Reminds me of the message at the Peace Park in Hiroshima, which is translated on the stone in English as "Rest in peace, for the mistake will not be repeated."

The Japanese reads 「安らかに眠って下さい 過ちは 繰返しませぬから」

So one way might be just 「繰返しませぬ」  (Of course, this is the -ません form of 繰り返す, but rendered more poetically as ませぬ).  However, this is problematic because there is an unnamed subject that must be doing the action--"We will not do it again," or "They will not do it again," or something like that.

I would guess something like 「再び起こりませぬ」 might also work and avoid the subject problem; I borrowed the use of ませぬ from the Peace Park example.　　But it also takes away the flavor of responsibility that 繰返しませぬ seems to have.

But I'm not really sure--just speculating.

The motto of the Jewish Defense League is "Never again", so that's another way you might be able to find an official translation.

Last edited by Tzadeck (2011 May 12, 3:20 am)

vonPeterhof wrote:

I already tried the Jewish Defence League (that's why I mentioned the JDL )

Haha, I read too quickly I guess.

Also, yeah, here's a Yahoo Questions thing about it:
http://detail.chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp/qa … 1019231015

Last edited by Tzadeck (2011 May 12, 7:23 am)

しもけい

～系 is like, ～style.
下 is like, dirty, sexual, etc.

"I'm looking for a non-romantic relationship"

下ネタ = dirty joke

Last edited by fakewookie (2011 May 13, 8:44 am)

fakewookie wrote:

What's that word for when you act nice to someone's face but really you hate them?

Not 敬遠

I would say "insincerity" 不誠実 or "to feign friendliness" 猫をかぶる.

Last edited by Nagareboshi (2011 May 13, 7:02 pm)

I've got a couple of new questions, maybe someone can help

バロットはうつむいている。強気でメッセージを伝えたというより、心の底に隠し秘めていた言葉を、うっかり覗かれたとでもいうようだった。

Balot looked downwards. Rather than transmitting the message through an act of strength, it was as if she carelessly exposed the secrets that lie at bottom of her heart for others to see. (Context: A computer can display her thoughts/emotions, and she let it read too far).

Basically I'm confused by the use of passive 覗く. If it was causative I could understand... I mean doesn't it mean to look into something, rather than be seen?

--

ドクターがディスプレイに向かい、一つ一つのファイルを手早く操作し、全てのテキストデータを同一のファイルにまとめて保存した。バロットの目がちらっとドクターの動作を追った。てっきり全ての言葉を消去されるのかと思っていたが、ドクターはじっとそれらを読み続けていた。

Is this passive する being used here for politeness reasons?

--

何もかもが、これまでバロットが生きてきた場所とは違っていた。生まれ育った港町の工業地帯にいた頃とも違ったし、その町から百七十マイル北に離れたマルドゥック市に来てからとも違った。金をもらっていいようにさせてやっているときとも、金ももらえずにいいようにされてきたときとも。

The last sentence kind of throws me for a loop, here is my attempt, is it close?

When she received money and was allowed to live well, as well as when she didn't receive money and was was done well for too.

Last edited by FooSoft (2011 May 14, 4:32 pm)

Thank you, yudantaiteki. I appear to have completely forgotten that passive verbs can use を and this made things more confusing than they should have been. I don't think I have seen it in things I've read before, it was always が. I do remember seeing something about it at some point though.

It just provides a stronger connection between the verb and the noun, right?

Edit: Or maybe I have no idea what I'm talking about and am actually referring to the way it works for potential forms.

Last edited by FooSoft (2011 May 14, 5:31 pm)

FooSoft wrote:

Thank you, yudantaiteki. I appear to have completely forgotten that passive verbs can use を

They can if it's the adversative passive　(i.e. ご飯を食べれれた).

Achromatize wrote:

What's the colloquial term for a "flaker" in Japanese? I've heard it once before, it's something like:
彼女は (slang for last-minute-cancelling) が多いです。
Little help please? Thanks!

土壇場でキャンセル →　ドタキャン

Last edited by Jarvik7 (2011 May 16, 2:25 am)

Here's an interesting sentence; what exactly does the は遠ざかっていた bit mean? My take on it is something like:

The young male waiter, since some time ago, stayed away from approaching Balot's surroundings.
ウェイターの青年は先ほどからバロットの周囲に近づいては遠ざかっていた。

I'm not sure if it means that or something to the fact of him approaching and then backing off repeatedly. Any ideas?

Last edited by FooSoft (2011 May 17, 10:51 am)

A quick beginner question. Is it ok to join sentences with -te form even if they aren't necessarily successive events?

For example, could I do:

漢字が覚えにくくて、文法が分からないので、上達するのは難しい。

"Progress is difficult because kanji is hard to remember and I don't understand grammar."

FooSoft wrote:

@pudding cat
Thanks! While I'm not sure I understand the underlying grammar there, something about that sentence does give off that sort of meaning... Interesting.

From 日本語文型辞典:

VてはV : 一定の時間をおいて繰り返される動作を表す。

with examples like その女性は誰かを待っているらしく、1ページ'を読んでは顔をあげて窓の外を見ている。
and also

VてはV, VてはV : 二つの動作が同じ順序で2回繰り返されて使われ、動作や現象が反復して起こることを表す。

with examples like

書いては消し、書いては消し、やっと手紙を書き上げた。

I don't think I've seen it in other grammar books (it's not in the D*JG, for instance).

Here's another beginner question.
Could anyone please help me to fully understand and translate this please? The red highlighted lines are the ones that I'm really iffy about or don't understand.

私は冬休みに両親と一緒に日本へ行きました。東京では、品川の旅館に泊まりました。最初の日は旅館
で休みました。そして、次の日に銀座へ行って歌舞伎を見ました。それから、日本料理のレストランでお寿司を食べました。レストランはとても賑やかでした。
    日本はとても寒かったです。私はコートを持たないで日本へ行ってしまったので、大変でした。それで、三日目に新宿へ行ってコートとスカーフを買いました。
    四日目に、両親は上野の美術館へ行きました。私は東京に留学している友達に会って、一緒に昼ご飯を食べました。昼ご飯を食べながら色々な話をしました。とても楽しかったです。
    私達は京都にも行きました。京都はとてもきれいでした。お寺や神社をたくさん見ました。歩きながら写真をたくさん撮りました。奈良へも行きたかったですが、時間がなかったので、行けませんでした。今度日本へ行った時には奈良へ行って、有名な大仏が見たいです。
    旅行はとても楽しかったです。

Here's what I've been able to translate thus far:

    For winter vacation, I went to Japan with my parents. We stayed at the Shingawa inn. We rested on the first day at a Japanese inn. We went to Ginza the next day and we saw a Kabuki*[would it be better to say “Japanese classical drama” instead?]. After that, we ate Sushi at a Japanese restaurant. The restaurant was very lively.
   
Japan was very cold. (The next line throws me off completely) Because I didn’t have a coat.......... So on the third day, we went to Shinjuku to buy a coat.
   
On the fourth day, my parents went to the Ueno art museum. I met with my foreign friend in Tokyo(I’m really not sure about the first half of this sentence) and we ate lunch together. We talked about various things while we ate. It was very fun.
   
We also went to Kyoto. Kyoto was very lovely. We saw many temples and shrines. We took many pictures as we walked. We also went to Nara, but because there wasn’t enough time, it didn’t go well. (I’m not really sure about the last line.) When I visit Japan next time, I’ll go Nara and see the great statute of Buddha.
My trip was very enjoyable.

Thanks in advance

Last edited by Colof Of Justice (2011 May 17, 9:32 pm)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rewzbyD5zpg

I want to know what "そんなんやったかな" and　"それでええの？" mean in that context.
It's really bugging me as they're completely made of hiragana, in a too casual speech and merging words with really broad meanings.