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I will use a specific example. I was trying to write "My love for you is hurting me."

"私の愛ために貴方は私を傷つけている。" Is what I came up with, however, I am unsure about the usage of "ために" in this situation.

And if it is incorrect, what would be the correct way to say "for"?

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    愛ため is definitely wrong both for syntactic and semantic reasons. I think that 私のあなたへの愛 would be a literal translation of "my love for you", but I doubt its elegance.
    – Earthliŋ ♦
    Commented May 11, 2013 at 23:08
  • ために was the only thing I can find for "for" in my dictionary, so I had to try with that, heh. I see. Well, elegance doesn't really concern me, so it is a viable choice- I suppose it can be used in other situations where "my x for you" is being stated, right?
    – ShiroiJiji
    Commented May 11, 2013 at 23:51
  • When you use ために with a noun, you usually put the particle の between them, like 愛のために.
    – user1478
    Commented May 12, 2013 at 5:41
  • ために is more like "for the purpose of" or "for the sake of". For expressions like "my love for you", you need something closer to "towards" (which could be へ or への as others suggested).
    – firtree
    Commented May 12, 2013 at 6:46
  • I see. Ah, so that's why "へ" is added. Thank you, both of you.
    – ShiroiJiji
    Commented May 12, 2013 at 12:20

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Like user1205935 said, 私のあなたへの愛、 or あなたへの私の愛、 or あなたに対する私の愛 seems to be the translation. In my experience, things like "for you" get turned into statements of possession. The only other case I can think of is when thanking someone for something- you don't even use の, it just turns into 何何～ を ありがとう。 為に is more along the lines of for the purpose, implying some end in mind- which in this case doesn't make sense.

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    あなたへの私の愛 sounds the best to me, and that answers my primary question, but I must ask this too- why is "へ" added? (And much gratitude for answering my question.)
    – ShiroiJiji
    Commented May 12, 2013 at 0:58

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