"Proverb" Translation

Noahd25 · 29 Sep 2017

Toritoribe said:
I would translate the English quote as 庭園の戦士は戦場の庭師よりましである。 in modern Japanese, if you are interested in it.

Thanks!! Are you a native speaker?

Toritoribe · 29 Sep 2017

Yes, I'm a native Japanese speaker.

francois2012 · 21 Nov 2022

nice gaijin said:
According to google-sensei, your quote comes from Sun Tzu's art of war. If this is the case, the original quote would be in Chinese, not Japanese. Another source claims it's from a Chinese proverb, but starts off differently: Tending the garden is a relaxing pastime, ...

I took the Chinese words for gardener and warrior and added "gardener in war" in quotes to a search, and nearly hit the google jackpot: 2 results that have the exact quote you're looking for:

花园里的战士好过战场上的园丁。
Huāyuán (garden) lǐ de (in the) zhànshì (warrior) hǎoguò (better than) zhànchǎng (battlefield) shàng de (on the) yuándīng (gardener).

(the grammar structure in Chinese is different from english, the translations are just there to show which words mean what)

Nope it is not in the Art Of War. Purchased the Ebook to verify and Garden or GARDENER never appears. Same goes for Myato Musashi. No gardeners !

francois2012 · 21 Nov 2022

nice gaijin said:
According to google-sensei, your quote comes from Sun Tzu's art of war. If this is the case, the original quote would be in Chinese, not Japanese. Another source claims it's from a Chinese proverb, but starts off differently: Tending the garden is a relaxing pastime, ...

I took the Chinese words for gardener and warrior and added "gardener in war" in quotes to a search, and nearly hit the google jackpot: 2 results that have the exact quote you're looking for:

花园里的战士好过战场上的园丁。
Huāyuán (garden) lǐ de (in the) zhànshì (warrior) hǎoguò (better than) zhànchǎng (battlefield) shàng de (on the) yuándīng (gardener).

(the grammar structure in Chinese is different from english, the translations are just there to show which words mean what)

Nope! Garden or Gardener never appears in the Art of War nor in The Book Of Fie Rings. Some claim it is from Bruce Lee, but I really doubt this. Must be from an unknown New Age book we have yet to find.

nice gaijin · 21 Nov 2022

francois2012 said:
Nope! Garden or Gardener never appears in the Art of War nor in The Book Of Fie Rings. Some claim it is from Bruce Lee, but I really doubt this. Must be from an unknown New Age book we have yet to find.

@francois2012 Interesting, did you read the rest of this thread before you posted?

francois2012 · 21 Nov 2022

nice gaijin said:
@francois2012 Interesting, did you read the rest of this thread before you posted?

Yes I did. I even trued t see if there was an easy way to contact Peter Jessop The Warrior in the Garden, But I fell to subscribe to this site. Did a search in Kindle book and no such words as garden appear.

nice gaijin · 21 Nov 2022

francois2012 said:
Yes I did. I even trued t see if there was an easy way to contact Peter Jessop The Warrior in the Garden, But I fell to subscribe to this site. Did a search in Kindle book and no such words as garden appear.

Yeah, I mean, it was already mentioned by several other members that the quote wasn't actually from Sun Tzu, but it was merely mentioned in an article that also discussed "The Art of War." Your correction was redundant and 5 years late. If you did read the whole thread I don't understand why you went to all the trouble of buying a copy just to prove me wrong.

Man, I make ONE mistake online and I'll never live it down. I guess I'd be OK with that if it were universally applied!

francois2012 · 22 Nov 2022

nice gaijin said:
Yeah, I mean, it was already mentioned by several other members that the quote wasn't actually from Sun Tzu, but it was merely mentioned in an article that also discussed "The Art of War." Your correction was redundant and 5 years late. If you did read the whole thread I don't understand why you went to all the trouble of buying a copy just to prove me wrong.

Man, I make ONE mistake online and I'll never live it down. I guess I'd be OK with that if it were universally appliDon't take it personal. It was not clarified that

Man! Don't take it personally. I just wanted to pint out that it did not even exist in the books. I liked that quote and wanted to use it in a book I am writing about martial arts. This is what brought me here. Never was it pointed out that the word garden could not be even found in the book. That is all. I could have done the same mistake as you did. But now I know that many references are false when it comes to quotes. I have been through the same ordeal with Musashi's said to be quotes in the Book of five rings.

nice gaijin · 22 Nov 2022

francois2012 said:
Man! Don't take it personally. I just wanted to pint out that it did not even exist in the books. I liked that quote and wanted to use it in a book I am writing about martial arts. This is what brought me here. Never was it pointed out that the word garden could not be even found in the book. That is all. I could have done the same mistake as you did. But now I know that many references are false when it comes to quotes. I have been through the same ordeal with Musashi's said to be quotes in the Book of five rings.

Not taking it personally, just found it humorous. I ate humble pie 5 years ago, I didn't even know there were leftovers still in the fridge.

獺無意味 · 3 Dec 2022

I did a little translation that (I feel) works better.
庭の戦士は戦場の庭師よりもれている
Niwa no senshi wa senjō no niwashi yori morete iru
It translates to english as:
The garden warrior is better than the battlefield gardener
If you use Google Translate on the original Chinese it translates as:
庭の戦士は畑の庭師よりもれている
Niwa no senshi wa hata no niwashi yori morete iru
(in english):
The garden warrior is better than the gardener in the field

So I replace 畑 (hata) "feild"
with 戦場 (senjō) "battlefeild"

Hope this helps

Swede · 16 Jan 2023

nice gaijin said:
Not taking it personally, just found it humorous. I ate humble pie 5 years ago, I didn't even know there were leftovers still in the fridge.

In your eating of said humble pie, we all were fed. Seeking and finding were shared. As were knowledge.
Thank you

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