苦しんだ学んだ変わった kurushinda mananda kawatta I Suffered, I Learned, I Changed
苦しんだ学んだ変わった (kurushinda mananda kawatta), I suffered, I learned, I changed, is three verbs in the plain past. The English motto is in circulation by 2017, and the Japanese is in no book the National Diet Library's full-text index holds. This study sets it beside the shape Japanese also gives Caesar's veni, vidi, vici.
Abstract
苦しんだ学んだ変わった, I suffered, I learned, I changed, is Japanese for an English motto that is in circulation by 2017: a quotation site gives it to a self-published book on corporate mergers of February that year, and in March someone asking for it as a tattoo is told it sounds like Caesar's veni, vidi, vici. The Japanese is in no book the National Diet Library's full-text index holds, at any date, in the modern or the prewar spelling. Its shape, three verbs in the plain past, is the one Japanese also gives Caesar.
Overview
The sense. An English motto rendered into Japanese, with no Japanese life before it and no traceable author, in the three-verb shape Japanese also uses for Caesar.
The words. 苦しんだ, 学んだ, 変わった: three verbs in the plain past, no particles, no pronoun.
The text in English. The English fits the Japanese.
The historical record
2017. A motto in circulation. I suffered, I learned, I changed has one attribution, on a quotation site, to Ashraf Haggag's No Place To Stand Alone: Historical Mergers and Acquisitions in Different Corporate Markets [1], a self-published paperback of 18 February 2017 [2]. The site gives no page, so whether the sentence is Haggag's own or a motto he quotes is not settled. Three weeks later, on 8 March 2017, a user on a forum for learners of Chinese asked for the motto as a tattoo, a reminder after a tough time, and a member writing from Beijing answered: I see a parallel between "I suffered. I learned. I changed" and "veni, vidi, vici". Have you considered Latin? [3] No book in the Internet Archive's full-text index carries the English earlier.
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 [4]. The nearest is a 1931 sketch of a woman journalist whose marriage had failed: 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" [5], 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 [6].
What is not a source. The motto has no source in either language.
Today. What a rendering must keep is the past tense in the three verbs.
A reading
Honest Japanese for an English motto with no author, which is not a fault. The plain past in all three verbs is what it rests on.
References
- 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/
- 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). https://takase.com/library/philology/kita-mita-katta