This is a popup for the Japanese version of On ne voit bien qu'avec le coeur 'It is only with the heart that one sees rightly', from The Little Prince.

Different ways of saying 'if not'

-なくちゃ ... -ない -nakucha ... -nai is only one way of expressing the conditional + negative construction in Japanese. This page gives a fairly comprehensive rundown of the alternatives. The following are found in the 11 translations that use the double negative construction:

VARIATIONS ON 見なくちゃ minakucha
A If not look....	B ...not	Occurrences
〜なくちゃ -nakucha	-ない -nai	5
〜なくては -nakute wa	-ない -nai	1
〜ないと -nai to	-ない -nai	3
〜なければ -nakereba	-ない -nai	2
TOTAL		11

• 見なくては minakute wa 'not seeing', mostly found in the colloquial form 見なくちゃ minakucha, accounts for more than half the total.
• The conversational form 見ないと minai to 'if not see' accounts for three.
• The officially correct but unwieldy 見なければ minakereba 'if not see' only makes one appearance. In addition, one translator uses 心でなければ kokoro de nakereba 'if not the heart'.

Textbooks will tell you that there are subtle differences in meaning among the constructions, and indeed there are. But these differences aren't the most important thing here. The most important consideration is that 見なくては minakute wa, 見なくちゃ minakucha, and 見ないと minai to are preferred in conversation. Since the fox speaks colloquial language, it's entirely appropriate that he should use these forms.

The two translators who use the 'official' form 〜なければ -nakereba achieve a more formal effect typical of the written language. This makes the fox's speech somewhat less friendly but more 'authoritative'.

One translator uses でなければ de nakereba 'if not'. The meaning is a vague 'if not the heart'. This doesn't spell out the role of こころ kokoro (namely, with the heart), leaving it to the listener to figure it out. This is a common enough kind of thing in Japanese. Similar examples, of a different kind:

• 彼じゃなきゃ受け付けてくれない。 Kare ja nakya uketsukete kurenai. 'They won't accept it if it's not him', meaning accepted either 'from him' or 'by him', i.e., 'Only if a certain person makes the application will it be accepted', or, 'Only that particular official will accept the application'.
• ご飯じゃなければ食べられない。 Go-han ja nakereba taberarenai. 'Can't eat it if it's not rice'.

However, it is also possible to interpret the で de in でなければ de nakereba as the instrumental particle で de, i.e., 心で / なければ kokoro de / nakereba, 'if not with the heart'.

The translation that uses でなければ de nakereba doesn't use よく yoku 'well' in the B clause.

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