Printable View
Ok, the first one is like this: 罪だねサンバ
The literal translation I give is "criminal zamba", but the non literal translation could be "tremendous zamba".
Then in this one the kanji is イモと言うなら、勝手にいいな
I am really lost with that one, because for me IMO is "potato" :laugh: , and I don't think this the real meaning in the sentence.
May be it is a japanese saying, so I hope somebody helps me with this.
Thanks in advance.
The first one is just a matter of opinion, I think. I'd personally opt for 'criminal', but that's just me. But then, it really matters what context it's in.
By the way, I think you mean "samba", not "zamba" ^-^;
That's what I got out of the second line as well. I tried googling it to see if I could find a similar phrase or something, but all I was able to find was a French translation of the song, which (with what I can tell from my very limited knowledge of French) agrees that the word is "potato". :/
Mmmmm yes, so the phrase could be "if you say he is a potato, it's your problem" hahaha:laugh: sounds preety weird, but it's the translation.
Oh yes, I wanted to tell you that as far as I know, there are 2 big styles of samba, one is written "samba" and the other one is written "zamba".
But as in japanese you write a word in katakana depending on the sound of the word, and as "zamba" and "samba" have the same phonetics, in this case, I can use any of them as well.
Ok, thanks for helping me.
I would say "samba" as well, if there's no dakuten on the "sa" to make it "za".
ザンバ - "ZANBA" (or zamba, depending how you transliterate the ン.)
サンバ - "SANBA" (or ditto above with the ン)
But that's sort of splitting hairs...but while on the subject of phonetics in kana...
I don't know the song in question, but if the whole of the line is "罪だねサンバ"...
Literally I'd read that as "it's a crime, right? The samba" (Tsumi da ne SANBA). That's not a very neat translation, but it might work as "it's criminal, you know, the samba" or just "The samba's criminal". It depends how much emphasis you give the "ne" ^_^.
Maybe it's just me but I don't read 罪だね as an adjective, rather as a phrase in its own right.
You might want to substitute a more equivalent word for criminal but I don't think I'd use tremendous...it doesn't convey the same kind of feeling...?
As for the potato phrase...I read it as "if you're a potato you can do what you want" :S (or he, I, whatever the pronoun is that fits the context of the song as a whole).
勝手に (Katte ni) = follow own will (either something doing something of its own accord, or someone acting selfishly or in their own interests).
イモと言う (IMO to iu) - the thing known as a potato, the thing called a potato
なら (nara) - if (given that)
いいな (ii na) - it's okay (informal).
Having said all of that, it's also just dawned on me that the Japanese use the same kanji 勝手(katte) to mean kitchen so it might be a play on words or it might not - the phrase might simply be meant to say
"if its a potato, it belongs in the kitchen"
Without seeing the whole thing in context, I'm not sure ^_^ :P
Vraie
To throw in a cent, since イモ (potato) are found in the ground, it is sometimes used as a derogatory term for people from the provinces, or a person with unrefined manners and tastes. So maybe that's the case here.
"If you want to call me unrefined, that's your problem."
I agree with Vraie about the first sentence. 罪だね would be translated as "Samba,is a crime, isn'it?". If it were "罪なサンバ", it could be translated as criminal samba, or cruel samba, that sounds better. But also, it depends on the context, maybe if you write the whole sentence or paragraph it would be easier to state the true idea.