# L'être et le néant (a Work by Sartre)



## Qcumber

This is a hard one.
*L'Être et le Néant *
is the title of a book published in 1943 by French philosopher Jean-Paul SARTRE (1905-1980)
How would you translate it in your native language?
Being and nothingness is the standard translation in English


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## Chazzwozzer

*Turkish:* *Varlık ve Hiçlik
*
It's the original translation, not mine. It simply means _"existence and nothingless"_


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## Flaminius

Japanese:
存在と無
Sonzai to Mu.
This is an established translation.


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## Chazzwozzer

*German: Das Sein und das Nichts*


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## Jana337

Czech: Bytí a nicota (being and nothingness)


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## FranParis

*Português* : *O ser e o nada.*

*Español* : *El ser y la nada.*

*Italiano : L’essere e il nulla.*


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## Qcumber

Thanks a lot. That's already a good collection


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## Frank06

Hi,
In *Dutch* the book got translated as "_Het zijn en het niet".
_
Groetjes,

Frank


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## Lemminkäinen

It seems the Norwegian translation is _Væren og intet_.


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## gao_yixing

Chinese: 存在与虚无 （cun zai yu xu wu)


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## cherine

The book was translated into Arabic with the title:
*الوجود والعدم* al-wujuud wa'l-3adam
whereas wujuud means "existence" not "being".


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## ireney

In Greek it has been translated as *"Το είναι και το μηδέν"*  (L'Être et le Zéro) while it should have been translated as *"Το είναι και το τίποτα"* (L'Être et le Néant) for a verbatim translation. However, in defence of whomever did the translation way back then, "zero" (meden) is very commonly used to denote nothingness.


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## jaxineau

Traditional Chinese
存有與虛無


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## karuna

Latvian: _Esamība un nekas _


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## Qcumber

cherine said:


> The book was translated into Arabic with the title:
> *الوجود والعدم* al-wujuud wa'l-3adam
> whereas wujuud means "existence" not "being".


I'm surprised the translator didn't use some derivative from the verb kaana / yakuunu. I suppose he had in mind the principle of existencialism: _l'existence précède l'essence_ "existence precedes essence".

By the way, could we say: "Al kaana wa l laisa."  ?


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## sabrinita85

Italian:
*L'Essere e il Nulla*


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## femmejolie

*Basque*: Izatea eta ezereza
*Catalan*: L'ésser i el no-res


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## cherine

Qcumber said:


> I'm surprised the translator didn't use some derivative from the verb kaana / yakuunu. I suppose he had in mind the principle of existencialism: _l'existence précède l'essence_ "existence precedes essence".
> 
> By the way, could we say: "Al kaana wa l laisa." ?


Sorry for the late reply, I only saw this now.

The translator, dr. Abdel-Rahman Badawi عبد الرحمن بدوي , is a famous Egyptian philosopher. So I guess that he had indeed the existencialism in mind while translating this. But not only that. The word "wujuud" also means "being there", so it's a good equivalent for "being".

If we want to use the verb yakuun, we'd say "al-kaynuuna", which is the substantive of this verb. But "laysa" doesn't have a substantive, so we can't say "al-laysa". On the other hand, al-3adam is a perfectly valid translation for "le néant", and not only in the existencialism's context.

An alternative translation can be al-kaynuuna wa'l-3adam الكينونة والعدم , but it's not the accredited translation.


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## Qcumber

cherine said:


> [...]An alternative translation can be al-kaynuuna wa'l-3adam الكينونة والعدم , but it's not the accredited translation.


Thanks a lot, Cherine.


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## Flaminius

Speaking of a Semitic language...

Hebrew;
היש והאין
hayesh veha'eyin


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## Marga H

Polish: Byt i nicość.


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## Athaulf

Croatian: _Bitak i ni__šta _


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## Lugubert

Swedish: _Varat och intet_. As incomprehensible as any other version.


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