the COMA!
音楽は最高の恋人だ。 <-- anyway with the little maru is cute too
another little hint ... do you think that is better to use DESU instead of DA ?
DA sounds less "poetic" ?
音楽は最高の恋人だ
mmh.. some purist could ask for the COMA!
音楽は最高の恋人だ。 <-- anyway with the little maru is cute too
another little hint ... do you think that is better to use DESU instead of DA ?
DA sounds less "poetic" ?
undrentide
Japa'n vagyok
- 18 Jan 2006
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- 8 Aug 2005
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Proper grammar or not, I still think you're doing a disservice to yourself by getting a tattoo of a phrase in Japanese. But it's your body and your decision; at least you came here to make sure you got the sentence right.
Kurado-sama
分かっちゃいねえな
- 23 Oct 2007
- 7
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but if its off the main topic, が is more often used.
- Thread starter
- #15
a disservice? why? it's just a phrase in japanese. What's wrong with that?
- 8 Aug 2005
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When you get a tattoo, you're making a statement about yourself. I can understand that this phrase is meaningful to you, and that you want to show off that you studied Japanese, but I'm not sure that a tattoo is the best way to do that, especially since there seems to be no connection between your love of music and your study of Japanese. Furthermore, tattoos still aren't very popular in Japan, and when young people these days do get them, asian characters are rarely on the menu. A long time ago I considered a kanji tattoo, but the more I studied Japanese and the more I learned about Japanese culture, the more antithetical the idea of a tattoo, let alone a kanji tattoo, became.
Whatever you decide to do, make sure you will be completely satisfied with what you get inked, because it won't wash off.
Whatever you decide to do, make sure you will be completely satisfied with what you get inked, because it won't wash off.
- Thread starter
- #18
you're totally wrong... and you don't know me at all to say that this phrase is meaningful to me. I don't wanna show nothing.... it's just a mark about my first 23 years of life. It isn't just a "fashion" tattoo.
- 8 Aug 2005
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I'm glad you pieced together that I don't know you; all I know is what you've written in this thread. It was silly of me to assume that the phrase you want written on your skin for eternity is meaningful to you. It'll go nicely between the tattoo of some random sanskrit characters and the dutch word for anus.
Go ahead and get your tattoo. In fact, get it on your forehead. No one will confuse it for a fashion statement then. I guess the only thing we can do for you is proofread.
Go ahead and get your tattoo. In fact, get it on your forehead. No one will confuse it for a fashion statement then. I guess the only thing we can do for you is proofread.
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- 8 Aug 2005
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best. idea. ever.
- 17 Sep 2005
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If I ever get a tattoo, that's what I'm going with!
