# Frailty, thy name is woman.



## Encolpius

Well, I know it's difficult, but let's give it a try. I'm sure you all know the quote from Hamlet, but I wonder what your version is in your language. Thanks. 

*Hungarian*: Gyarlóság, asszony a neved. 
*Czech*: Křehkosti, tvé jméno je žena.


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## apmoy70

In Greek (Polylas' translation 1889):

*«Αδυναμία! τ' όνομά σου είναι γυναίκα!»* [aðinaˈmi.a ˈtonoˌma su 'ine ʝi'neka]


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## AutumnOwl

_*Swedish:*_
_Skröplighet, ditt namn är kvinna_ (translation: Carl August Hagberg 1905) 
S_vaghet, ditt namn är kvinna _(translation: Britt G. Hallqvist 1986(?) )

Both _skröplighet_ and s_vaghet_ means frailty, but_ svaghet_ can also be translated as weakness.


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## Thomas1

Polish: _Słabości_, _twe imię kobieta!_


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## Dymn

In Catalan:
*
"Fragilitat, ton nom és dona!* (translation: M. Morera i Galícia, 1920)


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## Frank78

German:

"Schwachheit, dein Name ist Weib."


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## Ghabi

Hello. In Modern Written Chinese the wording of this snowclone is changed to: "Woman, your name is a weak person" (女人,你的名字是弱者). Such a change is understandable, as addressing an abstract concept directly ("Frailty!") doesn't make much sense in Chinese, and "frail" and "frailty" can be translated into the same word in Chinese. So a literal translation (something like 脆弱,你的名字是女人) may sound quite confusing.

Perhaps the saying sounds more natural in languages that have gender. (Abstract nouns are mostly feminine in Romance and Germanic languages, right? Not sure.)


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## AutumnOwl

Ghabi said:


> (Abstract nouns are mostly feminine in Romance and Germanic languages, right? Not sure.)


Swedish (a Germanic language) have only two grammatical genders: common gender and neuter gender. Earlier there were also grammatical masculine gender and feminine gender but today those are a part of the common gender. As for both _skröplighet_ and _svaghet_ they are common gender.


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## Dymn

Ghabi said:


> (Abstract nouns are mostly feminine in Romance and Germanic languages, right? Not sure.)



I don't know about Germanic languages, but in Romance languages you're right, abstract nouns tend to be feminine.


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## animelover

German ("W. Shakespeare's dramatische Werke", 21st ed., translated by August Wilhelm von Schlegel and Ludwig Tieck):

Schwachheit, dein Nam’ ist Weib!
(same as several posts above, but with an omitted vowel at the end of "name".)

Japanese:

弱き者よ、汝の名は女なり。
Yowaki mono yo, nanji no na wa onna nari.
(Translation by 坪内逍遙 [Shouyou Tsubouchi], most literal and well known translation.)

脆き者よ、汝の名は女なり。
Moroki mono yo, nanji no na wa onna nari.
(Revised translation by the same author. The original translation used "weak" instead of "frail" and the sentence apparently often got misinterpreted as "Ladies first".)

節操なき者、お前の名は女だ。
Sessou naki mono, omae no na wa onna da.
(http://james.3zoku.com/shakespeare/hamlet/index.html)

女というものがかくも弱々しいものだとは。
Onna to yuu mono ga kaku mo yowayowashii mono da to wa.
(http://shakespeare.hix05.com/tragedies1/hamlet02.melancholy.html)


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## apmoy70

Ghabi said:


> (Abstract nouns are mostly feminine in Romance and Germanic languages, right? Not sure.)


Likewise in Greek. *«Αδυναμία»* [aðinaˈmi.a] --> _weakness, frailty_ is a feminine noun


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## Encolpius

Thank you all. Welcome animelover, we all hope you will continue to post interesting Japanese or other answers here.


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## Ghabi

Thank you for the correction and explanation, AutumnOwl, Diamant and Ampoy. I wonder whether we can have an example from a language where "frailty" is actually translated into a masculine noun.


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## Nastoshka

In Italian:

"Fragilità, il tuo nome è donna"
Also in Italian "fragilità" is an abstract femminine noun.


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## igusarov

I've just checked Wikipedia... There seems to be over 30 different translations of "Hamlet" to Russian. None of them uses any masculine word. But 5 of them use *neuter* abstract noun for "frailty":

(1880): "*Бессилье* воли". Literally: "Helplessness of will".
(1892):  "О, *непостоянство* - вот имя женщин." Literally: "inconstancy".
(1907): "*Непостоянство* - женщины названье."
(1939): "*Непостоянство* - имя тебе,  женщина!"
(1940): "О женщины, вам имя – *вероломство*!" Literally: "treachery".

Here's a link to a complete list of translations of this frailty line: here (all text is in Russian).

Edit:
Funny thing... All those Russian translations read like "Woman's name is X". Whereas the original line looks like "X's name is woman".


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## animelover

igusarov said:


> There seems to be over 30 different translations of "Hamlet" to Russian.



We can do better than that ; ) Here's a list of about 150 translations of Hamlet into Japanese!

http://homepage3.nifty.com/nada/Hamlet.html


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## Ghabi

igusarov said:


> Funny thing... All those Russian translations read like "Woman's name is X". Whereas the original line looks like "X's name is woman".


Yes, interesting, like the Chinese translation in post#7.


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## mataripis

Tagalog: Hah! Babae kang tinuringan?( what? A woman is your title?)


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## ilocas2

Croatian:

*Slabosti, ime ti je žena.* (Weakness, thy name is woman.)
*Krhkosti, ime ti je žena.* (Frailty, thy name is woman.)


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## Ectab

Arabic:

ايها الضعف, اسمك المرأة
'ayyuha -DDu3f(u), (i)smuka -lmar'a(tu).
lit: O weakness, thy name is the woman.


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## bibax

The phrase is often paraphrased.

Czech (all abstract nouns with the suffix -ost are feminine):

Falši, tvé jméno je žena. (falsity/falsehood/deceit, thy name is woman)
Marnivosti, ... (vanity)
Zvědavosti, ... (curiosity)
Nestálosti, ... (volatility)
Vrtkavosti, ... (fickleness)
etc.


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## fdb

Ectab said:


> Arabic:
> 
> ايها الضعف, اسمك المرأة
> 'ayyuha -DDu3f(u), (i)smuka -lmar'a(tu).
> lit: O weakness, thy name is the woman.



Whereby الضعف is masculine.


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## Graciela J

Spanish:

Fragilidad, tu nombre es mujer.


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## jazyk

Portuguese:

Fragilidade, (o) teu nome é mulher.


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