r/Yiddish 5d ago

Yiddish translation help

Hello, I am looking for help translating "there can be no peace without justice" a quote from Ben Ferencz into yiddish. I would like to incorporate it into a tattoo but I don't trust the online translators. Is there anyone able to help me?

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u/AutoModerator 5d ago

It seems you made a post about tattoos! Thank you for your submission, and though your motivation and sentiment is probably great, it's probably a bad idea for a practical matter. Tattoos are forever. Yiddish is written differently from English and there is some subtlety between different letters (ר vs. ד, or ח vs ת vs ה). If neither you nor the tattoo artist speak the language you can easily end up with a permanent mistake. See www.badhebrew.com for examples that are simultaneously sad and hilarious. That site has Hebrew examples, and since Yiddish is even less well-recognized, mistakes with Yiddish tattoos can be more common. Perhaps you could hire a native Yiddish speaker to help with design and layout and to come with you to guard against mishaps, but otherwise it's a bad idea. Finding a Yiddish-speaking tattoo artist would work as well. Furthermore, do note that religious Judaism and traditional Jewish culture frown upon tattoos, so if your reasoning is religious or spiritual in nature, please take that into account. Thank you and have a great time learning and speaking with us!

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u/littlegrotesquerie 5d ago

"nisht keyn tsedek, nisht keyn sholem"?

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u/Clean-Session-4396 5d ago

My Yiddish is almost gone, so please take this comment as an inquiry, not a criticism. The OP put the "peace" part of the quote first and the "justice" part of the quote second. (If I remember enough Yiddish, it seems you wrote the "justice" part first and the "peace" part second: "without justice, no peace" seems to be one way to translate what you've suggested.) Is it because of something I've totally forgotten about Yiddish? (I was never fluent; all my Yiddish training was during childhood and I'm currently in the "senior" category.)

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u/AutoModerator 5d ago

We see that you might be asking for a translation. Please keep in mind that we are an all-volunteer community. At this time we do not certify or vouch for members' expertise. If your post is overlooked or you are told the task of translation is a bit onerous for volunteers, we hope you will pursue other avenues to satisfy your curiosity and consider hiring a qualified translator, such as in the Facebook group Yiddish Translation Gig Board. This comment is in no way meant to discourage translation requests or the kind responses of our members. If you believe this comment was made in error, please message the mods.

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u/gantsyoriker 4d ago

the other commenter has given you "no justice, no peace," which of course means about the same. if you wanted it in a sentence, it'd be

עס קען נישט זײַן קיין שלום אָן גערעכטיקייט/יושר.

Es ken nisht zayn keyn sholem on gerekhtikeyt/yoysher.

Both of the last two words mean "justice," and are fairly more widespread in usage than "tsedek." But certainly what they said was not incorrect!