On ne voit bien qu'avec le cœur, Japanese versions |
On ne voit bien qu'avec le cœur ('It is only with the heart that one can see rightly'), from 'The Little Prince'.
There are currently 16 translations of Le Petit Prince in Japanese, including the original one by Naitō Arō in 1953. That by Shinsan is more an adaptation than a translation and is not covered here, making a total of 15 translations.
First we look at the elements of the sentence -- transitive and intransitive verbs, the translation of ne ... que, and other elements, in particular the expression of the object of the verb.
An exceptional grammatical structure is treated separately. In addition, Japanese has rather interesting discourse features, including the practice of embedding the statement in a kind of 'frame' (my secret is the fact that...), and modal particles that give an assertive or declaratory force.
1. TRANSITIVE AND INTRANSITIVE VERBS
Transitive verb
The French original uses the transitive verb voir 'to see'. A transitive verb is one which takes an object -- although this object (les choses 'things') is not explicitly expressed in the French.
Directly translated, the basic French sentence becomes:
BASIC SENTENCE WITH TRANSITIVE VERB |
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on 'one' |
avec le coeur 'with the heart' |
les choses 'things' |
voit 'sees' |
人が hito ga 'person' (subject) |
心で kokoro de 'with the heart' |
ものごとを monogoto o 'things' (object) |
見る miru 'look at/see' |
The verb comes at the end of the Japanese sentence. Particles indicate grammatical roles: が ga marks the subject, で de marks the instrument, を o marks the object of the verb. Here, as in the French, ものごと monogoto 'things' is the object of the verb 見る miru 'to see'.
Intransitive verb
But Japanese has a better way of expressing this, involving the use of an intransitive verb. An intransitive verb is one that doesn't take an object. The intransitive verb corresponding to 見る miru 'to see' is 見える mieru 'to be seen, to be visible'.
Using 見える mieru, our sentence becomes as follows:
SWITCHING FROM TRANSITIVE TO INTRANSITIVE |
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| Transitive verb: 見る miru 'to see' | |||
on (subject) 'one' (subject) |
avec le coeur 'with the heart' |
les choses (object) 'things' (object) |
voit 'sees' |
人が hito ga 'person' (subject) |
心で kokoro de 'with the heart' |
ものごとを monogoto o 'things' (object) |
見る miru 'look at/see' |
 |
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| Intransitive verb: 見える mieru 'to be able to see, visible' | |||
les choses (subject) 'things' (subject) |
avec le coeur 'with the heart' |
x x |
peut voir / peut être vues 'can see / can be seen' |
ものごとが monogoto ga 'things' (subject) |
心で kokoro de 'with the heart' |
x |
見える mieru 'can see, can be seen' |
Here, ものごと monogoto 'things' becomes the subject of the intransitive verb 見える mieru 'to see'. The agent, 人 hito 'people', disappears completely. (It can however, be expressed if necessary by using the particle に ni, roughly meaning 'by'.)
There is a difference in meaning to match. The difference is similar to that between the English sentences:
1. We sold the houses quickly. (Transitive. Subject is 'we', object is 'the houses'.)
2. The houses sold quickly. (Intransitive. Subject is 'the houses'.)In the second sentence, the verb 'to sell' is in an active form but the meaning is passive -- the houses were sold. There is also a sense that the selling occurred naturally, and that we were able to sell the houses quite naturally.
All of these senses are found in the intransitive verb 見える mieru, which simultaneously carries the meanings 'to be seen, to be able to see, to be visible'. (For more on transitive vs intransitive, see Transitive, not Transvestite!, Transitive and Intransitive Verbs, and Notes on Japanese Verbs.)
In this sentence, the most natural way to render On ne voit bien qu'avec le coeur ('One can see clearly only with the heart') is to use the intransitive verb.
'Can see' using the transitive verb
However, a couple of translators do use the transitive verb. They do so by converting it into a potential form, i.e., a form meaning 'can see', by adding 〜ことができる ...koto ga dekiru literally '... thing is possible'. While a transitive form grammatically, in terms of meaning it is largely equivalent to 見える mieru.
POTENTIAL FORM |
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on 'one' |
avec le coeur 'with the heart' |
les choses 'things' |
peut voir 'can see' |
|
人が hito ga 'person' (subject) |
心で kokoro de 'with the heart' |
ものごとを monogoto o 'thing' (object) |
見る miru 'look at/see' |
ことができる koto ga dekiru 'be able to' |
Translating 'only' as しか shika
The two translators using 見ることができる miru koto ga dekiru 'is able to see' use しか shika 'only' to express ne ... que. This involves:
1. Placing the word しか shika after the focus (shown in red lettering).
2. Putting the verb in negative form, a special requirement of しか shika.
ADDING しか shika ('ONLY') |
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les choses 'things' |
avec le coeur 'with the heart' |
ne ... que 'only' |
peut voir 'can see' |
|
ものごとは monogoto wa 'thing' (topic) |
心で kokoro de 'with the heart' |
しか shika 'only' |
見る miru 'look at/see' |
ことができない koto ga dekinai 'not be able to' |
Of the translators using the intransitive verb 見える mieru, only one uses しか shika. Again, this involves adding しか shika after the focus ('with the heart', shown in red), and converting the verb to a negative:
ADDING しか shika |
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les choses 'things' |
avec le coeur 'with the heart' |
ne ... que 'only' |
peut être vu / est visible 'can be seen, be visible' |
ものは mono wa 'things' (topic) |
心で kokoro de 'with the heart' |
しか
shika 'only' |
見えない mienai 'can see, can be seen' (negative) |
'Unless look with the heart things can't be seen'
The great majority, 11 of our 15 translations, prefer a different way of translating ne ... que. They use a sentence pattern of the form 'if not look with the heart things can't be seen well' (or in more idiomatic English, 'unless you look with the heart things can't be seen well'). This involves using two negative clauses:
〜なくちゃ ... 〜ない
-nakucha ... -nai
('if not' ... 'not')
which together express an affirmative. (Japanese negatives are attached after the verb as part of the verb's inflection).
'ONLY' EXPRESSED WITH DOUBLE NEGATIVES |
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A |
B |
||
si ne voit pas avec le coeur 'if not look with the heart' |
ne peut pas voir 'cannot see' |
||
心で見- kokoro de mi- 'look with the heart' |
-なくちゃ -nakucha '-if not' |
見え- mie- 'can see' |
-ない -nai '-not' |
A) The A clause has the transitive verb 見る miru 'to look'. Although the verb is transitive, neither the subject ('a person') nor the object ('things') is expressed. Only the instrumental 'with the heart' is expressed.
The verb is in the conditional form 見なくちゃ minakucha, 'if not look', a colloquial form of 見なくては -minakute wa. But there is some variety among translations. As well as 〜なくちゃ -nakucha , 〜なくては -nakute wa, 〜ないと -nai to and 〜なければ -nakereba are used. One translator uses でなければ de nakereba 'if not'. More
B) The B clause means 'cannot see well' or 'cannot be seen well'. It features the plain negative form (using ない -nai) of the intransitive verb 見える mieru 'to be visible'. One translation uses 見えてこない miete konai, literally 'not come to see', which means something like 'not come into view'. It indicates both gradualism in making things out, and an effort to do so.
With its two negatives, this sentence is strongly affirmative. In fact, Japanese uses a virtually identical construction to express the meaning 'must':
V + なくちゃならない
V + nakucha naranai
or
V + なくちゃいけない
V + nakucha ikenai
4. OTHER ELEMENTS: AGENT, OBJECT, AND ADVERB
Object seen ('things')
The French original doesn't supply an object for the verb voir, and among the English translations only Cuffe uses an object, the very general noun 'things'.
Among the 15 Japanese translators, however, all but three spell out the object seen. The great majority use an expression meaning 'things'. The different translations are shown in the following table:
ものごと (物事) monogoto 'things' もの mono 'things' Zero (omission) -- なにも nani mo 'nothing' TOTAL
- The most common word for 'things' is ものごと monogoto, which can be translated as 'things, matters'. This is composed of もの mono, referring to physical objects, and こと koto, referring to abstract matters. It is thus a general term for 'things in general'. (One translator writes this in Chinese characters as 物事 monogoto.)
- Slightly less numerous is もの mono, which usually refers to physical objects. Since seeing tends to involve physical perception, the word ものが見える mono ga mieru 'to be able to see' is a common collocation in Japanese.
Of these two terms, ものごと monogoto tends to convey a more 'philosophical' flavour, as though the fox were pontificating on the nature of 'things' and the universe. もの mono is more related to physical vision.
One translator uses なにも nanimo 'nothing', which changes the sense considerably. From ものは見えない mono wa mienai 'things can't be seen', the meaning changes to なにも見えない nanimo mienai 'can see nothing'.
Agent and object
Although transitive and intransitive verbs differ grammatically, there is almost complete convergence among translators in expressing the agent and the object in this sentence:
1. ALL Japanese versions omit the agent (人が hito ga 'person').
- In the case of the intransitive verb (見える mieru), the agent is already absent.
- In the case of the transitive verb (見ることができる miru koto ga dekiru), the translators choose to omit the subject. This is extremely common in Japanese and is quite natural.
2. All but three Japanese versions explicitly express the object of the action ('things'). This object bears the topic marker は wa. (For more on the topic particle, see Practical Particular Particles.)
- In the case of the intransitive verb, the subject becomes the topic.
- In the case of the transitive verb, the object of the verb becomes the topic.
The result is two almost identical sentence patterns:
TRANSITIVE AND INTRANSITIVE |
|||
| Transitive verb: 見る miru 'to see' | |||
les choses (topic) 'things' (topic) |
avec le coeur 'with the heart' |
peut voir 'can see' |
|
ものごとは monogoto wa 'things' (topic) |
心で kokoro de 'with the heart' |
見る miru 'look at/see' |
ことができない koto ga dekinai 'not be able to' |
| Intransitive verb: 見える mieru 'to be able to see, visible' | |||
les choses (topic) 'things' (topic) |
avec le coeur 'with the heart' |
peut voir / peut être vues 'can see / can be seen' |
|
ものごとは monogoto wa 'things' (topic) |
心で kokoro de 'with the heart' |
見えない mienai 'cannot see, cannot be seen' |
|
While these two patterns are quite similar, indeed almost interchangeable for Japanese speakers, the choice of one or the other actually impacts on the final sentence in several ways.
In all cases the object seen -- ものごと monogoto or もの mono -- is followed by the topicaliser は wa. But its placing in the sentence varies.
1) In sentences using 見える mieru 'to be visible', all but one place ものごとは monogoto wa before the verb clause. This includes the translation that uses しか shika for 'only'.
PLACING OF THE TOPIC IN なくちゃ... ない nakucha ... nai SENTENCES |
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ものごとはね monogoto wa ne 'thing' (topic) |
心で kokoro de 'with the heart' |
見なくちゃ minakucha 'if not look' |
-- |
見えない
mienai 'not be seen' |
1 |
-- |
心で kokoro de 'with the heart' |
見なくちゃ minakucha 'if not look' |
ものごとは monogoto wa 'thing' (topic) |
見えない mienai 'not be seen' |
6 |
心で kokoro de 'with the heart' |
しか shika 'only' |
ものは mono wa 'things' |
見えない mienai 'not be seen' |
1 |
|
| Total | 8 |
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Placed immediately before よく見える yoku mieru, ものごと monogoto or もの mono is tied closely to the verb. That is, 'see things' (ものがよく見える mono ga yoku mieru) is a tightly knit group.
The one translator who places ものごと monogoto at the start of the sentence treats it as the grand topic of the sentence. Indeed, the expression used is ものごとはね monogoto wa ne, followed by a comma to indicate pause. The effect is that the fox is proclaiming he is about to make a pronouncement on the nature of things. Note the use of the grander term ものごと monogoto rather than the more specific and concrete もの mono.
2) Turning to the patterns using 見ることができない miru koto ga dekinai, we find that the topic is placed at the start of the sentence.
PLACING OF THE TOPIC IN 〜ことができない - koto ga dekinai SENTENCES |
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ものごとは monogoto wa 'things' |
心で kokoro de 'with the heart' |
しか shika 'only' |
見ることができない miru koto ga dekinai 'can see' |
2 |
| Total | 2 |
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Perhaps the reason for placing at the start is because if it were placed before the verb phrase, we would get the long, strung-out ものごとは見ることができない monogoto wa miru koto ga dekinai 'it is not possible to see things'.
Bien
Most translators using 見える mieru translate the word bien ('well'). It comes before the verb.
PLACING OF BIEN |
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心で kokoro de 'with the heart' |
見なくちゃ minakucha 'if not look' |
ものごとは monogoto wa 'thing' (topic) |
よく yoku 'well' |
見えない mienai 'not be seen' |
There are only two who omit よく yoku, and they are special cases.
The translator using 心でなければ kokoro de nakereba 'only if the heart' doesn't use よく yoku.
The translator using なにも見えない nanimo mienai 'can see nothing' doesn't use よく yoku.
Both translations using 見ることができる miru koto ga dekiru leave it out.
4. ALTERNATIVE SENTENCE PATTERN
'Look with the heart': 'Imperative' style
One translator uses this very simple basic construction with very little modification. He doesn't bother with ne ... que ('only') or bien ('well'. He does, however:
- Make the word for 'things' (in this case もの mono) into the topic of the whole sentence. This is achieved by placing it at the start and adding the topic particle は wa.
- Delete the word for 'one' or 'people'.
'IMPERATIVE' STYLE |
||
les choses 'things' |
avec le coeur 'with the heart' |
voir 'see' |
ものは mono wa 'things' (topic) |
心で kokoro de 'with the heart' |
見る miru 'see' |
Literally this sentence means 'Things with the heart to see'. In fact it's quite a strong categorical recommendation. 見る miru 'to see' is the ordinary dictionary form of the verb, but it's almost an imperative, meaning 'See things with the heart' or 'One must see things with the heart'. (It's not a true imperative, however. The true or brusque imperative in Japanese uses the form 見ろ miro 'look!')
Providing a 'frame' for the fox's statement
A further factor that must be considered in the Japanese translation is the way that the fox's statement is 'embedded' in the discourse. By this I refer to the way that some translators add words like ってことさ -tte koto sa ('is the fact that').
This wording is sometimes placed after this sentence, sometimes after the second sentence L'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux.
In this sentence, the frame expressions used are:
'FRAMES' |
|
| No frame | 8 |
| ってこと -tte koto 'the fact is that...' |
4 |
| それは ... ってこと sore wa ... -tte koto 'that is the fact that...' |
1 |
| Frame occurs after second sentence | 2 |
| Total | 15 |
'It is the fact that' indicates that the secret is the fact that.... This is made very clear by the translation which prefaces the statement with それは ... 'that is'.
The 'framing expressions' are followed by sentence-final particles (さ sa, よ yo) that make a 'declaration'.
Modal endings
Five translations use sentence-ending particles. These are attached to framing expressions. That is, the 'modal' impact attaches not to the statement that 'One can see clearly only with the heart', but to the assertion that 'My secret is thus'.
MODAL
|
|
| -- | 10 |
| さ sa |
3 |
| だよ da yo |
1 |
| なんだ nan'da |
1 |
| Total | 15 |
さ sa is a somewhat offhand way of making an assertion. Originally from eastern Japan, it tends to be regarded as cooler by younger people but is not without its detractors among more conservative users of language.
だよ da yo is a more broadly acceptable ending used for making stronger assertions.
なんだ nan'da is often said to be an 'explanatory' ending (explaining why something is so -- in this case explaining what the secret is), but it also has an assertive force.
