Please could somebody translate a phrase into Japanese for me ? The
phrase is "Eat my dust". Might seem strange but there is good reason.
Thanks

Hello quickn1k,

At the outset, please note that I do not know Japanese, so I am taking
a bit of a leap here.  If you are dissatisfied, please let me know so
that I may do some follow-up research.  (If you can't read the
Japanese phrases in this answer, you should be able to see them on the
translation engines cited below.)

Usually, online translators are not sufficiently reliable to translate
a sentence exactly.  However, Google Translate, Babel Fish, and
Systran all agree that the translation of "Eat my dust" into Japanese
is ?????????, and also that the translation back from Japanese into
English is still "Eat my dust."  (I can't link to the exact URL of the
translation; you'll have to enter the English phrase into the
translation boxes, translate it into Japanese, and then back to
English.)

"Language Tools"
Google
://www.google.com/language_tools?hl=en

"Babel Fish Translation"
Alta Vista
http://babelfish.altavista.com

"Translate with SYSTRAN 5.0"
SYSTRAN
http://www.systransoft.com/index.html

"??????" indeed appears to be the imperative of "eat," as indicated in
the results to the following search:

"??????" eat
Google
://www.google.com/search?num=30&hl=en&lr=&safe=off&q=%22%E3%82%92%E9%A3%9F%E3%81%B9%E3%81%AA%E3%81%95%E3%81%84%22+eat

The translation engines say that ?? is "dust" and ? is "I," which I
presume becomes "my" when placed next to the noun.  Here's what
searches on Google indicate:

"?? dust"
Google
://www.google.com/search?num=30&hl=en&lr=&safe=off&q=%22%E3%81%AE%E5%A1%B5+dust%22

"? my"
Google
://www.google.com/search?num=30&hl=en&lr=&safe=off&q=%22%E3%81%AE%E5%A1%B5+dust%22

Incidentally, another translation engine, while not useful for
translating the Japanese phrase into English, does indicate how the
phrase looks in Romaji: "watashi no chiri wo tabe nasai."  (Similar
searches on Google to those listed above indicate that "watashi no"
means "my," "chiri" means "dust," and "wo tabe nasai" means "eat.")

"Online Japanese Translator" [input the Japanese phrase and click "Translate")
Animelab.com
http://www.animelab.com/anime.manga/translate

Please let me know if you need any clarification or added research.

- justaskscott


Search strategy --

Searched for phrase in Google Translate and Babel Fish

Searched on Google for:

japanese translator
japanese "translation engine"
[various combinations of elements of Japanese, Romaji, and English phrases.]

Just to clarify that the particles ? and ? follow the words they are referring to.

? (watashi) is "I", whereas ?? (watashi no) is "my".


Accordingly, ? "follows the direct object of the sentence" (in this case ?):

http://www.math.toronto.edu/jjchew/japanese/particles.html

Thanks, fp.

There is no direct translation.  We Japanese are polite.  You might
say, "Osaki ni shitsurei!" which means, Please excuse me for going
ahead of you.  But said in a cocky or playful way can change the
meaning.

Or you might say "Ja Ne!" as you pass someone, which means "See ya!"

You could say something weird like "Sarabaja!" as you pass someone
which is the formal samurai way of saying good-bye.  That might really
surprise a Japanese.

Thanks also to tairo.  Good comments so far!

The worst answer ever read...

If I were quickn1k, I will give 1 star (0 star if allowed,) and ask
Google for refund!

r1ckycheung:

If you have a concrete suggestion for how to improve the answer, both
quickn1k and I would benefit from it.

The answer given is apparently WRONG!

I know "some" Japanese only.. and NOT a Google Answers Researcher..

A simple search using Google (Japanese) gives me a reliable, manual
translation of the term as "???????", as according to

://www.google.com/url?sa=U&start=20&ei=lOWVQrWQNsCcigG8saTiAw&q=http://www11.plala.or.jp/tonberry/wa2/wa2_item.html&e=10313

? means "of", just like "de" in French, "?" or "?" in Chinese.

? means "I", same as "?" in Chinese, "ich" in German..

"??" simply means "My.. (sth)"

To clarify r1ckycheung-ga's proposal:

??????? is katakana and used here to write the English words "bites
the dust" without translating them into Japanese.

??? is dasuto, i.e. the English word "dust" written in katakana (i.e.
without using a Japanese word).

http://www.remus.dti.ne.jp/~atsu-c/Encycle/ha.html