jibun

Hi

I'm slightly confused about the word 'jibun' 自分. The dictionaries say it means e.g. 'oneself/myself/yourself/himself/herself' etc.

However, in most examples I've found this doesn't fit.

E.g. 'chichioya ni jibun no suki na kyoku wo oshiete imashita' (with reference to somebody's daughter). The translation is given as 'She was showing a piece of music she likes to her father'.

My guess is therefore that there is another meaning of jibun - whereby jibun is a kind of generic word for a 2nd person pronoun, e.g. 'he/his/she/her/you/your' etc?

Is this correct???

Thanks

Andy

chichioya ni jibun no suki na kyoku wo oshiete imashita' (with reference to somebody's daughter). The translation is given as 'She was showing a piece of music she likes to her father'

In this case, it is referring to "herself," so it's in line with what you found in the dictionary.

- Chichioya ni (to her father), jibun no suki na kyoku wo (the tune she herself likes/herself's favorite tune) oshiete imashita (she was showing/telling).

jibunn=じぶん=自分 is one's self or personal self. 自　is mizukara＝self & 分=part
In this case somebody is telling the observation that she is telling her father the music she likes personally.
You can say "jibun wa kono kyoku ga suki desu"=Personally I like this music.
Also "jibun jishin"=自分自身=I myself

AK

Thanks for your reply but I disagree:

'jibun no suki na kyoku wo (the tune she herself likes/herself's favorite tune) oshiete imashita (she was showing/telling)'

This translation doesn't sound at all natural in English.

I understand that this is Japanese, and is perfectly correct in Japanese, but as an English speaking student of Japanese this sentance still doesnt sound natural to me because of 'jibun' meaning '...self'.

A more natural translation from English would be 'kanojo no suki na kyuko wo...' ('her' favourite piece of music...)

I think the Japanese sentance is trying to express the same sentance however, which is why I think 'jibun' must also translate in English as 'I/my/you/your/he/his/she/her etc' - in addition - to '...self'

Or even just 'one's/my/your/his/her etc'

it appears it can be a kind of generic word for possessiveness

annascott,

I was just trying to take apart the sentence into phrases to show the different parts :) I know it didn't sound like a smooth-flowing English anyway. Yes, your "translation" is right, and the Japanese sentence is saying exactly that.

If you've noticed, in Japanese the pronouns "watashi," "anata," "kare," "kanojo" etc. are not used extensively, to put it midly. (Of course "kare" and "kanojo" can be heard in town a lot because people use these words to refer to their boyfriend or girlfriend.)

So instead of saying "Kanojo wa kanojo no sukina uta wo...," it is "(kanojo wa) jibun no suki na uta wo..." "jibun" just means "one(self)," whoever the subject there is. And "jibun NO" is one's/my/your/his/her etc," just as you say.