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When I saw the title

> 君の知らない物語

my mind translated it as

> Your unknown story (Translation A)

However, by searching a little, most sources seemed to translate with the
meaning

> The story you didn't know about (Translation B)

The way I'm thinking, の relates the nouns 君 and 知らない物語, indicating the later
is possessed by the former.

Summarising, my questions are the following:

  1. Is hypothesis A wrong? If so, how would one express "Your unknown story" in Japanese?
  2. What is the reasoning behind hypothesis B?
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2020-03-26T13:25:07.923
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2020-03-26T14:24:38.880
32479
question
meaning translation syntax english-to-japanese japanese-to-english
Meaning of 君の知らない物語
Translation B is correct. Here's why:

  1. "Unknown" is in the passive voice, but 知らない is in the active voice. The literal translation of 知らない物語 is always "story (someone) does not know" rather than "story that is not known".
  2. This の is a **subject** marker rather than a possession marker. See: [How does the の work in 「日本人の知らない日本語」?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/12825/5010)

To say "your unknown story", 知られていない君の物語 works, but in reality 知られざる君の物語
should sound better. This ざる is an archaic version of ない.
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-03-26T14:24:38.880
75218
2020-03-26T14:24:38.880
5010
75217
answer