Translating On ne voit bien qu'avec le cœur into Japanese

4. Expressing ne ... que ('only'):

Starting point :

[On] peut voir les choses avec le cœur

ものごとは心で見える monogoto wa kokoro de mieru

Now, the translation of ne ... que 'only'. Most translators express this concept in a two-part construction: the first part is 'if one doesn't look with the heart', the second is 'can't be seen'. What is notable about this is its use of two negatives to express a positive.

Japanese negatives are attached after the verb as part of the verb's inflection.

The first negative is a conditional, なくちゃ nakucha, 'if not ...'. This is a colloquial form of なくては nakute wa, with the same meaning.

The second is the straightforward plain negative form with ない nai.

	A			B
ものごとは monogoto wa 'thing' (topic)	心で kokoro de 'with the heart'	見- mi- 'look'	-なけくちゃ -nakucha 'if not'	見え- mie- 'be seen'	-ない -nai 'not'

The A clause, which sets the condition, uses the transitive verb 見る miru 'to look', while the B clause uses the intransitive verb 見える mieru 'to be visible'. The meaning is 'You can't see unless you look with the heart'.

In fact, this construction is virtually identical to the common Japanese construction 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. If we recast the above sentence as this construction we get:

	A			B
ものごとは monogoto wa 'thing' (topic)	心で kokoro de 'with the heart'	見- mi- 'look'	-なくちゃ -nakucha 'if not'	なら- nara- 'come about'	-ない -nai 'not'

The verb なる naru has a general meaning of 'to become, to come about'; ならない naranai means 'doesn't come about, isn't'. The whole construction means something like 'won't do if don't look with the heart', or more simply 'must look with the heart'. Similarly if いけない ikenai 'not permitted, won't do' is used. See this web page for a detailed look at this kind of construction.

Rather than a generalised construction with なる naru or いける ikeru, though, translators of this sentence use the specific verb 見える mieru 'to be visible'. Thus the meaning becomes: 'won't be able to see if don't look with the heart'.

Result:

[On] ne peut voir les choses qu'avec le cœur

ものごとは心で見なくちゃ見えない monogoto wa kokoro de minakucha mienai

GO TO .... previous step: Switching to an intransitive verb | next step: Adding bien 'clearly' | Where we started

VARIATION .... in the conditional form