決して諦めない kesshite akiramenai Never Give Up
決して諦めない (kesshite akiramenai), never give up, answers the smoothed form of Churchill's never give in of October 1941, and renders give up exactly. The Japanese sentence was already ordinary: a 1922 translation of Maeterlinck says of a woman's devotion that it 決して諦めないであらう, will never give up.
Abstract
決して諦めない, never give up, meets Churchill's never give in, never give in, never, never, never, from his speech at Harrow on 29 October 1941, in the smoothed English form never give up. The Japanese does not render Churchill: it is an ordinary Japanese sentence, and its oldest print is a 1922 translation of Maeterlinck, nineteen years before the English was spoken.
Overview
The sense. Never give in is Churchill's, October 1941, and never give up is how the motto is usually carried. The Japanese is a plain negative, a resolution, not a shout.
The words. 諦める akirameru, to give up: もう希望や見込みがないと思ってやめる。断念する, to stop because one sees no hope; the older dictionary's 仕方がないと思い切る, to resign oneself, is the verb's Buddhist shade, since 諦 is to see clearly; first cited from a 1693 puppet play [1]. 決して kesshite with a negative is never.
The text in English. Never give up is the smoothing of Churchill's never give in; the Japanese 諦めない renders give up exactly. The plain negative is what a rendering keeps.
The historical record
1922. Churchill's sentence, already Japanese. Never give in, never give in, never, never, never is the Harrow speech of 29 October 1941, which continues except to convictions of honour and good sense, a clause the motto drops [2]. The Japanese sentence does not render Churchill; it predates him. Its oldest print is a translation of a French-writing author a generation earlier: 決して諦めない in a 1922 Maeterlinck, of a woman's devotion that 決して諦めないであらう, will never give up [3]. Ordinary Japanese, in print before Churchill said it in English.
What is not a source. The Maeterlinck page is the oldest print of an ordinary Japanese sentence, not a translation of Churchill. The sentence has no author.
A reading
The pleasure here is the order of events: the Japanese was in print in 1922, in a translation of Maeterlinck, before the English was spoken, and it says give up, which is what the motto now says, rather than Churchill's give in.
Notes
- Churchill's date. 29 October 1941, Harrow School, with the clause except to convictions of honour and good sense.
References
- 「諦める」, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/諦める-423240
- Winston Churchill, "Never Give In" (29 October 1941), International Churchill Society. https://winstonchurchill.org/resources/speeches/1941-1945-war-leader/never-give-in/
- モーリス・メーテルリンク (tr. 鷲尾浩), マーテルリンク全集, 冬夏社, 1922, scan 414. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/962806/1/414