痛みは体から抜ける弱さ itami wa karada kara nukeru yowasa Pain is Weakness Leaving the Body

痛み (itami) is pain and は makes it the subject; 弱さ (yowasa) is weakness; between them 体から抜ける (karada kara nukeru) is leaves from the body, and the is goes unsaid, which is how Japanese writes a motto on a wall. The verb carries the whole image: 抜ける is what goes out of something it was inside, the air from a tire, the tiredness from a body, so the Japanese says exactly what the English does and reads as Japanese rather than as a translation.

The English was a favorite saying of drill instructors before the Corps made it a recruiting slogan, and every service has claimed it since; the meaning has never moved: the pain of training is the weakness going out of you, so welcome it.

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