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I found this particular proverb on WWWJDIC when I looked up for なんじ :
[艱難]{かんなん}[汝]{なんじ}を[玉]{たま}にす. It is translated into English as: Hardship makes
the man.

How do we parse the proverb? I know 艱難 {かんなん} means "hardship". But 汝 {なんじ}
means "thou" (archaic 'you') so what nuance does it contribute when suffixed
to 艱難? And does 玉 {たま} mean jewel or actually refer to the [family
jewels](http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=family%20jewels)? And
what about にす, is it an archaic verb, or simply abbreviation of にする? How are
all these in the end summed up as "hardship makes the man"?
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2011-08-04T12:40:38.543
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2012-01-09T13:54:34.153
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question
set-phrases
How to parse the proverb [艱難]{かんなん}[汝]{なんじ}を[玉]{たま}にす?
The sentence is classical Japanese, not modern Japanese, and should be parsed
as such. I analyse it as follows:

> 艱難 汝を 玉に す  
>  kannan nandi-wo tama-ni su  
>  hardship thou-ACC jewel-LOC make  
>  _Hardship will make you into a jewel._

In classical Japanese, the subject of a main clause is usually not indicated
by a particle. In a typical sentence, the main verb will be in the terminative
form (終止形); the classical form of the modern verb する is an s-stem irregular
verb (サ行変格活用動詞) and its terminative form is just す. する is its attributive form
(連体形).
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2011-08-04T12:49:58.460
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2011-08-04T12:49:58.460
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answer