# אני אדון לגורלי, אני קברניט נשמתי



## Boutan

Hi, (bonjour)
i wish talk you about a tatoo of a friend
very bad work i think ...

Can anybody translate it please, thank's a lot about him !


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## arielipi

oh dear. your friend has been... misled i believe.
whats it supposed to mean?


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## hadronic

אני אדון לגורלי, אני קברניט נשמתי
Je suis le maître  de mon destin, je suis le capitaine de mon âme.


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## hadronic

ani adon le-gorali, ani kavarnit (kavarnis ?) nishmati. 
But all letters are written from left to right instead of right to left, plus a couple letters have *weird* shape like the yods. 

My grammatical question will be : why adon *le*, but kavarnit with smikhut?


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## Albert Schlef

This tattoo is fine. It was written not in the conventional direction but I don't see it as a deal breaker. Symbolically, it's as if it's intended to be read from within. It's intended as an inspiration for the person himself (or herself), not as a show off.

I'm sure one can find Kabbala "charms" where words are written backwards. But that's not the point.

Incidentally, if you explain the concept of "right to left" to the general non-Hebrew population I can assure you that they simply won't "get" it. To most of the world, what you have there would be judged to be the obvious direction. No point making a fuss over something because a tiny fraction of mankind, which you're likely not to meet in your lifetime anyway, thinks it's the "wrong" direction. Live according to your own convictions; don't try to please others. The tattoo was selected for its message, not in order to please one Shlomo from Haifa.



> [...] a tatoo of a friend
> very bad work i think ...



What was done was done. If it's a friend, I suggest you try to see the positive in it.


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## Albert Schlef

hadronic said:


> My grammatical question will be : why adon *le*, but kavarnit with smikhut?



You think the Bible is 100% consistent?


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## hadronic

Wow. I think you went way too far. 
I was just pointing out that the direction wasn't the good one, there are no space, and the yods look like apostrophes, hence the non-immediate decipherableness for the basic Hebrew native speaker. 
If it's all intended, fine, I'm not judging, I'm just explaining why the tattoo looks enigmatic on the first sight.


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## hadronic

Why don't you just say : it's from the Bible, which is not always consistent.?


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## origumi

Is it really from the Bible? I know it through Henley's Invictus, quoted later by Mandela.

I am the master of my fate,
I am the captain of my soul.


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## hadronic

Originally by William Ernest Henley (1888) :
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate,
I am the captain of my soul.


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## origumi

Regarding the asymmetry of אדון לגורלי vs. קברניט נשמתי: modern Hebrew loves the construct state, and yet the expression   אדון לגורלו is idiomatic. See for example the biblical verse וַיְשִׂימֵנִי לְאָב לְפַרְעֹה וּלְ*אָדוֹן לְ*כָל בֵּיתוֹ. I don't know who translated Henley's words as appear above (  תלמה אליגון's translation is different, and not so good if you'd ask for my opinion). My personal preference when translating a poem would be keeping the structure and NOT choose two different Hebrew forms for one English form, as in our case.


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## Boutan

Merci beaucoup pour vos explications,
je comprends mieux.

Thank's a lot


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## arielipi

Albert Schlef said:


> This tattoo is fine. It was written not in the conventional direction but I don't see it as a deal breaker. Symbolically, it's as if it's intended to be read from within. It's intended as an inspiration for the person himself (or herself), not as a show off.
> 
> I'm sure one can find Kabbala "charms" where words are written backwards. But that's not the point.
> 
> Incidentally, if you explain the concept of "right to left" to the general non-Hebrew population I can assure you that they simply won't "get" it. To most of the world, what you have there would be judged to be the obvious direction. No point making a fuss over something because a tiny fraction of mankind, which you're likely not to meet in your lifetime anyway, thinks it's the "wrong" direction. Live according to your own convictions; don't try to please others. The tattoo was selected for its message, not in order to please one Shlomo from Haifa.


Yea, because people dont tattoo chinese from top to bottom. If you want to do something, do it right.


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## airelibre

Albert Schlef said:


> This tattoo is fine. It was written not in the conventional direction but I don't see it as a deal breaker. Symbolically, it's as if it's intended to be read from within. It's intended as an inspiration for the person himself (or herself), not as a show off.
> 
> I'm sure one can find Kabbala "charms" where words are written backwards. But that's not the point.
> 
> Incidentally, if you explain the concept of "right to left" to the general non-Hebrew population I can assure you that they simply won't "get" it. To most of the world, what you have there would be judged to be the obvious direction. No point making a fuss over something because a tiny fraction of mankind, which you're likely not to meet in your lifetime anyway, thinks it's the "wrong" direction. Live according to your own convictions; don't try to please others. The tattoo was selected for its message, not in order to please one Shlomo from Haifa.
> 
> 
> 
> What was done was done. If it's a friend, I suggest you try to see the positive in it.



Just to say that if this is viewed from the inside out the individual letters would then be facing the wrong way, even if the words would then read in the right direction. It seems more like the work of a bad tattooist. Nevertheless I like your positive attitude about what is done and mostly irreversible. Best thing is to be sure about such a thing before going ahead with it and regretting, but otherwise your point about intentional back to front lettering is a good alternative.


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## Egmont

As it is written, it makes as much sense as writing "luos ym fo niatpac eht ma I ,etaf ym fo retsam eht ma I" would make in English - or, actually, "luosymfoniatpacehtmaI,etafymforetsamehtmaI" without any spaces. I think most English speakers here would agree that this would not be acceptable in a tattoo - or anywhere else.


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