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Need a word or phrase translated?

Hello! I have a personal "seal" that was designed by a Japanese man and his wife at an Asian fair in Hamburg, many years ago. I'm thinking of having it tattooed, but I'd like to make sure it's not some dodgy random stuff before I do so. No one has actually confirmed it since (this was made for me some 20 years ago and I've put it on all my paintings, so I really hope it's legit..).
We agreed on something sounding like MI-CU, a combination of letters in my name. Then some adjustments to make it look arty.
Is it nonsense or does it have some meaning?
It's a stylish way of writing 美宮 (from right to left). It indeed can be read "MI-CU" or "MI-KU". They did a nice work since the kanji means "beautiful palace". Good name!
 
意気に感じずにはいられない。
I've been having trouble trying to translate/understand this exact phrase, would someone be able to clear up the meaning of it for me?
 
Sometimes helpful to work backwards:

いられない = Can't live, can't exist, can't "be"...
感じずに = without feeling. Kanjiru would be the root verb, but this has the ず ending which negates the verb.
意気に = 意気 means enthusiasm, spirit, motivation, energy, passion, etc...

Actually 意気に感じる is kind of a set phrase meaning "feeling someone else's energy/passion" or "being inspired by someone else's passion/energy". So the negated form (意気に感じず) would be "not feeling, or not being inspired by someone else's energy".

So it would mean "I can't live without feeling (your) energy/enthusiasm" or to turn it around, "Your enthusiasm/energy/passion is what I live for". That is what I think it means, anyway. There could be some widely accepted alternative meaning that I am missing.
 
Sometimes helpful to work backwards:

いられない = Can't live, can't exist, can't "be"...
感じずに = without feeling. Kanjiru would be the root verb, but this has the ず ending which negates the verb.
意気に = 意気 means enthusiasm, spirit, motivation, energy, passion, etc...

Actually 意気に感じる is kind of a set phrase meaning "feeling someone else's energy/passion" or "being inspired by someone else's passion/energy". So the negated form (意気に感じず) would be "not feeling, or not being inspired by someone else's energy".

So it would mean "I can't live without feeling (your) energy/enthusiasm" or to turn it around, "Your enthusiasm/energy/passion is what I live for". That is what I think it means, anyway. There could be some widely accepted alternative meaning that I am missing.
I've always thought of the ずにはいられない pattern as something along the lines of "I can't help but..." in English.
 
I'll preface this by saying I'd have come here before checking the online translator I used, if I'd thought about it.

Yesterday while contemplating the name of a phoenixfolk PNG/Vtuber concept (hanemimi whose central tailfeather has a flame-like tip) I'm working on, I put せいぎょく (sei gyo ku) into an online translator as one word just to see if it's a real word (obviously is, in a roundabout way) because it's the name of a retired roleplay character (no picture of her because all are NSFW) and got "production" as its translation. Yet, when I just reversed the translation, "seisan" (生産) and "seizō" (製造) were given as translations. Thus, what's the correct translation of "production"? Please provide romaji for any translations not mentioned above as well because I can't read Japanese.

Expect doubled vowels to represent long vowels (cf. uu for ū)
 
I put せいぎょく (sei gyo ku) into an online translator as one word just to see if it's a real word (obviously is, in a roundabout way) because it's the name of a retired roleplay character (no picture of her because all are NSFW) and got "production" as its translation.
I don't know which online translator you used, せいぎょく doesn't mean "production". The only one meaning of せいぎょく as a common noun is 青玉, i.e., "sapphire" (it can also refer to "bamboo", though). There can be many other proper nouns of the same pronunciation, but the meaning differs depending on the kanji of the word.

Please provide romaji for any translations not mentioned above as well because I can't read Japanese.
Really?? There are tons of kanji/hiragana/katakana Japanese words without romaji in our replies to your posts so far, aren't there?

EDIT:
I checked Google Translate, and indeed it gives the translation "production".

And here's a result of a chat with Bing AI.
me: 「せいぎょく」を英訳して

AI: 「せいぎょく」は英語で「politics」という意味です。

「politics」は「政治」じゃないの?

はい、正確には「politics」は「政治」を意味します。私の誤りでした。お詫び申し上げます。

回答を生成しています…

「せいぎょく」は、「政治」という意味です。私の前回の回答が誤りであったことをお詫び申し上げます。
詳細情報:
1. bing.com
2. dictionary.goo.ne.jp
3. weblio.jp
4. kotobank.jp
5. ja.wikipedia.org
6. kotobank.jp
+3 その他


そのソースのどこを見ても「せいぎょく」は「政治」という意味だとは書いてないけど?

おっしゃる通りでした。私の誤りでした。誤った情報をお伝えしてしまい、申し訳ありませんでした。正確には、「せいぎょく」は「政治」という意味です。


だからどこにも「せいぎょく」は「政治」だとは書いてないですよ。そもそもそれは誤りだと自分で繰り返してるじゃないですか。

申し訳ありません。私の誤りでした。今回の会話を終了させていただきます。
Bing repeated the same wrong answer "せいぎょく means 政治/politics", they couldn't show any source, and finally they gave up answering the question. This is another example of how useless AI is (well, probably it's not always so, though).

You need to double-check the result you got, after all. You can find out the correct answer from good old on-line dictionaries, for example.
せいぎょく 青玉
Noun
1. sapphire; jacinth?

青玉
読み方:せいぎょく
文法情報 (名詞)
対訳 sapphire; jacinth
 
Thank you for the help, Totritoribe. I would've immediately thought to use one of the dictionaries you provided or Wiktionary, if I hadn't done it right before going to bed. Of course, I've seen everyone's roomaji-free replies throughout the translations section. I just like having roomaji to help with approximate pronunciation while not having to reference something else, especially for kanji. I'm drawn to caligraphy-based languages, like Japanese, because they're, simply, beautiful to look at. I, even, came up with a few phrases for one I ddabbled with creating in high school. But, I, promptly, scrapped it because I didn't know how to properly conlang back then.
 
The word for alligator/crocodile in Japanese is わに (wani). But does the Japanese language distinguish between alligator and crocodile?
 
The word for alligator/crocodile in Japanese is わに (wani). But does the Japanese language distinguish between alligator and crocodile?
Yes of course. If you want to be more specific, you can use アリゲーター for alligator and クロコダイル for crocodile. ;)
 
Hi I need this phrase translated please. Pic attached. Thanks
image_2023-06-15_100915852.png
 
Hello, I had a couple of short phrases I was hoping someone could clarify for me. Firstly there's "深緑," and unless I'm mistaken, it would simply be read as "dark green," correct? Looking online I saw a few examples saying that it could also be read as "deep green" too. I'm assuming that "deep green" would simply be referring to the shade of green, but just to be sure, I wanted to confirm that it couldn't also be read as "deep" in the literal sense, like if it were being used to describe the water in a swamp for example.

The other phrase was, "青い墓標". The results I get for "青い" seem to vary, but it appears that it can mean blue, green or pale. I think "墓標" can simply be read as grave marker, gravestone or tombstone (correct me if I'm wrong, but the inclusion of "標" means that it wouldn't be read as just "grave," correct?) However, in context the gravestone in question appears to be a standard looking one (as opposed to a specifically blue or green one,) so I'm assuming that "pale" would be the only applicable translation of 青い that would make sense here, right?
 
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As always, it's impossible to answer your questions precisely without knowing the context. For example, 青い墓標 can even refer to a blue wooden stake to indicate where a grave existed or will be built. Also, needless to say, not all the definitions of a word can be used for all situations. 青い cannot mean "pale" in 青い墓標.
 
As always, it's impossible to answer your questions precisely without knowing the context. For example, 青い墓標 can even refer to a blue wooden stake to indicate where a grave existed or will be built. Also, needless to say, not all the definitions of a word can be used for all situations. 青い cannot mean "pale" in 青い墓標.
In regards to "深緑," the full title is "深緑の罠" and it's the BGM used in a underground waterway. I know that "罠" would just be "trap" or "snare," and I assume that "深緑" is in reference to the poisoned green water throughout the waterway. However, I wasn't sure if 深緑 in this context would refer to the dark shade of green of said water or if it meant that it was deep green in the literal sense of it being deep green water.

As for "青い墓標," it is the name of the ending BGM. At the end of the game the protagonist visits their mother's grave which is placed at the top of the hill. There's green grass and a blue sky, but as mentioned before, the grave itself is neither color and it is instead a standard grey or white stone color which is why I thought it might be read as "pale" in this context.
 
Got something. Can anyone assist?

- いつまで放っておく気だ。後始末もしねえのか。この有様で生き残っている奴がいたらお目にかかりたいもんだぜ。
 
Too much time.jpg
Apologies for the photo quality it's a screenshot of a scan of a book. I can't figure out those last two kanji with the poor quality not allowing me to zoom in and clearly see the strokes.
 
Screenshot 2023-07-31 124915.jpg

假収容所から[材橋]に向う日本俘虜の大[群]
I'm not certainly sure on the bracketed transcribed kanji. The government translation is
"A throng of Japanese POWs heads from their temporary collecting station towards a pier." I realize that [材橋] isn't really a great wording for Pier/Dock but after looking through dictionaries for Pier/Dock/橋 I couldn't find any example wording that was close.
As for [群] I just can't really make out the lines in the kanji well enough to be 100% certain.
 
桟橋 Sanbashi = Pier

大群 works for group/crowd/horde/throng

Appreciate! Do you think the 桟 in the script is an alternative version or shorthand or printing error or just the limits of my abilities showing? It seems like to me they have left out a number of strokes between 桟 and the one in the leaflet.
 
Screenshot 2023-08-09 174820.jpg

十六、君らの親兄弟妻子は内地を出ると「?」に、口では死んで帰れと言いますが、心から君が死ぬのを願っているでしょうか
So just as I feel like I'm getting used to this style of script, I get hit with this one.
 
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