What's new

The original text of Miyamoto Musashi

Prospero

後輩
7 Sep 2017
6
0
11
Heya mates. Greetings from Bulgaria.
So I have a friend of mine, who is into Japanese language and she has a birthday, so I wanna make her a poster with the phrase "there is nothing outside of yourself that can ever enable you to get better, stronger, richer, quicker, or smarter. Everything is within. Everything exists. Seek nothing outside of yourself" by Miyamoto Musashi in kanji.
I know that it is not exactly translation, rather then a "back to original" but I need it fast and do not know where to post.
Also if you can advise me how to arrange the kanji.
P. S. Please, please do not give me a translation of "where is the toilet?" :D
Cheers lads!
 
mm2.jpg

Maybe one of our members can find a poster like one of these , only in Japanese , not English.
 

Attachments

  • mm1.jpg
    mm1.jpg
    430.5 KB · Views: 8,655
I searched a lot but couldn't find any poster in Japanese. So I downloaded the image and all I need is the phrase in Japanese.
I know that this is not the place for that kind of request, but your help will be highly appreciated.
Cheers.
 
You can create a new thread.

I checked The Book of Five Rings entirely both in the original classical text and the modern Japanese translation, but couldn't find anything corresponding to the English excerpt you quoted. Google search results only return the English version, too. Now I wonder if it's really correct translation of the original Miyamoto Musashi's book...
 
I see. Well it is gonna be translation after all, eh :D
Seriously - thank you so much for you time to check both text. Now I am I a bit of pinch. I did a little search and found this thread - Musashi quote Translation | Japan Forum
Love the quote but this "men" at the end is disturbing. Is the quote referring to men, or can be interpreted? I really do not know if it's gonna be appropriate for a girl.
Finally if it is not to much trouble I wanna ask you to translate the "there is nothing outside..." quote. The idea is to surprise her and to motivate her in hers Japanese studies. She's a beginner in Japanese language and I think it's really cool.
Thank you once more.
 
She's a beginner in Japanese language

Then it's just going to be gibberish to her no matter what you write and this is all about you and nothing about her.

How about something that might actually be inspirational for her when she gets discouraged about Japanese studies? Something like 石の上にも三年
 
She read the way of the warrior and she was really impressed. That's why I chose that quote. In one way to motivate her to translate the original text (with the help of her tutor/teacher ofc), from the other - to read the Book of five rings. Do you think it is gonna be gibberish for the teacher as well? If you guys think that way maybe it's better to use the English quote...
As for the quote I think it is pritty good motivation to develop in many aspects. :))
 
She won't be translating the original of that book any time soon.

Is she studying so she can become a translator?
 
Thx cez. Well this closes the case then. If it is not original quote there's no point of using it in Japanese.
Well guys if you have some ideas of appropriate quotes I am listening. If not will stick with the English version.
Cheers.
 
Here you go. This is the modern version. A few years late... LOL

「自分の外側に、自分をもっと良く、強く、豊かに、早く、賢くするものを探しても、何も無い。全ては自身の中に。既に全てもっている。自分の外側にことを求めるな。」
 
As cez-san already pointed out, the quote is not from Miyamoto Musashi but from Stephen Kaufman, author of "Musashi's Book of Five Rings: The Definitive Interpretation of Miyamoto Musashi's Classic Book of Strategy".

You found the Japanese translation in the following blog (or maybe in Facebook), right?


It's actually the Japanese translation of the English quote, not the original classical Japanese text, and the writer of the blog wouldn't realize that the English quote was actually not from Musashi's book. (He didn't even check if it's really from Five Rings, I think.)

Here's the original classical text and the modern Japanese translation of Five Rings I used to check. You can see there is no such paragraph in the original, as I already wrote.
 
Back
Top Bottom