Wednesday, December 14, 2011

What does "you", "mayowanu", and "hitomi" mean in japanese?

Question:


Not quite sure if "mayowanu" is even one word, or a word for that matter. I think "hitomi" is body, but i've heard other translations for it. Same for "you".

What do they mean in this line from a song?-

-Sono "hitomi" ga "mayowanu" "you" ni-

Answer:


I think you're mishearing a few things. "hitomi" might in fact be "hittori" (alone/ by one's self). "Mayowanu" is certainly not a single word, might be "...NO you ni", which is a recognizable structure. If you post the title of the song, or the original lyrics, I should be able to help you out of your conundrum.

[EDIT]
Solved, sorta.Original lyrics in Japanese (title: Anna ni issho datta no ni) [1]: "...その瞳が迷わぬように"
Translation offered [2]: "...So that our eyes do not become lost."

We can see this phrase/term occurring a couple times in other songs:[3][4].

However, I will contend that this translation is incorrect. The translation of these songs has not been done by professionals, and there are errors, for example:

Naitari mo suru shi
Doji mo suru kedo
Yasashiku surutte yakusoku dekiru

Translation:

Though I guess I'll cry
and make a blunder,
I can make a promiss that I'll be kind.

Spelling error notwithstanding, there is no "I guess I'll cry" in the source text. A better translation would be "though I may cry" or just "though I cry".

Going back to our original song lyrics, if we break it down:
その/ 瞳が/迷わぬ/ ように

We see that (1):There is no negative structure anywhere, and yet it becomes "so that our eyes do not..." and (2): The translator has decided that ように is "for the purpose of/in order to", and then perhaps decided again that "so that our eyes get lost" doesn't make any sense, and introduced a negative (do not get lost), apparently out of thin air.

[Note1] The negative form of "mayou" (to stray) is mayowanai [5]. Although it is translated negatively in the first referenced song [3], the same word is *not* translated negatively in the second referenced song [4].
[Note2] I found this: [6] regarding the difference between different forms of 迷う: 迷える・迷えぬ・迷わぬ. NOTE:「迷わぬ小羊」(かつて迷っていても、今は迷わない)"The lamb 'that was lost'(although it was lost before, it is no longer lost now). The suggested translation has been changed accordingly.

I would argue that ように here may actually mean "in this way/as/like", which is another definition of ように, and fits in better with the rest of the translation:

"Where are [our] hearts? Where are they drifting? Just as these eyes once strayed."

To the OP, sorry for the assertion that your original romaji text was in error, and thank you for quickly supplying very useful additional information. None of the four dictionaries I checked (JWPce, Rikaichan, Jim Breem's Japanese page, Y! Jap. Dict.) contain an entry for 迷わぬ, even though it turns up in google searches. It may be archaic, or poetic (to stray, to be lead astray, to go astray, lost). However, the song translation that I found may in fact be in error.

It seems like we will need a native speaker (who translates well) if we're ever to get to the bottom of this. I really did my best.

@ Shoki: "confuse" *would* make an odd sentence. However, in addition to "confuse", 迷う can also mean "to lose one's way" or "to go/to be led astray" or, by extension "to wander". Confusion over the exact difference between these verbs, and which one to use has probably lead to the so-far incorrect/poor translation.

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