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[Translation Request] Why am I so Weak? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Questions About Your Target Languages |  | |
| Monox D. I-Fly Senior Member Indonesia monoxdifly.iopc.us Joined 4930 days ago 762 posts - 664 votes  Speaks: Indonesian* | Message 1 of 9 17 March 2015 at 6:57pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hey guys, I want to write this sentence in Arabic and Japanese:
"Why am I so weak? I can do it, can't I?" Can someone translate it to both language in their script as well as in Latin? I don't know about the Arabic one, so please include the vowel (or how to read them) in the script. For Japanese, my guess is "Naze ka ore wa yowai da? Boku wa dekiru darou?", but I don't know all the Kanji which are used except for "boku". Thanks in advance. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Renaçido Triglot Newbie Canada Joined 4879 days ago 34 posts - 60 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English, French Studies: German, Arabic (Written), Mandarin, Latin | Message 2 of 9 14 August 2015 at 12:50am | IP Logged | ||
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لماذا أنا ضعيف؟ أستطيع أن أفعله، أليس كذلك؟
li-maadhaa 2ana Da3iifun? 2astaTii3u 2an 2af3ala-hu, 2a-laysa ka-dhaalika? (male speaker) لماذا أنا ضعيفة؟ أستطيع أن أفعله، أليس كذلك؟ li-maadhaa 2ana Da3iifatun? 2astaTii3u 2an 2af3ala-hu, 2a-laysa ka-dhaalika? (female speaker) Literally, "why I weak? I.can that I.do.SUBJUNCTIVE-it, Q-it.is.not like-that?" (where Q = question particle) Edited by Renaçido on 14 August 2015 at 12:51am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Monox D. I-Fly Senior Member Indonesia monoxdifly.iopc.us Joined 4930 days ago 762 posts - 664 votes Speaks: Indonesian* | Message 3 of 9 09 October 2015 at 7:32pm | IP Logged | ||
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So, does "li-maadhaa" means "why"? Or is it just "maadhaa"?
Also, does كذلك mean "isn't it"? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| vonPeterhof Tetraglot Senior Member Russian FederationRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4567 days ago 715 posts - 1527 votes Speaks: Russian*, EnglishC2, Japanese, German Studies: Kazakh, Korean, Norwegian, Turkish | Message 4 of 9 10 October 2015 at 9:59am | IP Logged | ||
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My best guesses for Japanese:
僕/俺はなんでこんなに弱いのか。 できないだろうね。 Boku/Ore wa nande konna ni yowai no ka? Dekinai darō ne? (male speaker) 私はどうしてこんなに弱いの？ できないでしょうね。 Watashi wa dōshite konna ni yowai no? Dekinai deshō ne? (female speaker) Literally, "I-TOP why this.way-in weak-NOM(-Q)? Cannot probably-TQ?" (TOP = topic particle, NOM = nominalizing particle, Q = question particle and TQ = tag question particle) The topic particle wa marks the topic of the passage until another topic is introduced, so it's not necessary to specify that the second sentence is also talking about the speaker. The nominalizing particle no can be added to questions to emphasize that the question is about an explanation or reasons for something. In informal speech this form of question can be used without the question particle ka, but this is more commonly associated with feminine speech patterns. The particle ne plays a similar role to the English tag questions (right? isn't it? can't I?), asking for confirmation. The darō/deshō isn't absolutely necessary, but I think it's a bit more natural for Japanese people to qualify such statements with an indicator of strong certainty rather than leave them completely unqualified. Also note that the masculine/feminine distinctions here are stylistic rather than grammatical - both men and women can use all of the words in above two sentences if they choose to, or in some specific circumstances (for instance, boku is pretty common in songs sung from a female perspective, most likely because watashi can be too long to fit into some lines). It's just that in informal spoken Japanese men and women are expected to speak in certain ways and choosing the "wrong" words might make the wrong impression. Also, ore is a lot more "manly" than boku and may be considered rude if used when talking to people you're not that close to. The gendered distinctions tend to decrease in more polite or formal speech. The translation into gender-neutral polite Japanese would probably be something like this: 私はなぜこんなに弱いのでしょうか？ できないでしょうね。 Watashi wa naze konna ni yowai no deshō ka? Dekinai deshō ne? The deshō in the first sentence is only there to make the question polite. Normally this function would be performed by desu, but in this case it would make the question a little too direct, as if you actually expect the other person to know why you're so weak better than you do and to give you a definite explanation. Edited by vonPeterhof on 10 October 2015 at 10:03am 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Monox D. I-Fly Senior Member Indonesia monoxdifly.iopc.us Joined 4930 days ago 762 posts - 664 votes Speaks: Indonesian* | Message 5 of 9 10 October 2015 at 5:10pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks, guys. Glad to get responses from both Arabic perspective and Japanese persepective. What about my translation effort in my first post? Is "Naze ka ore wa yowai da? Boku wa dekiru darou?" correct? And, basing on the scripts you provided me, it will be written as "なぜか俺は弱いだ? 僕はできるだろう?"?
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| vonPeterhof Tetraglot Senior Member Russian FederationRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4567 days ago 715 posts - 1527 votes Speaks: Russian*, EnglishC2, Japanese, German Studies: Kazakh, Korean, Norwegian, Turkish | Message 6 of 9 10 October 2015 at 10:00pm | IP Logged | ||
As for the second sentence, there's nothing negating dekiru, so you're basically saying that you can do it. Additionally, the use of darō without any particles or other softening qualifiers usually turns sentences like these into pretty strong statements, as if you're implying "What do you mean I can't do it?! Of course I can!". Granted, the question mark in the end does make it clear that you're asking rather than telling, but the use of darō still implies that you're pretty confident about your abilities. Edited by vonPeterhof on 10 October 2015 at 10:01pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Monox D. I-Fly Senior Member Indonesia monoxdifly.iopc.us Joined 4930 days ago 762 posts - 664 votes Speaks: Indonesian* | Message 7 of 9 11 October 2015 at 7:20am | IP Logged | ||
Read my first post. The second sentence was "I can do it, can't I?". 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| vonPeterhof Tetraglot Senior Member Russian FederationRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4567 days ago 715 posts - 1527 votes Speaks: Russian*, EnglishC2, Japanese, German Studies: Kazakh, Korean, Norwegian, Turkish | Message 8 of 9 11 October 2015 at 9:57am | IP Logged | ||
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Oops, I've been misreading the second sentence as "I can't do it, can I?" the whole time, sorry. In this case, yeah, your translation of it is fine. I'd still add a ne at the end of it, to make it more of a tag question, but your version also gets the meaning across.
Now to correct my original translations: 僕/俺はなんでこんなに弱いのか。 僕/俺にはできるだろうね。 Boku/Ore wa nande konna ni yowai no ka? Boku/Ore ni wa dekiru darō ne? (male speaker) 私はどうしてこんなに弱いの？ 私にはできるでしょうね。 Watashi wa dōshite konna ni yowai no? Watashi ni wa dekiru deshō ne? (female speaker) 私はなぜこんなに弱いのでしょうか？ 私にはできるでしょうね。 Watashi wa naze konna ni yowai no deshō ka? Watashi ni wa dekiru deshō ne? (polite gender-neutral) The reason I chose not to omit the topic in the second sentence this time is that now I feel that the two sentences are in a bit of a contrast with each other, so a slight change of subject is needed. While boku wa can be used with dekiru, boku ni wa is more grammatically accurate (the ni here functions like the "for" in "it's doable for me") and fitting to bring out the contrast between the two sentences. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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