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sabrina_diamond iSanity! from Australia Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: LET'S HAVE A ZILLION BABIES
#1: Jan 22nd 2019 at 6:17:03 PM

I wanted to do some analogies to the word Kokoro (Japanese word) but I ended up being confused on its exact meaning because sometimes translations are a bit iffy. For example English has the word "Heartbroken", but I don't think that is what losing your Kokoro means...

I was going to refer to a character (Misako in particular) being hollow because "they were missing their Kokoro" but it sounded very rough...

So, a little help on this?

Edited by sabrina_diamond on Jan 23rd 2019 at 1:20:15 AM

In an anime, I'll be the Tsundere Dark Magical Girl who likes purple MY own profile is actually HERE!
CrystalGlacia from at least we're not detroit (Living Relic)
#2: Jan 22nd 2019 at 7:28:27 PM

Astro Boy ran into this same problem when it was being localized. Highly advanced robots like Astro are distinguished from ordinary machines because they possess a "kokoro", a term which was left untranslated because the localization team felt that none of the usual English translations had the connotations they were looking for.

That being said, "kokoro" is usually translated as "heart" or "soul", and "soul" seems like it'll suffice for your purposes.

"Jack, you have debauched my sloth."
sabrina_diamond iSanity! from Australia Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: LET'S HAVE A ZILLION BABIES
#3: Jan 22nd 2019 at 9:05:45 PM

Should I also go with a literal form of Kokoro or a metaphorical form?

Also, could someone explain what this means from this?

Quotations: So what is kokoro, then? Yes, it means mind. But as I said, it is not only “mind”. The mind is psychological and it includes thoughts as well. It originally means heart. If you hear “the hearts of the city”, what do you think it means? Yes, it means “the center of the city”. The heart is very important in our body. It is the center of our body in a sense that if the heart stops we die.

We have the word “brain dead”. What is it? The brain is dead but people are still alive. I am not going to get into an argument on whether or not one is considered as dead/alive if the brain is dead. What I meant is even if their brain is dead, they’re still breathing.But if your heart stops, we don’t call it “heart dead”. We call it “dead”. There is why it is very important to relate kokoro to our body. They are inseparable.

Edited by sabrina_diamond on Jan 23rd 2019 at 9:05:28 PM

In an anime, I'll be the Tsundere Dark Magical Girl who likes purple MY own profile is actually HERE!
Rainbow Pomeranian Lover from Central Illinois (Experienced, Not Yet Jaded)
Pomeranian Lover
#4: Jan 23rd 2019 at 6:34:33 AM

In addition, Japanese has a separate word for the physical heart (as in the body organ), "shinzou". So from what I can tell, "kokoro" seems to be closer to the word "soul" since I'm not sure if it's ever used to refer to a person's heart in a purely medical/anatomical sense. (Although the main Japanese online dictionary I use also mentions that "shinzou" can be used to mean "guts" or "nerve" in the sense of being bold, so even that word has a metaphorical sense.)

Edited by Rainbow on Jan 23rd 2019 at 8:38:27 AM

CrystalGlacia from at least we're not detroit (Living Relic)
#5: Jan 23rd 2019 at 6:38:19 AM

I see that passage as referring to "that which makes a person, a person". Which a lot of Westerners are likely going to understand as a "soul".

About your first question... assuming I understood your original query correctly as a question of terminology for an original work of fiction that you're writing, and not a translation project or fanwork of something somebody else wrote in Japanese, I feel like the best answer here is "it's your story". Use whatever tickles your fancy, and if you decide that a different term would work better, you can change it later. I don't speak Japanese, but as a reader of Western fantasy, I'm not seeing a clear reason why simply using "soul" and invoking Our Souls Are Different could cause any problems.

"Jack, you have debauched my sloth."
sabrina_diamond iSanity! from Australia Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: LET'S HAVE A ZILLION BABIES
#6: Jan 23rd 2019 at 9:49:35 PM

Mainly because I think the word Kokoro is a very poetic word and it reinforces the "heart is the mind" philosophy from ancient times, when people once thought that their mind resided in their heart, and whenever they were sad their heart metaphorically "broke"...

Also I've been watching a lot of Vocaloid music videos with the word Kokoro in it... Including this one, which is my favourite version:

Edited by sabrina_diamond on Jan 24th 2019 at 4:53:22 AM

In an anime, I'll be the Tsundere Dark Magical Girl who likes purple MY own profile is actually HERE!
CrystalGlacia from at least we're not detroit (Living Relic)
#7: Jan 24th 2019 at 6:23:31 AM

If you really want to use the term "kokoro" to refer to a person's metaphysical heart or soul, then use it. Your posts have been phrased like you wanted to use an English translation of the word, or some word that isn't "kokoro" instead.

Edited by CrystalGlacia on Jan 24th 2019 at 9:24:18 AM

"Jack, you have debauched my sloth."
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