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Tim Bovee

"Because you are dangerous, you must not enter"

October 15, 2007 5:07pm

Mr. Perl's translation of the Japanese is close, although it would better be stated (still a literal translation): "Because it is dangerous, entering is forbidden." (Abunai kara, haitte wa ikemasen)

In Japanese, a subject can be (and usually is) implied rather than stated, and the implied subject can change several times in the course of a single sentence, without any explicit verbal signal that any change has occurred.

Fascinating language; much more supple than English. I've always felt that successfully speaking Japanese is somewhat akin to mind-reading.

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