苦しんだ学んだ変わった kurushinda, mananda, kawatta I Suffered, I Learned, I Changed
Abstract
苦しんだ学んだ変わった, I suffered, I learned, I changed, is Japanese for an English motto, and the English translates an Arabic line, تألّمت فتعلّمت فتغيّرت, "I suffered, so I learned, so I changed", the oldest copy of it found here an image posted on Tumblr on 7 December 2012. Its first two verbs open a passage of the Lebanese poet and essayist Abū al-Faḍl al-Walīd, quoted from his book of reflections 『أحاديث المجد والوجد』, which was in print by 1929: «تألمت فتعلمت، وتعذبت فتهذبت», "I suffered, so I learned; I was tormented, so I was refined"; the third verb, I changed, is the 2012 line's. The English, beside the image by 11 December, is offered as Arabic famous words in 2013, stands under the title of a poetry book in 2014 and is given to a business book by a quotation site in 2017, while in Arabic the line is by about 2016 a breakup status an Egyptian novel can mock. The pun of تألّمت on تعلّمت, one letter apart, does not survive translation; the Japanese, in no book the National Diet Library's full-text index holds, keeps the three verbs in the plain past, the shape Japanese gives Caesar's veni, vidi, vici.
A reading
The line has two makers, one named and one not. The first is a writer whose book was in print by 1929, who built his sentence on a play of sounds, taʾallamtu fa-taʿallamtu, "I suffered, so I learned", the second verb a letter away from the first and following from it, and then did it again, taʿadhdhabtu fa-tahadhdhabtu, "I was tormented, so I was refined": suffering as a schooling, said twice so the reader hears the pattern. The second, whoever first set the three verbs together, by December 2012 at the latest, began where al-Walīd began and, as I read it, from him: kept the first pair, dropped the second, and added a plain third step, فتغيّرت, so I changed, which turns the old paradox into a story with an outcome. That third step is what made it a motto, and it is the part that crossed: the English kept the three verbs and lost the sound-play and, within months, the so; the Japanese 苦しんだ学んだ変わった keeps the three verbs and their order and nothing else. It is good Japanese for the English motto, and the English is a fair rendering of the 2012 line. Neither is al-Walīd's sentence, and a buyer should know that the line's first half is his and that its best effect lives only in Arabic. Signed, 典 Ten, 3 November 2026.
Overview
The sense. A statement that pain taught the speaker and the lesson changed them, in three past-tense verbs. Its first half is a sentence of Abū al-Faḍl al-Walīd's prose; the three-verb line is a motto of the Arabic web, carried into English, and from the English into this Japanese.
The words. 苦しんだ kurushinda, suffered; 学んだ mananda, learned; 変わった kawatta, changed: three verbs in the plain past, with no particles and no pronoun, as Japanese leaves the I to the speaker. The Arabic has three verbs in the first person, the second and third opened by ف fa-, which the 2012 caption renders so and a 2013 reader then [1][2]: تألّمت taʾallamtu, which Lane's Arabic-English Lexicon gives as He was, or became, pained … or he expressed pain, grief, or sorrow [3]; تعلّمت taʿallamtu, which Lane gives as he learned [4]; and تغيّرت taghayyartu, "I changed". Lane enters both as form 5 of their roots, and as he prints the two headwords, تألّم and تعلّم, they differ in their second letter only, the glottal stop against the ʿayn [3][4]. In al-Walīd's passage the next pair, تعذبت فتهذبت, "I was tormented, so I was refined", is two verbs that likewise differ in one letter [5].
The text in English. The oldest English found here, in the 2012 caption, keeps the so: I suffered, so I learned, so I changed [1]. A post of May 2013 gives it as I suffered I learned I changed, and a reader there renders the Arabic I suffered, then I learned, then I changed [2]. The scroll's English, without the so, is the form a poetry book prints in 2014 [6]. No English rendering of al-Walīd's passage has been found.
The historical record
By 1929. A book of reflections. Abū al-Faḍl al-Walīd was the name Ilyās ʿAbd Allāh Ṭuʿma took in 1916: a poet born in 1889 in قرنة الحمراء in the Matn, who emigrated in 1908, wrote for the Arabic press of Brazil, in his own paper 『الحمراء』 among others, came home to Lebanon in April 1922 by the article's own dates (it also reports an explanation that puts his return in the late 1920s), travelled again from 1924 to Cairo, Jerusalem, Amman and Baghdad, and died in 1941 [5]. A Damascus review of 1929, in the journal of the Arab Academy, gives his book 『أحاديث المجد والوجد』 under his name and his town, قرنة الحمراء in the Matn, and calls its pages صفحات من القصة القومية, "pages of the national story" [7]. Google's catalogue dates the book 1928 [8], and the Egyptian national library's catalogue lists a second edition printed in Syria in 1929, خواطر أدبية أخلاقية, literary and moral reflections, in its text layer [9]. The passage is read here as a 2006 article quotes it from that book: «تألمت فتعلمت، وتعذبت فتهذبت، وأبصرت بقلبي ما لم أبصره بعيني، وهمت على وجهي فكان لي هدى من الضلال، وراحة من التعب، فإذا كتبت صدقت لكثرة خبري، وعلمي، وشعوري، وقد سريت في ليل محنتي أحمل الصبح في صدري», "I suffered, so I learned; I was tormented, so I was refined; I saw with my heart what I had not seen with my eyes; I wandered aimless, and it was guidance to me out of error and rest from weariness; so when I write I write true, from the wealth of my experience, my knowledge and my feeling; and through the night of my ordeal I walked carrying the morning in my breast" [5]. The book's own page was not reached, so which edition carries the passage, and where, is open.
7 December 2012. An image on Tumblr. ISQINEEHA, a Tumblr blog that describes itself as an Arts platform featuring art from the MENASA (Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia), posted an image with no caption: three Arabic words stacked in white on a panel of red hatching over a dark ground, تألمت / فتعلمت / فتغيرت [1]. The first two are al-Walīd's; the third is new. A reblog dated 11 December 2012 carries that post in its trail, and the English had been added between the two (the address of the post it reblogs, numbered between them, already carries i-suffered-so-i-learned-so): تألمت. فتعلمت. فتغيرت. / I suffered, so I learned, so I changed - Bashar Alaeddin [1]. The caption does not say whether the name is the line's author, its translator or the image's maker. The Wayback Machine holds no capture of the blog from 2012, so what the blog posted around the image, and whether it named a source, cannot be seen. The 2012 date is the oldest found here for the three-verb line, not its beginning.
May 2013. Arabic famous words. On 27 May 2013 a WordPress blog of edited images posted I suffered I learned I changed, captioned Arabic Famous Words Artwork by Jamal and tagged arabic and calligraphy among others [2]. In the comments, read in the Wayback Machine's capture of 28 August 2013, a reader asked in July about the artwork's last word, فتغيرت; the author answered on 1 August, I copied the arabic text from someone else. It was posted by some arabic person; and on 4 August another reader explained the fa- as then: I suffered, then I learned, then I changed [2]. The artwork image itself was not archived.
2014. Under a title. Faces, a collection of poems by Nalla, carries the line in quotation marks under its title on the title page, "I suffered, I learned, I changed", and on its copyright page Copyright © 2014 Nalla / First edition: 2014 [6]. The book does not say where the line came from.
About 2016. A breakup status. سها الفقي's Egyptian novel 『شكلها سافرت』 (دار دوّن للنشر والتوزيع), dated 2016 by its Google Books record, lists what someone posts on Facebook straight after a breakup, and among them والحاجات التانية اللي زي تألمت فتعلمت فتغيرت, "and the other things like I suffered, so I learned, so I changed", to which the answer is لأ ده يتسحب منه الـ account فورا !, "No, the account should be taken from him at once!" [10]. The passage is quoted from the search windows Google Books shows for that page; the page itself is not previewed. By then the three-verb line could stand in a list of stock posts.
2017. A business book and a tattoo. A quotation site gives I suffered, I learned, I changed to Ashraf Haggag's No Place To Stand Alone: Historical Mergers and Acquisitions in Different Corporate Markets [11], a paperback from CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform of 18 February 2017 [12]. The site gives no page, and the line was on the web more than four years before the book, so whether Haggag quotes it is not settled here. On 8 March 2017 a user of Chinese Forums, in its section for tattoos, names and quick translations, asked for the motto in Chinese as a tattoo, a reminder after a tough time, having found it, they wrote, only in arabic, and a member whose profile gives Beijing answered: I see a parallel between "I suffered. I learned. I changed" and "veni, vidi, vici". Have you considered Latin? [13] Notebooks of 2019 to 2021, titled by their catalogue records I Suffered, I Learned, I Changed Arabic Calligraphy, still carry the Arabic in their names [14].
The Japanese. The National Diet Library's full-text index holds no book with the phrase, at any date it reaches, in the modern spelling or the prewar 苦しんだ學んだ變つた [15]. The nearest is a 1931 passage on a woman who took up journalism after her marriage broke down: 彼女は苦しんだ。學んだ。そして今日の地位を得た, "she suffered; she learned; and she reached where she stands today" [16], two of the three verbs in the same order, with an arrival in place of a change. That line is quoted from the index's excerpt; the page image is not served outside Japan. Japanese gives Caesar the same plain-past shape, 来た、見た、勝つた, by 1910 [17]: a parallel of form, not a source, since nothing read here connects the two lines.
Japanese Scrolls by Master Calligrapher Eri Takase
Sources not seen
『أحاديث المجد والوجد』 at the page [8]: Google Books shows no preview, the Internet Archive holds no copy, and HathiTrust's full-text search refused the request, so the passage is read only as the 2006 article quotes it, and the year of the first edition is not settled. The 1929 review [7]: seen only in Google Books search windows. The page of 『شكلها سافرت』 that carries the passage [10]: not previewed; quoted from the search windows. The 2013 artwork image [2]: archived nowhere found. ISQINEEHA's blog as it stood in 2012 [1]: no capture. Haggag's book [12]: not opened, so whether it quotes the line is open. 板谷英世 1931 [16]: served only in Japan; quoted from the index's excerpt. Posts on X from 2014 that teach the English to Arabic speakers were seen only as search results. Between 1929 and 2012 the passage's path, through which books and pages the two verbs travelled before someone added the third, was not traced.
A reader with access to any of these is invited to write to Takase Studios at Tim@Takase.com.
References
- Tumblr, reblog by ramblingsofanasshole, post 37691064528, 11 December 2012, whose trail carries the root post isqineeha 37371691227 of 7 December 2012 (the image) and the reblog layer with the English. https://www.tumblr.com/ramblingsofanasshole/37691064528
- I suffered I learned I changed, photoshoppedart.wordpress.com, posted 27 May 2013, with comments of 30 July to 4 August 2013; Wayback Machine capture of 28 August 2013. https://web.archive.org/web/20130828062116/http://photoshoppedart.wordpress.com/2013/05/27/i-suffered-i-learned-i-changed/
- Edward William Lane, An Arabic-English Lexicon, Book I, Part 1 (London, 1863), p. 82, root ألم, forms 1 and 5, read at the page image. https://archive.org/details/arabicenglishlex0001edwa/page/n121
- Edward William Lane, An Arabic-English Lexicon, Book I, Part 5 (London, 1874), p. 2139, root علم, form 5, read at the page image. https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.76950/page/n384
- حسن علي شهاب الدين, «أبو الفضل الوليد شاعر مهجري يعلن إسلامه!!», 『الأدب الإسلامي』 (رابطة الأدب الإسلامي العالمية), issue 50, 1427 AH / 2006, pp. 46–49, read at the page images; the passage on p. 49. https://archive.org/details/AAlexandrina-178157/page/n50
- Nalla, Faces: A collection of poems (Lulu.com by the Google Books record, 2014), title page and copyright page, read at the page images in Google Books. https://books.google.com/books?id=F2-3BwAAQBAJ&pg=PP2
- عارف النكدي, review of 『أحاديث المجد والوجد』, 『مجلة المجمع العلمي العربي』 (Damascus), vol. 9, 1929, parts 7 and 8, pp. 446–448; seen in Google Books search windows only, the page not previewed. https://books.google.com/books?id=Uwx0Lu5M0eEC
- Google Books record t_poQgAACAAJ: ابو الفضل الوليد, 『احاديث المجد و الوجد』, dated 1928; a catalogue record, no preview. https://books.google.com/books?id=t_poQgAACAAJ
- دار الكتب المصرية, 『فهرس الكتب العربية الموجودة بالدار』, the entry أحاديث المجد والوجد (second edition, Syria, 1929, 231 pp.), read in the scan's text layer, not at the page. https://archive.org/details/AAlexandrina-065972
- سها الفقي، 『شكلها سافرت』 (دار دوّن للنشر والتوزيع), dated 2016 by the Google Books record; the passage at PT151 from the in-book search windows, the page not previewed. https://books.google.com/books?id=5qUlDwAAQBAJ
- Goodreads, quote 8598937. https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/8598937-i-suffered-i-learned-i-changed
- Goodreads, book 34574626: Ashraf Haggag, No Place To Stand Alone, CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, paperback, 191 pp., published 18 February 2017. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34574626-no-place-to-stand-alone
- Chinese Forums, I suffered. I learned. I changed., topic 53727, posts of 8 March 2017. https://www.chinese-forums.com/forums/topic/53727-i-suffered-i-learned-i-changed/
- Google Books records LtllzQEACAAJ (13 December 2019) and i9m7zgEACAAJ (8 October 2021), notebooks, by their titles only. https://books.google.com/books?id=LtllzQEACAAJ · https://books.google.com/books?id=i9m7zgEACAAJ
- National Diet Library Digital Collections, full-text search, all access tiers, oldest first: 苦しんだ学んだ変わった 0 · 苦しんだ學んだ變つた 0 · 學んだ變つた 0 (searched 30 September 2026). https://dl.ndl.go.jp/search/searchResult?keyword=%E8%8B%A6%E3%81%97%E3%82%93%E3%81%A0%E5%AD%A6%E3%82%93%E3%81%A0%E5%A4%89%E3%82%8F%E3%81%A3%E3%81%9F&fulltext=true&sortKey=ISSUED_ASC
- 板谷英世『続女人人国記』, 1931, National Diet Library pid 1191831; the full-text index's excerpt (the image is served only in Japan). https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1191831
- 典 Ten, 来た見た勝った · kita mita katta · I came, I saw, I conquered, Takase Studios Philology, § The historical record (島田民治, 1910); Caesar's Latin is cited through it, and stands at its canon address in Suetonius, Divus Julius 37, VENI : VIDI : VICI, at The Latin Library. https://takase.com/library/philology/kita-mita-katta · https://www.thelatinlibrary.com/suetonius/suet.caesar.html