Green Tea Forum

sleepyredmoo · 2nd Degree Black Belt Joined: 26 Mar 2008 Posts: 164

can anyone translate the phrase "make tea not war"? can anyone please translate that with japanese and english letters?

spacesamurai · 2nd Degree Black Belt Joined: 02 Feb 2007 Posts: 204

here's my horrible attempt, someone really should come along and do a better job. I just wanted to take a stab at it and see how close (or how very far away) I could get.

"Cha tsukuru, tatakai tsukunai"

Kevangogh · Forum God Joined: 19 Jul 2005 Posts: 904 Location: Japan

sensou o　sezu ni cha ireru...

戦争をせずに茶を入れる

This is a typical sentence which cannot be directly translated into Japanese, and is a perfect example of why Japanese is harder for an English speaker to learn that say, French. If it were French, you could probably directly translate it and make it work. The reason it won't work in Japanese is because, while you can "make" tea, you "do" war. The "sezu" verb form comes from "suru", to do. "Sezu" means "without doing."

I this translation, while "make" (tsukuru) would work, "ireru" or "pour" works better and is more frequently used when referring to making tea.

Directly translation: without doing war, pour tea. Practical translation: Make tea, not war.

I hope this isn't for some commercial project...

sleepyredmoo · 2nd Degree Black Belt Joined: 26 Mar 2008 Posts: 164

thank you for the help, it's just for personal intrest, i like the phrase

spacesamurai · 2nd Degree Black Belt Joined: 02 Feb 2007 Posts: 204

Thanks Kevin.

When I watch Japanese movies, I compare the subtitles with what I can make out of what they're saying, and it doesn't sound like a direct translation a lot of the time. Its interesting, but you're right, its harder to learn. Simply learning vocabulary isn't enough.