Translating sentence help!
 

Hey everybody, I just started my attempt to translate a Japanese Book Of Mormon today! And I got stuck at the first sentence.:o So, I think I have it correctly written, just not translated right. Here's what I think it is:
goran watakushi wa anata tachi ni sasume tai.
That's the best I could do (this is my first time, don't laugh I only started learning Japaanese 4 months ago).
Originally the symbols were like this: (watakushi was in kanji so I left it together)
go ra n watakushi ha a na ta ta chi ni su su me ta i
So PLEASE tell me if I got it wrong, thanks!:ywave:

Where is the translation?

It'd help to see the English.

And did you mean Book of Mormon? Haha.

Oh crap wow, I did NOT mean to write moron, that's the most irritating joke ever. Sorry. As for the translation, it's different than the original english version, that one has more introductions so I don't have a clue where in the beginning it could be. If you want, I'll find an english version online.

I don't understand. Are you translating it, or are you just trying to pronounce the characters?

I'm trying to translate it, I want to understand the meaning of the sentence. I'll explain why tomorrow, I'm tired. Thanks!

From one amateur Biblical scholar to another (although I am Lutheran, not Mormon): you're wasting your time if you hope this gives you some insight. The original is in English, right? (Well, I guess technically the original is in some angelic language, if I recall Mormon doctrine correctly.) So just read the original. And if you're reading something from the Bible proper and not the Mormon Bible, then you're getting a doubly watered-down version (Aramaic/Greek/Hebrew->Japanese->English).

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. :)

So is your goal to learn Japanese or your goal to read the Book of Mormon?

Okay, I am trying to learn Japanese, but I am also trying to read the Japanese Book Of Mormon, not because I want too know what it says, but to help with my Japanese through reading it. I don't need to understand everything it, but I want to do this.

Knowing what your goals are makes it easier to help.

Goody :D Hopefully you'll be able to

OK, so please type it in Japanese, share with us your attempt at translation, and we can help. That's how things usually go down around here.

I did, look at the first post.

A translation is changing it from one language into another.

You just wrote the pronunciation of the Japanese characters. Without seeing the actual Japanese in Japanese there is no way to be sure about a translation into English.

Yes, this is what I meant.

Watch:
僕はさびしい
boku wa sabisii is a transliteration
I am lonely is a translation

Translations change language. Transliteration changes merely the writing system.

Okay, so how can I write the hirigana and kanji out to you?

There is a sticky that explains it on this very forum. Read it.

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.

You didn't see this?

http://www.japanforum.com/forum/japa...s-your-pc.html

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.

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).

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.

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

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!:vsign:

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.

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