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 shape Japanese also gives Caesar's veni, vidi, vici. The English motto has one attribution, on a quotation aggregator, to an undated book on corporate mergers.
Abstract
苦しんだ学んだ変わった, I suffered, I learned, I changed, is Japanese for an English motto whose one attribution, on a quotation aggregator, is to an undated book on corporate mergers. The Japanese is in no book to 1946 in the National Diet Library under three spellings. Its shape, three verbs in the plain past, is the one Japanese also gives Caesar's veni, vidi, vici.
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
No date. A motto with one attribution. I suffered, I learned, I changed has one attribution on a quotation aggregator, to a book on corporate mergers, undated [1]; its Japanese is in no book to 1946 in the National Diet Library under three spellings [2], in the three-verb shape that Japanese also gives Caesar's veni, vidi, vici.
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
- National Diet Library Digital Collections, next-generation full-text search on 苦しんだ学んだ変わった in three spellings, 0 books to 1946. https://lab.ndl.go.jp/dl/