Translating sentence help!

[KyleGoetz]

Originally Posted by CCSUCaboose

Okay well I could only find out how to write katakana with my keyboard so I had to use a little Photoshop magic! Now, I found that the kanji for 'watashi' is what was used. But the book spelled it out 'watakushi' so I'm confused, but other than that... here it is:

The stuff surrounded in blue is the tiny hirigana they used next to the kanji to spell it out.

1. The "tiny hiragana" is called "furigana."
2. Without context (or kanji for すすめる), my best guess is: Lo, I exhort you (to do something) or Lo, I recommend (it) to you.
3. Kanji can be read multiple ways. 私 can be read, among other ways, as わたくし、わたし、etc. わたくし is more formal than わたし. I have occasionally used わたくし, but only rarely.

Fun tidbit I did not know until I looked it up: ごらん can mean "Lo" like the Biblical interjection.

Edit Dude, the translation into English is here: Moroni 10 Looks like my translation was spot on.

Behold, I would exhort you

[KyleGoetz]

Originally Posted by CCSUCaboose

You mean to say that it'd be translated into something impossible to understand without knowing the older language? Cause if that's it, the Japanese Book Of Mormon was retranslated in the 90's so that it could be understood by anyone who knew Japanese, and not the older Japanese that had the english equivalent of, say, thee thou, etc. ( I forget what that's called) So it should be translatable for anyone that can read modern Japanese, which is why I was hoping someone would translate it. Oh yeah, and I have read the English Book Of Mormon, It's just that (you don't have to read this whole explanation) I was told by several in my church (Mormon church) that if we're trying to learn a language, we should read the Book Of Mormon in that language the best we can, and we will learn it. I still do learn from books and stuff though, don't think this is the only thing I'm doing.

Sorry about the previous post. I didn't see this post and didn't realize that you actually had an English copy of the Book of Moroni. I thought you were translating something like...some Japanese scholarship on the Book of Mormon that didn't exist in English, not the actual Book.

What I had meant that you were responding to with the above quote is that translating a Japanese translation into English is less efficient than just possessing the original English (since the Japanese was translated from the English, right?).

However, I see that you are translating it to learn Japanese, not to create an English copy of something.

After seeing the Japanese version of the Book of Mormon, I now advise you that it's not a good idea to learn Japanese by trying to translate the Book of Mormon. It's not written in language people use now. I have, zero times, heard someone start off a sentence with ごらん. That little bit you posted doesn't make me think it has been adapted to modern Japanese.

Of course, I'm just making recommendations. If you're already at a good enough level in Japanese to be translating the Book of Mormon, but are looking to polish off intermediate-to-advanced stuff, I suggest just translating online news articles.

But to each his own. I wouldn't dream of learning Japanese by reading and translating the Bible until I was already pretty advanced. I'm assuming you're not, since you don't know how to type Japanese on your computer yet.

Regardless, good luck! I was just trying to give you a religiously tolerant suggestion (I consider myself Mormon-friendly, though I'm not one).

[Columbine]

Originally Posted by KyleGoetz

Fun tidbit I did not know until I looked it up: ごらん can mean "Lo" like the Biblical interjection.

That's interesting. Makes sense though considering the other uses of ごらん. I guess you could also translate it as "Behold" if you fancied some variation.

[CCSUCaboose]

Originally Posted by KyleGoetz

Sorry about the previous post. I didn't see this post and didn't realize that you actually had an English copy of the Book of Moroni. I thought you were translating something like...some Japanese scholarship on the Book of Mormon that didn't exist in English, not the actual Book.

What I had meant that you were responding to with the above quote is that translating a Japanese translation into English is less efficient than just possessing the original English (since the Japanese was translated from the English, right?).

However, I see that you are translating it to learn Japanese, not to create an English copy of something.

After seeing the Japanese version of the Book of Mormon, I now advise you that it's not a good idea to learn Japanese by trying to translate the Book of Mormon. It's not written in language people use now. I have, zero times, heard someone start off a sentence with ごらん. That little bit you posted doesn't make me think it has been adapted to modern Japanese.

Of course, I'm just making recommendations. If you're already at a good enough level in Japanese to be translating the Book of Mormon, but are looking to polish off intermediate-to-advanced stuff, I suggest just translating online news articles.

But to each his own. I wouldn't dream of learning Japanese by reading and translating the Bible until I was already pretty advanced. I'm assuming you're not, since you don't know how to type Japanese on your computer yet.

Regardless, good luck! I was just trying to give you a religiously tolerant suggestion (I consider myself Mormon-friendly, though I'm not one).

Thanks for the suggestion, I probably will do some articles, but I'm gonna keep doing the BOM too.

[CCSUCaboose]

Originally Posted by KyleGoetz

1. The "tiny hiragana" is called "furigana."
2. Without context (or kanji for すすめる), my best guess is: Lo, I exhort you (to do something) or Lo, I recommend (it) to you.
3. Kanji can be read multiple ways. 私 can be read, among other ways, as わたくし、わたし、etc. わたくし is more formal than わたし. I have occasionally used わたくし, but only rarely.

Fun tidbit I did not know until I looked it up: ごらん can mean "Lo" like the Biblical interjection.

Edit Dude, the translation into English is here: Moroni 10 Looks like my translation was spot on.

Thanks for thatm but it's actually the first line the book, so it can't be Moroni 10. Ummm, I may ask for help with the second sentence too, whenever I do it. Thanks!

[KyleGoetz]

Originally Posted by CCSUCaboose

Thanks for thatm but it's actually the first line the book, so it can't be Moroni 10. Ummm, I may ask for help with the second sentence too, whenever I do it. Thanks!

Well, it is Moroni 10:3. When I searched for it in Japanese, I got this: "ごらん、私はあなたたちにすすめたい" - Google Search

The last link says it is モロナイ10,3, and what you've provided is pretty much what Moroni 10:3 says. It may also be something else, but it is Moroni 10:3 according to the Japanese translation of the Book of Mormon found at the link.

[CCSUCaboose]

Do you have any suggestions on places where I can get good articles or anything Japanese to practice translating?

[KyleGoetz]

Originally Posted by CCSUCaboose

Do you have any suggestions on places where I can get good articles or anything Japanese to practice translating?

Seriously? Google ニュース
Or you could just google "Japanese newspaper." Two of the first three links are Japanese-language newspapers.
Or you could read the Wikipedia article about Japanese newspapers to get a list of the Japanese newspapers. Obviously they'd all be online at this point. Japanese newspapers - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia