My school recites the American Pledge of Allegiance everyday over loud speaker. I have my own opinions about the pledge, but regardless it is here to stay. I’ve always personally said the pledge in Spanish, which I learned in High School myself. I want my classroom to feel more welcoming to all kinds of students, so I have posters that have the pledge in a few different languages. I haven’t managed to find a good translation for the Japanese version. Does anybody know of an official translation or feel comfortable taking their own crack at it?
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What do you think of this one?
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I saw it and couldn’t figure out how legit it was. I don’t know the website, and I tried to piece together some of the individual pieces and I honestly wasn’t sure how it would translate the way I did. It looks like it is sourced from Japanese Wikipedia though, which makes me feel like it is probably reliable?
The first thing I did was Google this of course, so I had seen the link. Does it look good to you though?
Yeah, you might as well just get the text directly from wikipedia: 忠誠の誓い (アメリカ) - Wikipedia .
It looks OK to me, I think. It makes me realize I don’t really understand the grammatical structure of the original 
What exactly are the clauses “one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all” doing in the English pledge? They’re just kinda tacked on at the end of the main sentence. The Japanese translation opts to interpret this as “the Republic which is one indivisible Nation under God and provides liberty and justice for all”…
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So I’m not very competent when it comes to those special words, but otherwise it looks pretty ok to me, roughly speaking.
Oh yeah, good point, did not notice this in the beginning. That makes it pretty reliable, indeed.
I’m not an English native, but my interpretation is that it’s an “explanation” (whatever you call that in proper grammar terms, maybe just “relative clause”? 
) for “the Republic”, i.e. “the Republic, [which is] one Nation …” - just like as if I’d say “my father, a bankrobber” perhaps?
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The Japanese Encyclopedia Britannica has a different version:
「私はアメリカ合衆国の国旗と，それが表象する共和国に，すなわち神のもとに不可分一体で自由と正義がすべての人のためにある国に，忠誠を誓います」
which translates those end clauses as “to the Republic, which is to say to the nation which is indivisible under God and where freedom and justice exist for the benefit of all people”.
This one seems a little more straightforward to understand grammar-wise to me.
Wikipedia version for comparison, since nobody’s directly quoted it yet:
私はアメリカ合衆国国旗と、それが象徴する、万民のための自由と正義を備えた、神の下の分割すべからざる一国家である共和国に、忠誠を誓います
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i’d say it’s more a poetic, spoken style to have those in clause form as it provides a sort of pause to build tension towards the end.
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アイ プレジ アリージェンス、ツ ザ フラッグ、オッブ ザ ユーナイテド ステーツ オッブ アメリカ、アンド ツ ザ リーパブリック、フォル ホイッチ イット スタンドズ、ワン ネーション、アンダー ゴッド、インディビザバル、ウィット リバーティー アンド ジャスティス フォル アル。
I had to do it.
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Yep, that’s exactly it… a relative clause describing the republic:
“and to the republic […], (which is) one nation under God, (and is) indivisible, with [i.e. having] liberty and justice for all”
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Trollolol. Thank. 
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anything you want to share with the class?
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This is great, but had to nitpick a bit 
.
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I feel like any pledge of allegiance style thing really ought to start with 我々は…
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(post deleted by author)
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based. xD I mean that isn’t too different from Japanese now.
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I don’t really see the need to bring up politics in here tyvm.
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Someone stop this absolute mad lad.
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you’re right this isn’t the place for it they just asked for translation assistance. it just gets me going sometimes. Thank you for reminding me.
Okay, I’ll delete mine too.
Woo
Funny you should mention the one with “under God” as it was quite literally tacked on in the 50s. Gotta separate the American from those godless commies after all /s. I think the odds are good that liberty is a reference to the opening of the Declaration of Independence and justice to the preamble of the Constitution.
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