# To be or not to be, that is the question



## tvdxer

English: "To be or not to be, that is the question"

Spanish: "Ser o no ser, esa es la cuestión" (that's how Wikiquotes translates it...I was expecting _pregunta_ in place of _cuestión_, but that sounds much truer to the original English!)


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## Chazzwozzer

*Turkish:* "Olmak ya da olmamak, işte bütün sorun bu!"*

Few language pointers for learners:
ya da: *_or._please note that it is not written as a one word, which is a very common mistake.*
işte: *you might find info on the usage here.* 
soru:* _question _(which you ask)*
sorun: *_question _(which you discuss, an issue)*
*


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## endl3ss

In tagalog:

"Mawawari ba o hindi mawawari iyan ang tanong"


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## Kraus

In Italian:

"Essere o non essere, questo è il problema"

Literally: "Essere o non essere, questa è la questione", but "questa è la questione" would be an unpleasant pun...


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## Nunty

Hebrew:

להיות או לא להיות - זאת השאלה

pronounced _lihiyot o lo lihiyot -- zot hashe'ela_


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## jester.

German: _Sein oder nicht sein - das ist hier die Frage._


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## Mutichou

In French: _Être ou ne pas être, telle est la question._
I have also seen _c'est la question_ (_it is_ the question).


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## linguist786

Although I can't claim to have ever seen this, this is what it would be in:

*Hindi:*

होना या न होना, यह है सवाल
(honaa yaa na honaa, yeh hai sawaal)

*Urdu:*
*ہونا يا نہ ہونا، يہ ہے سؤال* 
(honaa yaa na honaa, yeh hai sawaal)


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## Lillita

Hungarian:
_*Lenni vagy nem lenni, az itt a kérdés.*_​


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## DrWatson

Finnish:

I think there are more than one translation of this particular quote, but the most common I've seen is:

*Ollako vai eikö olla, kas siinä pulma.*


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## cherine

The famous Arabic translation says :
أكون أو لا أكون، تلك هي المسألة
akún aw lá akún, tilka hiya 'l-mas2ala

And as Arabic verbs don't have infinitive forms like in English or the Romance languages, this verb is conjugated. Hence, the Arabic form say something like : for me to be or not to be...


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## Frank06

Hi,
In *Dutch*:
Zijn of niet zijn, daar gaat het om.


Groetjes,

Frank


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## papillon

Russian:
Быть иль не быть - вот в чем вопрос
Byt' il' ne byt' - vot v chom vopros.
Byt' - to be
vopros - question


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## Outsider

Portuguese: _Ser ou não ser, eis a questão_.


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## DrLindenbrock

Kraus said:


> In Italian:
> 
> "Essere o non essere, questo è il problema"
> 
> Literally: "Essere o non essere, questa è la questione", but "questa è la questione" would be an unpleasant pun...


 
Yes, and let me add that we also use this other translation:

"Essere o non essere, questo è il dilemma"

I think the two versions are equally used.


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## Marga H

Polish : Być albo nie być, oto jest pytanie!


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## Qcumber

endl3ss said:


> In tagalog:
> "Mawawari ba o hindi mawawari iyan ang tanong"


What about: ?
Mangyáyári bá ó hindî, iyán ang tanóng.


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## Kraus

papillon said:


> Russian:
> Быть иль не быть - вот в чем вопрос
> Byt' il' ne byt' - vot v chom vopros.
> Byt' - to be
> vopros - question



"Иль" вместо "или" по делам метрики, правда?


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## Lugubert

Swedish: "Att vara eller inte vara, det är frågan".

As an aside, this quote is often illustrated by a man holding a skull. But that would be the churchyard scene corresponding to the quote "Poor Yorick!"


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## l10ner

Simplified Chiense:
生存还是死亡，这是一个问题


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## papillon

papillon said:


> Russian:
> Быть иль не быть - вот в чем вопрос
> Byt' il' ne byt' - vot v chom vopros.


 


Kraus said:


> "Иль" вместо "или" по делам метрики, правда?
> Is il' instead of ili used for better rythm?


English translation mine.
Yes, in modern Russian the word ili is used for "or". Il' is considered poetic/archaic and was used in a popular translation of Hamlet, perhaps both for style and better rythmic flow.


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## Lugubert

My Chinese is embarrasingly limited, but I was surprised by





l10ner said:


> Simplified Chiense:
> 生存还是死亡，这是一个问题


Back-translated, it looks to me like "To live or to die, that's a question". The famous parallelism is completely lost, which is graphically obvious even if you know no Chinese at all. It is as well in 生存，还是毁灭 (To live or (to be) destroy(ed)), which is a fairly common quote on the Internet.

Is it possible to find an existing translation, accepted by scholars? I would love a link.


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## Flaminius

Well Lugubert, Japanese has the same surprise for you.
*
Japanese:*

生きるか死ぬか、それが問題だ。
ikiru-ka shinu-ka, sore-ga mondai da.
To life or to die, that is the question.
_Too many similar translations to locate the original passage and the translator.
_

このままでいいのか、いけないのか。それが問題だ（小田島雄志 1973-80）。
konomama-de īno-ka ikenaino-ka.  sore-ga mondai da.
If it is okay to go on as it is or not; that is the question.


存（ながら）ふるか、存（ながら）へぬか? それが疑問じゃ（坪内逍遙 1926）。
nagarauru-ka nagaraenu-ka?  sore-ga mondai ja.
To survive or not to survive, that is the question.


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## panjabigator

linguist786 said:


> Although I can't claim to have ever seen this, this is what it would be in:
> 
> *Hindi:*
> 
> होना या न होना, यह है सवाल
> (honaa yaa na honaa, yeh hai sawaal)
> 
> *Urdu:*
> *ہونا يا نہ ہونا، يہ ہے سؤال*
> (honaa yaa na honaa, yeh hai sawaal)



Linguist, can I suggest a ही in between /yah/ and /hai/ (ie, a यही)?  I feel this will add some emphasis which will match the English translation more.  

I can't quite put my finger on why, but I am not a fan of this translation.  It just doesn't sound right...if I heard it spoken it wouldn't dawn on me that this is a direct copy of the English saying.   Not to say that it's incorrect, but...you know what I mean?


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## Qcumber

Actually the big problem is with languages that have no verb "to be", and there are many. "To be or not to be" is almost untranslatable in them. Look at Tagalog (Philippines), the translation supplied above involves a verb that doesn't exist as such and whose stem, wárì ['wa:ri?], means "it seems, apparently, opinion", a far cry from "to be".


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## Jana337

Czech:
Být či nebýt, to je, oč tu běží.
Backwards: To be or not to be, that's what is at stake/what is going on.

Jana


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## Maja

In Serbian:

Biti ili ne biti, pitanje je sad!


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## Outsider

Qcumber said:


> Actually the big problem is with languages that have no verb "to be", and there are many. "To be or not to be" is almost untranslatable in them. Look at Tagalog (Philippines), the translation supplied above involves a verb that doesn't exist as such and whose stem, wárì ['wa:ri?], means "it seems, apparently, opinion", a far cry from "to be".


Is there no word for "to exist" in such languages?


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## charlie2

Lugubert said:


> ...
> Is it possible to find an existing translation, accepted by scholars? I would love a link.


Here is one. It is my understanding that the first two given under the title 名家譯文 are the most authoritative translators of the works of Shakespeare. (They do not always agree and the present quote is an example.)


> 朱生豪：生存还是毁灭，这是一个值得考虑的问题。
> 
> 梁实秋：死后是存在，还是不存在，——这是问题。


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## Qcumber

Outsider said:


> Is there no word for "to exist" in such languages?


I cannot give an answer for all the languages that have no verb "to be". Probably many have the verb "to exist", although it is not this verb that was used by Shakespeare.

As regards Tagalog, existence and possession involve the same two tool-words: *may *[mei] for the affirmation and *walâ* [wa'la?] for the negation.

May buwáya sa ílog na itó. = There are crocodiles in this river.
Walâng buwáya sa ílog na itó. = There are no crocodiles in this river.
May buwáya akó. = I have got a crocodile.
Walâ akóng buwáya. = I have no crocodile.

_May_ and _walâ_ couldn't possibly be used to translate what we are dealing with here.

There is *magíng* "to become", actually a prefix treated as an independent word. It cannot be used alone; it needs to be associated with a noun phrase. If I used it to translate Shakespeare's line, I'd have to add _hárì_ ['ha:ti?] "king", hence:

Magíging hárì ó hindî ... = To become a king or not ...

The problem is that this sort of translation restricts the portent of the line, etc.


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## panjabigator

linguist786 said:


> Although I can't claim to have ever seen this, this is what it would be in:
> 
> *Hindi:*
> 
> होना या न होना, यह है सवाल
> (honaa yaa na honaa, yeh hai sawaal)
> 
> *Urdu:*
> *ہونا يا نہ ہونا، يہ ہے سؤال*
> (honaa yaa na honaa, yeh hai sawaal)




Another thought.

/hotaa hai ya nahii.N hotaa hai, yahii hai savaal/

I think this might be a better translation.  I feel that /hona/ in your example implies that "something is about to/might happen."  How do you feel?


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## Lugubert

panjabigator said:


> Another thought.
> 
> /hotaa hai ya nahii.N hotaa hai, yahii hai savaal/
> 
> I think this might be a better translation. I feel that /hona/ in your example implies that "something is about to/might happen." How do you feel?


Yet another language in which I'm not fluent, but I'll buy most any Hindi two-verb rendering over a single verb. But wouldn't a Hindi purist use prashn प्रश्न instead of savaal? Or, perhaps even samsyaa समस्या (question = problem)?


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## Bienvenidos

This translation sounds extremely awkward because this just is not a common phrase in Persian:

Bâša yâ nabâša, i sawâl as.


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## CiegoEnamorado

Flaminius said:


> 生きるか死ぬか、それが問題だ。
> ikiru-ka shinu-ka, sore-ga mondai da.
> To life or to die, that is the question.
> _Too many similar translations to locate the original passage and the translator._


 
If I may interject and add to this, on one of my tests for my Japanese class we had to translate this line into Japanese. The translation she taught us was 生きるべきか死ぬべきか、それが問題だ。(Ikiru-beki ka shinu-beki ka, sore ga mondai da.) Slightly modified from the "ikiru-ka shinu-ka" translation. Interesting.


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## panjabigator

Lugubert said:


> Yet another language in which I'm not fluent, but I'll buy most any Hindi two-verb rendering over a single verb. But wouldn't a Hindi purist use prashn प्रश्न instead of savaal? Or, perhaps even samsyaa समस्या (question = problem)?



Most definitely!  I was going to use /prashn/ myself, but I decided not to in the end because I was lazy and didn't want to explain myself

So how do you feel about my translation?  Any critiques on what it should be?


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## Lemminkäinen

*Norwegian (bokmål):* Å være eller ikke være, det er spørsmålet
*Norwegian (nynorsk):* Å vere eller ikkje vere, det er spørsmålet


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## karuna

The Latvian translation is rather boring: _Būt vai nebūt? – tāds ir jautājums. _

It is classic but not very impressive. I liked the Japanese translation about life or death, it is much more appealing and better revealing the intention of the author. I guess that it is not the verb "to be" (what about _iru_?) but the lack of the infinitive that does not allow the direct translation.


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## Lugubert

Anand: The Modern English-Hindi Dictionary:

To be or not to be? जीवित रहें या मर जायें? jiiivit raheM yaa mar jaayeM

My clumsy effort towards a 'literal' translation: 'may be living or may go dead'.


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## Andreas_Jensen

Danish: At være eller ikke at være, det er spørgsmålet.


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## Venezuelan_sweetie

tvdxer said:


> English: "To be or not to be, that is the question"
> Spanish: "Ser o no ser, esa es la cuestión" (that's how Wikiquotes translates it...I was expecting _pregunta_ in place of _cuestión_, but that sounds much truer to the original English!)


 
Actually, it is more similar to the Italian version by DrLindenbrock:





DrLindenbrock said:


> "Essere o non essere, questo è il dilemma"


 
In the theater plays, they (actors  ) say "Ser o no ser, he ahí el dilema".

Cuestión is used as matter, issue, dilemma and, sometimes, question.


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## Kassikakk

Estonian: Olla või mitte olla, selles on küsimus.


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## lotjed_13

*Dutch:*

Zijn of niet zijn, dat is de kwestie.
Zijn of niet zijn, dat is de vraag.


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## Cleo-Mi

Romanian:
A fi sau a nu fi, aceasta este intrebarea!


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## Tim~!

In Esperanto:

Ĉu esti aŭ ne esti, jen la demando.


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## Alijsh

Bienvenidos said:


> This translation sounds extremely awkward because this just is not a common phrase in Persian:
> 
> Bâša yâ nabâša, i sawâl as.


We have it:

budan yâ nabudan, mas'ale in ast.
بودن یا نبودن، مسئله این است


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## theez

Korean ::

죽느냐 사느냐, 그것이 문제로다. (juk-nu-nya sa-nu-nya, gu-go-si mun-je-ro-da.)


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## kareno999

l10ner said:


> Simplified Chiense:
> 生存还是死亡，这是一个问题


I don't like this translation and even don't think it's right.


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## daoxunchang

Whether they are "right" or not may depend on how hard you haved tried to place yourself in those translator's place. 生存还是毁灭this seems to me the only choice if we do want a translation of "to be or not to be" in our language.


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## Tisia

Alijsh said:


> We have it:
> 
> budan yâ nabudan, mas'ale in ast.
> بودن یا نبودن، مسئله این است


 
I wonder it makes a difference in the meaning to say: 
 مسئله بودن یا نبودن است (mas'alaye budan ya nabudan ast)


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## deine

Lithuanian:

Būti ar nebūti, štai kur klausimas

or

Būt ar nebūt, štai klausimas


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## doman

Vietnamese

*"Tồn tại hay không tồn tại, đó là câu hỏi ! "*


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## linguist786

panjabigator said:


> Linguist, can I suggest a ही in between /yah/ and /hai/ (ie, a यही)? I feel this will add some emphasis which will match the English translation more.
> 
> I can't quite put my finger on why, but I am not a fan of this translation. It just doesn't sound right...if I heard it spoken it wouldn't dawn on me that this is a direct copy of the English saying. Not to say that it's incorrect, but...you know what I mean?


 


panjabigator said:


> Another thought.
> 
> /hotaa hai ya nahii.N hotaa hai, yahii hai savaal/
> 
> I think this might be a better translation. I feel that /hona/ in your example implies that "something is about to/might happen." How do you feel?


Firstly, I definitely agree about the "yahii" suggestion - it gives it more emphasis like you said (To be or not to be, _this_ is the question)

"honaa" is actually the direct translation of "to be" (from which we get "maiN hooN, tu haiN, woh haiN, etc) but like you said, it sounds as though it means "happen" here (like "abhii kuch hone waalaa hai").
But I'm not sure about your translation either - it sounds like it means "to happen" there as-well. Yours to me sounds like it means "Whether it happens or doesn't happen, this is the question". 

Lugubert has given the idiomatic translation:


> Anand: The Modern English-Hindi Dictionary:
> 
> To be or not to be? जीवित रहें या मर जायें? jiiivit raheM yaa mar jaayeM
> 
> My clumsy effort towards a 'literal' translation: 'may be living or may go dead'.


The literal translation to that would be "stay living or die".

If this is what your dictionary says, then obviously this is the equivalent of the English version.

One other thing - in Urdu I would change /sawaal/ to /maslaa/ - just like the Arabic and Persian. /maslaa/ is the perfect word to use here since it means "problem" in the sense of "something that needs to be looked at/sorted out". (It's better than just "sawaal"). I don't think "maslaa" is a proper Hindi word though.


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## suslik

In estonian: "Olla või mitte olla, selles on küsimus."


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## Vagabond

*Greek*

Να ζει κανείς ή να μη ζει, ιδού η απορία (na z*e* kan*e*s *e* na me ze, ed*ou* e apor*e*a - I have a hard time transcribing the Greek "ee/e" sound. In the above, read all the "e"s as the sound in "be").


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## PitBullLuva

In Finnish:

To be or not to be - Olla vai eikö olla


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## Hakro

PitBullLuva said:


> In Finnish:
> 
> To be or not to be - Olla vai eikö olla


A small correction:

Olla*ko* vai eikö olla, kas siinä kysymys.


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## PitBullLuva

Hakro said:


> A small correction:
> 
> Olla*ko* vai eikö olla, kas siinä kysymys.


 
I forgot to put that "*ko*", my bad. Thank you for correcting


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## Cepkah

На български: "да бъдеш или да не бъдеш? Тоба е въпросът!" (in bulgarian)

Türkçesi: '' Olmak ya da olmamak.. İşte bütün mesela bu.!'' (in turkish) it's more used for theatre texts.


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## khan-sheik kimberley

I, personally, don't understand why Hamlet is being so euphemistic even in the most critical moment of his fate: to exist or to cease to exist blah, blah, blah...

In Korea as well, this famous play has been translated and staged tens of thousands of times so far, where only one translation of this phrase can be, and has been, employed: 사느냐, 죽느냐, 그것이 문제로다. 

Translated back into English, however, this Korean version of the monologue becomes far more downright: to live on or to kill myself, that's the question.

Sorry, if Shakespeare lovers are upset with our translation.


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## Focalist

Irish
*Bheith ann nó gan bheith ann - is í sin an cheist*
is a suggested translation.

Welsh
*Bod neu beidio â bod – dyna’r dewis*
is the usually cited equivalent: note that it literally means
_Be or cease to be - that is the choice_.

F


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## Tisia

deine said:


> Lithuanian:
> 
> Būti ar nebūti, štai kur klausimas or Būt ar nebūt, štai klausimas


 
Intersting! How close this is to Persian. *Budan yâ nabudan, mas'ale in ast.* 

Tisia


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## Encolpius

Jana337 said:


> Czech:
> Být či nebýt, to je, oč tu běží.
> Backwards: To be or not to be, that's what is at stake/what is going on.
> 
> Jana


 
And how about: *Být či nebýt toť otázka.* [?] I knew that one.


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