Help Translating one tiny teeny thingie

[VirtuaFantice]

I need to know what "Kainashi No Yoru Ni" means. ^_~ arigatou gozaimasu:p

[MazzieEowyn]

I'm guessing this is -

甲斐無しの夜に

This roughly translates as 'worthless night', but there are many words that read 'yoru' so it may not be. Next time, give us the Japanese script, that way the translation will be more accurate.

[VirtuaFantice]

ah i was told before that it means something like On a Worthless Night. your translation for yoru was correct xD so if it just means Worthless night how would i say On A Worthless Night, if it was say, a title for something like a story or whatever?

[_yeah]

What I want to know is: what the hell does "a worthless night" mean in English?

[VirtuaFantice]

It means like, A night that has no meaning O_O a night that is regretted and such. a common night that holds no purpose or meaning at all. o_O

[MazzieEowyn]

I'd agree, it's something like that. Japanese words tend to have quite a wider set of nuances than English words do... or maybe, a different set. So it's difficult... but I'd guess it means a night on which nothing was achieved despite someone's best efforts. Am I right?

I believe the phrase does mean 'on a worthless night' as 'worthless night' by itself would be '甲斐無しの夜' without the ni.

[VirtuaFantice]

ty for helping me clarify this! <3

[kitune]

>Japanese words tend to have quite a wider set of nuances than English words do...

I think it's right because Japanese calture is "culture of omission".
One of the representations is "omission of person".
For example, "ue wo muite arukou", one of the famousest Japanese songs known as "sukiyaki song", has no person like "I", "you", "he/she" and so on　in its original lyrics.
This is technique making a situation vargue so to urge listeners/readers to use their imaginations.
Such omission make a sence of a wider set of nuances for English ppl, I think.

In the case of "kainasi no yoru ni", this is wrong Japanese in a strict sence because "kainasi" needs a verb before it.
For example, "行った甲斐なし:itta kainasi (worthless going)", "見た甲斐なし:mita kainasi (worthless watching)".
I'm a native Japanese, and I have never heard the expression like "kainashi no yoru".
It sounds very strange for me, but not bad.
I think it is a poetic expression urging us to imagine "what worthless doing?".
I know my English is poor and I am unfamilliar with English poetic style.
But if I try to tell you the nuance of "kainasi no yoru ni", it is
"He/She made some efforts. But it became in vain. This is a story on the night filled with his/her sadness and spilitlessness."

I am gratefull if this post helps you.

[Ertai87]

I'd agree, it's something like that. Japanese words tend to have quite a wider set of nuances than English words do... or maybe, a different set. So it's difficult... but I'd guess it means a night on which nothing was achieved despite someone's best efforts. Am I right?

I believe the phrase does mean 'on a worthless night' as 'worthless night' by itself would be '甲斐無しの夜' without the ni.

QFT. The particle に ("Ni") generally means "in", "on", "at", or sometimes "towards" (although "towards", I learned, is more commonly the particle　へ (normally "He", but in this context "E")).

[VirtuaFantice]

> "what worthless doing?".
I know my English is poor and I am unfamilliar with English poetic style.
But if I try to tell you the nuance of "kainasi no yoru ni", it is
"He/She made some efforts. But it became in vain. This is a story on the night filled with his/her sadness and spilitlessness."

I am gratefull if this post helps you.

Your post helped me alot! I found that in many contexts that the phrase can either mean On a Worthless Night in a poetic meaning similar to the one you stated! I wanted to ask, if i can use "He/She made some efforts. But it became in vain. This is a story on the night filled with his/her sadness and spilitlessness." for the summary on my story that i have in the works? ^~^

[茉莉ちゃん]

In the hopeless night

甲斐無しの夜に何してんだい！？

[VirtuaFantice]

In the hopeless night

甲斐無しの夜に何してんだい！？
ty ^^

[xXAltairXx]

人々に来られて日本語はその堅い実際に学ぶことすべてでない。

[Baby Serena]

人々に来られて日本語はその堅い実際に学ぶことすべてでない。

You coming to the people, it is not thing everything whose Japanese that is hard and really learns

Basically it's saying that Japanese is a really hard lanuage to learn for a lot of people....