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  3. Poetry & Literature

大切な人たちがいることは、幸せなことだ。

English translation: To have people in your life who are precious to you is to know happiness.

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)
Japanese term or phrase:大切な人たちがいることは、幸せなことだ。
English translation:To have people in your life who are precious to you is to know happiness.
Entered by: Wei Peng Loy

23:48 Mar 26, 2008
Japanese to English translations [PRO]
Art/Literary - Poetry & Literature
Japanese term or phrase: 大切な人たちがいることは、幸せなことだ。
I’m working on a story book translation for young readers (aged around 8-10) and I’m stuck over a few sentences. Can you give me some suggestions?

だれかのために、がんばれることはすてきなことだな。
大切な人たちがいることは、幸せなことだ。

My initial translation: It is great to able to work hard for someone’s sake. I am happy I have so many people who are special and dear to me.

Yeah, I know my translation is not fantastic, it’s really chokuyaku but I’m stuck over how to render 大切 and 幸せ. The story is about someone who realizes there are actually a lot of people he can care for and he’s going to work hard, find a job, settle down etc and make these people happy. These 2 sentences will end the story and it’s quite important I give it an impact.

Does anybody have any ideas? Thanks a lot!
Wei Peng Loy
Local time: 14:33
To have people in your life who are precious to you is to know happiness.
Explanation:
How about connecting the two sentences as follows?

Giving your all for someone else's sake is a wonderful thing, and to have people in your life who are precious to you is to know happiness.
Selected response from:

casey
United States
Local time: 02:33
Grading comment
All the suggestions are great. But as I can only choose one, I'd choose this. Thanks everybody!
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



Summary of answers provided
3 +3To have people in your life who are precious to you is to know happiness.
casey
3 +2it's a blessing to have someone who you really care for
valhalla55
5Having ones you value around you is happiness itself.
Sarfaraz Rahman
3Having someone you really care for is a blessing
Odin Joly


  

Answers


8 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5 peer agreement (net): +2
it's a blessing to have someone who you really care for


Explanation:
a suggestion

valhalla55
Native speaker of: Native in RomanianRomanian

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Roger Johnson: I'm sure there are other suggestions, but I think it sounds nice:-)
8 mins
  -> Thanks!
agree  Timothy Miller: While the other suggestion works too, I think this one sticks closest to the Japanese without getting overly wordy.
1 hr
  -> Thanks!
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36 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5 peer agreement (net): +3
To have people in your life who are precious to you is to know happiness.


Explanation:
How about connecting the two sentences as follows?

Giving your all for someone else's sake is a wonderful thing, and to have people in your life who are precious to you is to know happiness.

casey
United States
Local time: 02:33
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 4
Grading comment
All the suggestions are great. But as I can only choose one, I'd choose this. Thanks everybody!

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  KathyT: Works very well to connect the 2 sentences here, imho. Aww, feelin' all warm and fuzzy now!
1 min
  -> 39!
agree  Krzysztof Łesyk: All suggestions are nice, but this one just sounds best to me. It's great to see such questions here from time to time, among all the sprockets, patented gizmos, computers and medical equipment ;)
20 mins
  -> 392!
agree  Ruth Sato
8 hrs
  -> and 392!
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47 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5
Having someone you really care for is a blessing


Explanation:
I would also translate 「だれかのために、がんばれることはすてきなことだな。」as "Having someone you do your best for is fantastic." so that you keep the structure of the japanese sentences if that is important, losing the rhyme ことだ・ことだ but keeping the rythme (13/13).

Again, there are probably better solutions than this, but if that helps ;-)

Odin Joly
France
Local time: 08:33
Native speaker of: Native in FrenchFrench
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1 day 2 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 5/5
Having ones you value around you is happiness itself.


Explanation:
In this sentence A is equal to B

Sarfaraz Rahman
United Kingdom
Local time: 07:33
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
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