1

This sentence has become famous lately as the catchphrase of Giorno Giovanna in the JoJo: Golden Wind anime series. Literally, it's translated as "in this Giorno Giovanna there is a dream", but subtitles render it as "I, Giorno Giovanna, have a dream", maybe because the original sentence's construction is pretty weird, at least to me as a beginner.

What I wonder is: is this the normal way of saying someone has a dream in japanese? If not, is it some kind of way to form a sentence which is used to express something in particular? Or is it just Araki making things up to sound weird?

|improve this question
  • 1
    According to the situation, speaking in the third person can make the character sound cuter/more childish (when a little girl speaks about herself in the third person) or braver/cooler (this is probably the case of Giorno here). However, if you put a pronoun like 俺/僕 instead of the name, the sentence would feel normal and is the actual way of saying (about oneself) someone has a dream. The には is used because the subject of the sentence is 夢 so you would translate is as "There are dreams to me" but "I, Giorno Giovanna, have a dream" is probably the closest translation to the real meaning. – N Gillain Jan 24 '19 at 23:01
  • I see! What about the この at the beginning? From what you said I guess the normal way of saying such a thing would be 私には夢がある, right? – Eärendil Baggins Jan 24 '19 at 23:12
  • 1
    Related questions: japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/2320/… japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/6410/… – Marco Jan 24 '19 at 23:14
  • 1
    Ho! There is a link to a related quesdtion given by @Marco that explains it all. The この added at the beginning put more emphasis on Giorno so It sounds like he is a bit bragging about himself. That's probably the reason why they translate it by " I, Giorno GIovanna, ...". – N Gillain Jan 24 '19 at 23:20
  • 2
    Related: japanese.stackexchange.com/q/16220/9831 / japanese.stackexchange.com/q/61034/9831 – Chocolate♦ Jan 25 '19 at 2:29

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and cookie policy

Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.