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> 何者にもなれない

Let's break it down...

*何も here means nothing (with negatives)

*者 means people

*に is the target particle

*なる means to become

*なれない is the negative potential of なる

How in the world does this translate as "Unable to accomplish anything?". Does
it lack context or something?
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2017-01-24T11:51:53.880
42828
2017-01-24T17:20:07.030
2017-01-24T11:57:22.113
15891
15891
question
grammar meaning song-lyrics
How is 何者にもなれない translated?
So, someone translated:

> 「何者{なにもの}にもなれない」

into:

> "Unable to accomplish anything"

That is indeed an **_excellent_** translation in that it conveys perfectly the
meaning/essence of the original. It is not a word-for-word translation, of
course, but a word-for-word translation often makes little sense between
Japanese and English.

In case you wanted a literal translation, it would be something like " ** _to
be unable to (even) become anyone_** ". IMHO, that would be far more ambiguous
than " ** _unable to accomplish anything_** ". You may, of course, disagree.

「何者」, in **_this_** context with the negative 「なれない」, means " ** _a worthwhile
person_** ", " ** _someone who has achieved something_** ", " ** _a person
worth mentioning_** ", etc.

「も」 means "even".

「～～になれない」 means "to be unable to become ~~".

Thus, the phrase is saying that **someone is (being) unable to become (even a
bit of) a worthwhile person**. If I am not mistaken, "to become a someone"
even in English would mean "to become a worthwhile person", does it not? We
are talking "becoming successful" and "not becoming successful" here.

Do you still feel that " ** _unable to accomplish anything_** " is a strange
translation? Quite a few users here seem to let the translated words get in
their way of understanding the original. I know that for sure because I do
answer quite a few questions here.

Translation is an art, not a natural science. The components used in one
language do not have to physically correspond to those used in the other. If
the essence of the phrase/sentence is maintained and the product (=
translation) sounds natural in the target language, you basically have a good
translation.
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2017-01-24T12:35:36.970
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2017-01-24T14:34:39.680
2017-01-24T14:34:39.680
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answer
> *何も here means nothing (with negatives)
>
> *者 means people

You confused the order. 何者 means "who/what kind of person", add にも to that and
you get "[become] no one" (with negatives).

A literal translation would be "who can't become anyone", where "anyone"
implicitly denotes someone of importance. I agree that translation is somewhat
liberal: becoming someone of importance is indeed an accomplishment, but not
necessarily the other way around.

I think I've seen a different translation "who will never amount to anything"
which I think fits much better.
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2017-01-24T17:10:49.257
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2017-01-24T17:20:07.030
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