を between two nouns

[Rizuchan]

"悲しみをやさしさに"
...It's the name of a song, but something that's bothered me for quite a while, because it's the only time I can ever remember seeing "を" between two nouns. And in the song lyrics, there isn't a verb associated with it anywhere in sight.
I've always seen this translated as "Turning sadness into kindness" or "Your sadness will become kindness" but it seems to be like that would be "悲しみはやさしさになる" Is this translation legitimate or is everyone else just equally stumped and copying off of each other?

[tetekmakhang]

those translations are legit. in a complete, full sentence there is supposed to be a verb there. it's just that because of the way the sentence is structured, even without having to finish the sentence, japanese speakers already understand the meaning. therefore in this situation, it is possible to omit the verb without the sentence becoming incomprehensible.

悲しみをやさしさに変える　(turning/changing sadness into kindness) or　something along those lines should be the full sentence. the verb "to change" is implied.

an easy english example is, for example, if i were to say "please always be by my _____" , as an english speaker you'd automatically know that the only possible ending for that sentence is "side" . the way the sentence is structured, there's only one possible outcome.
ie "please always be by my side"

hope that helps

[Rizuchan]

I thought it might be something like that. Thank you very much. :D

[Ertai87]

For reference: The complete phrase would probably include the verb する or なる. する has more of an "active" connotation, while なる is generally more passive (e.g. "I changed my sadness into kindness" vs. "Sadness was changed to kindness")

P.S. I love that song too ^_^