<p>Unfortunately your interpretation is not quite correct.</p>

<p>This sentence is in ancient Chinese. 也 means nothing but to indicate the end of a phrase or sentence, and 夫 here indicates an exclamation. There were originally no punctuations in an ancient Chinese article, and these are just like punctuations. Using more than one such word (也夫) indicates stronger exclamation.</p>

<p>莫: no one, 吾: me, 知: understand, 也夫: exclamation, may be translated 'Alas!' </p>

<p>So putting together, </p>

<p>Alas, no one understands me!</p>

<p>or </p>

<p>唉，没有人了解我！</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-11-05T05:38:30.943Z
Thanks! I wanted to check because I thought it is probably an ancient kind of Chinese. So 也夫 is just ! or maybe !! 哈哈！
Gangosa
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-11-05T05:08:26.833Z
2016-11-05T05:08:26.833Z
Keke Zhang
<p>I was just looking at 吾， found in 语 so I looked for some example sentences in iciba.com and found this. I guess it's correct, but it is a bit cryptic, so I'd like to check, probably from an old book or such.</p>

<p>Maybe a literal translation: 莫吾知也夫! no I knows also this (I)</p>

<p>莫吾知也夫! Alas, no one understands me! (iciba)<br>
莫： there is no one<br>
吾： I，we<br>
知： know<br>
也： also<br>
夫： this (person?), me</p>

<p>because given the English translation, I would write something different, perhaps:</p>

<p>唉，没有人了解我！</p>

<translation>
Is this translation correct?
# Is this translation correct?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2016-11-05)

I was just looking at 吾， found in 语 so I looked for some example sentences in iciba.com and found this. I guess it's correct, but it is a bit cryptic, so I'd like to check, probably from an old book or such.

Maybe a literal translation: 莫吾知也夫! no I knows also this (I)

莫吾知也夫! Alas, no one understands me! (iciba)  
莫： there is no one  
吾： I，we  
知： know  
也： also  
夫： this (person?), me

because given the English translation, I would write something different, perhaps:

唉，没有人了解我！

**Tags:** translation

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2016-11-05. Score: 1 | Accepted answer

Unfortunately your interpretation is not quite correct.

This sentence is in ancient Chinese. 也 means nothing but to indicate the end of a phrase or sentence, and 夫 here indicates an exclamation. There were originally no punctuations in an ancient Chinese article, and these are just like punctuations. Using more than one such word (也夫) indicates stronger exclamation.

莫: no one, 吾: me, 知: understand, 也夫: exclamation, may be translated 'Alas!'

So putting together,

Alas, no one understands me!

or

唉，没有人了解我！

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Thanks! I wanted to check because I thought it is probably an ancient kind of Chinese. So 也夫 is just ! or maybe !! 哈哈！  

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