सिर्फ़ एक सवाल

[Rachel H.]

I have come across yet another sentence I'm not convinced I'm understanding perfectly.  I hope my stumbling through all these sentences is helpful to some of you other learners, too!

In this situation, the father is explaining river pollution to his sons.  They are horrified and one of them says "What if the Ganges became polluted, too?"

It's the father's response to that I'm not sure I've gotten:

"तब यदि हमें जीवित रहना तो एक भगीरथ का निर्माण करना होगा।"

I did find out that Bhagirath is the mythical king who brought the Ganges to earth as the result of his austerities.  So I sort of get the connection.  But am not sure how to translate it. 

Here's my attempt:
"Then if there is any life left in us we will have to create a Bhagirath." 

As always, thank you for all your thoughts and explanations:-)
Rachel

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[Vinay]

On Jun 26, 9:57 pm, Rachel H. <rm...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> I have come across yet another sentence I'm not convinced I'm understanding perfectly.  I hope my stumbling through all these sentences is helpful to some of you other learners, too!
>
> In this situation, the father is explaining river pollution to his sons.  They are horrified and one of them says "What if the Ganges became polluted, too?"
>
> It's the father's response to that I'm not sure I've gotten:
>
> "तब यदि हमें जीवित रहना तो एक भगीरथ का निर्माण करना होगा।"
>
> I did find out that Bhagirath is the mythical king who brought the Ganges to earth as the result of his austerities.  So I sort of get the connection.  But am not sure how to translate it.  
>
> Here's my attempt:
> "Then if there is any life left in us we will have to create a Bhagirath."  
>

I think there is a missing है in the Hindi sentence that you quoted.
It should be
"तब यदि हमें जीवित रहना *है* तो एक भगीरथ का निर्माण करना होगा।"

To the translation now.

The second part of your translation is correct. In the first part, you
seem to have misinterpreted रहना है as रहे तो. In other words, you're
basically translating this as:
"यदि हम जीवित रहे तो.."

With 'जीवित रहना है तो' (assuming that the है is missed), the
translation would be:
"Then if we want to live, we will have to create a Bhagirath."

Or if we want to be a little more literal:
"Then if we have to be living, ..."

Vinay

> As always, thank you for all your thoughts and explanations:-)
> Rachel
>

> _________________________________________________________________
> Don't get caught with egg on your face. Play chicktionary!http://club.live.com/chicktionary.aspx?icid=chick_wlhmtextlink1_feb

[Narendra Kumar Tomar]

mujhe lgrta hai ki behtar yah hog:

agar ham bach pats hai, to hamein ek bhgirath ko garna hoga

----- Original Message ----
From: Rachel H. <rm...@hotmail.com>
To: hu...@googlegroups.com; hu...@yahoogroups.com; hi...@yahoogroups.com; hi...@googlegroups.com
Sent: Friday, 27 June, 2008 7:27:15 AM
Subject: [Hindi] सिर्फ़ एक सवाल

I have come across yet another sentence I'm not convinced I'm understanding perfectly.  I hope my stumbling through all these sentences is helpful to some of you other learners, too!

In this situation, the father is explaining river pollution to his sons.  They are horrified and one of them says "What if the Ganges became polluted, too?"

It's the father's response to that I'm not sure I've gotten:

"तब यदि हमें जीवित रहना तो एक भगीरथ का निर्माण करना होगा।"

I did find out that Bhagirath is the mythical king who brought the Ganges to earth as the result of his austerities.  So I sort of get the connection.  But am not sure how to translate it. 

Here's my attempt:
"Then if there is any life left in us we will have to create a Bhagirath." 

As always, thank you for all your thoughts and explanations:-)
Rachel

---

Don't get caught with egg on your face. Play chicktionary!

---

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[Rachel H.]

Thanks for the help Vinay, and Narendra...

You were absolutely correct, I had forgotten to type in the है.  It makes a lot of sense now that you explained the way रहना is functioning there.  I completely missed that despite re-reading a bunch of times!

> I think there is a missing है in the Hindi sentence that you quoted.
> It should be
> "तब यदि हमें जीवित रहना *है* तो एक भगीरथ का निर्माण करना होगा।"
>
> To the translation now.
>
> The second part of your translation is correct. In the first part, you
> seem to have misinterpreted रहना है as रहे तो. In other words, you're
> basically translating this as:
> "यदि हम जीवित रहे तो.."
>
> With 'जीवित रहना है तो' (assuming that the है is missed), the
> translation would be:
> "Then if we want to live, we will have to create a Bhagirath."
>
> Or if we want to be a little more literal:
> "Then if we have to be living, ..."

[Rachel H.]

I meant to say, perhaps the best way to translate it is "If we are going to survive, we will have to create another Bhagirath."  Perhaps "जीवित रहना" best translates into English as "to survive", or colloquially maybe sometimes it will translate as "to have life left" as in "If we have life left in us we'll go to the party"...

~ Rachel

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Watch “Cause Effect,” a show about real people making a real difference. Learn more.

[Rose Alford]

जीवित = ज़िन्दा = alive.

 

 जीवित/ज़िन्दा रहना =  to stay alive (colloquially,  IMHO)