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Consider:

>   1. **自分** について書きたいことがあります。 = There are times that I want to write about
> myself (lit: things concerning me)
>
>   2. **自分自身** について書きたいことがあります。
>
>

What is their difference?

I think the second sentence has more emphasis on "myself". If so, is this
emphasis too subtle to translate effectively into English?

Also, is there any change in formality or colloquial nuance?

When translating into English, would the best option in the second sentence be
to just put "about myself" into italics? This seems unnatural.
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question
translation words first-person-pronouns pronouns
Difference between 自分 and 自分自身 and how to reflect their difference in English
(1) about the difference in meaning between 「自分について書きたいことがあります。」and
「自分自身について書きたいことがあります。」.

According to the dictionaries 大辞泉 and 広辞苑 「自分自身」 emphasizes 「自分」.

Martin (p. 1050) translates both _watakushi jishin_ and _watakushi jibun_ as
"I myself" and translates _watakushi jibun jishin_ as "I myself (in
person)..."; "I my very own self" - which are ways to emphasize "myself"
without the use of italics (but it would depend on the context if a phrase
like "in person" can be used in an actual translation).

None of these sources write anything about shifting emphasis elsewhere in a
sentence that might contain _jibun jishin_ (and surely Martin would have
mentioned that if it were the case).

(2) a translation of 「自分について書きたいことがあります。」 would look something like "There are
things about myself (that) I want to write about.". The variant
「自分自身について書きたいことがあります。」 puts emphasis on "myself" therefore in a translation
one could use italics, or use a different phrase, or leave out the emphasis,
all depending on the context. For instance: "There are things about _myself_ I
want to write about." "There are things about my own person I want to write
about.".

References:  
[自分自身 in Yahoo! JAPAN-Yahoo!辞書 /
大辞泉](http://dic.search.yahoo.co.jp/search?ei=UTF-8&p=%E8%87%AA%E5%88%86%E8%87%AA%E8%BA%AB&fr=dic&stype=prefix)  
広辞苑 (1992)  
Samual E. Martin (1987 [1975]) _A reference grammar of Japanese_
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answer