Need a word or phrase translated?

Glenn · 16 Jul 2012

That isn't yamatootoko?

Toritoribe · 16 Jul 2012

No. That's a classical word おのこ.

男の子／男（おのこ）の意味 - goo国語辞書

やまとおとこ is also correct, though.

Glenn · 16 Jul 2012

Ah, OK. I was wondering if it might be, but didn't see やまとおのこ in the dictionary. Although, I didn't see やまとおとこ in there, either, so...

Thanks for the info!

MikoTing · 17 Jul 2012

Thank you so much Toritoribe and Glenn! !!!!!

munger · 18 Jul 2012

I recently bought this sword at an auction and was curious as to what the writing on the handle is. If anyone can help I would greatly appreciate it.

Toritoribe · 18 Jul 2012

Your picture is rotated 90 degrees to the left.
It seems like a karate slogan 一. 血気の勇を戒むること Kekki no yuu wo imashimuru koto; "Caution yourself not to be hot-blooded." A karate site translated it "Develop self-control."

Andromedashun · 20 Jul 2012

こちらのほうがなんとなくいいと思いますけど

My translation: I don't know why I think that has more advantage.

Is のほうが~いい here mean ''more than''?

Toritoribe · 20 Jul 2012

Yes, but けど is used as a kind of euphemism; softening the speaker's opinion.

I think this is somewhat better.

Andromedashun · 21 Jul 2012

若いひとほどマナーを知らないとお年寄りは言います。

Old people say that they can't act without knowing manner like young people.

Is ほど here mean ''as much as''?

Glenn · 21 Jul 2012

No, I'm pretty sure it's "the ~er, the...". In this case, "Old people say the younger one is, the less they know of manners."

Mike Cash · 21 Jul 2012

Glenn said:
No, I'm pretty sure it's "the ~er, the...". In this case, "Old people say the younger one is, the less they know of manners."

Not quite. There is no mention of correlation between degrees of youth and not knowing.

More like, "Nobody is as ignorant of manners as the young"

Glenn · 21 Jul 2012

Yeah, that makes more sense. Whoops.

Toritoribe · 21 Jul 2012

No. Glenn-san's initial interpretation is correct. Although I think ほど would be more close to ～のほうが than 若ければ若いほど, i.e., "the more~, the more" here. 若いひとほどマナーを知らない人は（年寄りには）いない is the one for Mike-san's.

Depending on the context, this structure cam mean "don't know much about manners comparing to the younger people".
e.g.
今度フランス料理を食べに行くのだが、若いひとほどマナーを知らないので、箸を使えるところに行きたいと思っている。
I'm going to go out to eat French cuisine, since I don't know about the manners as much as the younger people, I want to go to a restaurant where I can eat with chopsticks.

Mike Cash · 21 Jul 2012

That'll learn ya not to listen to me, Glenn!

Glenn · 21 Jul 2012

Well, how about that. But I'm starting to feel a bit lost now. haha

Mike Cash · 21 Jul 2012

I blame Maktos; the lessons never went that far.

Glenn · 21 Jul 2012

Haaaaahahahahaha! I had forgotten the name of that place! Thanks for the laugh!

Should we look up bigozbob? Actually I was thinking it would be nice if we had someone like hyrule around...

uimanabi · 22 Jul 2012

Hello everyone!
I need your help for translating the following haiku by 三橋敏雄 (Mitsuhashi Toshio, 1920-2001):

三鬼忌のつひにしづかに吹くあらし

I think it is about three ghosts, and a storm blowing. But it is as far as I went.
Could you help me?
Many thanks

Toritoribe · 22 Jul 2012

ﾅｽO窶ｹSﾅ?ﾃｵ is the anniversary of the death of a haiku writer ﾂ青ｼ窶愬椎ｽO窶ｹS[Saitō Sanki], i.e., April 1st.
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/ﾂ青ｼ窶愬椎ｽO窶ｹS (all in Japanese)

my attempt

At the end of the anniversary of Sanki's death
A storm blows quietly

eru777 · 23 Jul 2012

Hello I 'm having trouble understanding thetranslation of the author ;
The sentence is from a song
ふたりを重ねてた偶然暗転断線儚く千々に
[ふたりをかさねてたぐうぜんあんてんだんせんはかなくにちじに]
"Coincidences that sticked us degenerates into the dark and are broken in pieces"
I know what each of these words in this sentence mean; except teta but in google translator it said "had" so I suppose it means that (lol)
Anyway
I put the translated words here as I found them through various dictionaries :

重ね「かさね」1. pile up 2.counter for things that are stacked, piled up (or layered, etc.) (after a word from the "hito-futa-mi" counting system)
偶然「ぐうぜん」(by) chance; unexpectedly; suddenly; accident;
暗転「あんてん」taking a turn for the worse
断線「だんせん」disconnection; interruption; burn-out
儚くなる「はかなくなる」to die; to pass away
千々に「ちじに」in pieces [adverb]
Either the translator was enjoying some rather odd alcoholic beverage or I do not get it. Can anyone help me understand the meaning of this sentence ? Like, what each word means in the context that it's in..
Thanks.

Toritoribe · 23 Jul 2012

Have you learned the conjugation of verbs and adjectives? 重ねて（い）た is "the -te form of a verb 重ねる + the past form of いる", and 儚く is the adverbial usage of the -ku form of an i-adjective 儚い.

千々に is ちぢに, and not ちじに.

The ordinary order of words is ふたりを重ねてた偶然が暗転し、儚く千々に断線した.
偶然暗転断線 is a play on words.

eru777 · 23 Jul 2012

Toritoribe said:
Have you learned the conjugation of verbs and adjectives? 重ねて（い）た is "the -te form of a verb 重ねる + the past form of いる", and 儚く is the adverbial usage of the -ku form of an i-adjective 儚い.
千々に is ちぢに, and not ちじに.
The ordinary order of words is ふたりを重ねてた偶然が暗転し、儚く千々に断線した.
偶然暗転断線 is a play on words.

I know all about the te form .
I know about making an adverb through adding ku.
What I don't understand is:
1. how the translation talks about "coincidences that sticked us" when the sentence says "two people piled up by chance/accidentally"
I put two extra words in the "translated words" section, sorry lel. (it was from another verse)

undrentide · 23 Jul 2012

eru777 said:
I know all about the te form .
I know about making an adverb through adding ku.
What I don't understand is:
1. how the translation talks about "coincidences that sticked us" when the sentence says "two people piled up by chance/accidentally"
I put two extra words in the "translated words" section, sorry lel. (it was from another verse)

Do not get misled by the word order.

ふたりを重ねてた modifies 偶然, ふたりを is the object of 重ねていた（重ねる＋いる＋past formた）. 偶然 is the subject of the verb 重ねる.
So it literally says "coincidences （偶然） that stuck two of us (二人を重ねていた）."

eru777 · 23 Jul 2012

Have you learned the conjugation of verbs and adjectives?

Apparently not lol.
I have to study more :sorry: Toritoribe & Undrentide thanks for your replies. I had a look into the past verb forms..
So 偶然 was a noun eh? It says in the dictionary : Adverbial noun but when I put it on google translator it says both, a noun and an adverb. I guess the different word order confused me.
I had this image in my head that it was always Subject + object+ verb but it's not necessarily always the case.
Can you give me any hints , in order to recognize the sentence structure better , or is it a gradual thing? I didn't see any が subject marker in the original sentence either..
Moreover :
I now understand , that the subject is 偶然 [ぐうぜん] coincidence/es and the verb is 重ねてた[かさねてた] .
Does that mean that the literal translation is : "The coincidence/es that were sticking us together"? Oh well.
P.S.: "Sticked" isn't even a word lel. That gave me a laugh after realizing the mistake from the original post I pasted it from. :v
P.S.II: Addressed to Toritoribe : About your corrected form of the sentence that you provided us with; What was that し at the end of 暗転 all about? Did you mean to write した like you did at the end of 断線 ?I just looked it up and it says both 断線 and 暗転 are する verbs, but the lyrics of the song didn't use する ..I wonder why that is.

Glenn · 23 Jul 2012

し is the 連用形 (れんようけい, continuative form) of する. They left する off because it's a play on words, and probably fits the rhythm better. The word order is different for the same reason. Remember: it's a song. They tend to break the rules of language (along with poems) more frequently than any other format.

Need a word or phrase translated?

一切皆苦

松葉解禁

一切皆苦

後輩

後輩

松葉解禁

先輩

松葉解禁

先輩

一切皆苦

骨も命も皆此の土地に埋めよう

一切皆苦

松葉解禁

骨も命も皆此の土地に埋めよう

一切皆苦

骨も命も皆此の土地に埋めよう

一切皆苦

後輩

松葉解禁

後輩

松葉解禁

後輩

Japa'n vagyok

後輩

一切皆苦

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