決して諦めない kesshite akiramenai Never Give Up

決して諦めない is a plain sentence of resolve. 決して, with a negative, means never. 諦めない is not giving up. 諦める is to stop because you see no hope, and its first character, 諦, is to see a thing clearly and let it go. So the line holds on even when the end looks plain to see. It reads as a resolution rather than a shout. Whether it is for your own training or for someone in a long fight is yours.

Never Give Up is the refrain of Martin Farquhar Tupper's ballad Never give up!, in print by 1845; Churchill's words at Harrow in 1941 were never give in. The Japanese 決して諦めない is in print by 1918, of the French army.

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