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"Do the right thing"

fra tommjames,2009 9 3

Meldinger: 14

Språk: English

tommjames (Å vise profilen) 2009 9 3 13:21:59

How would you guys translate this? Do you think the literal fari la ĝustan aferon works? How about konduti ĝuste? Any other ideas?

horsto (Å vise profilen) 2009 9 3 15:29:07

Perhaps: agu ĝuste

erinja (Å vise profilen) 2009 9 3 15:52:37

"Do the right thing" has a nuance, though, that the "right thing" is the moral thing.

If a child finds a wallet on the street, what is the "right thing" to do? From one point of view, the "right thing" is to keep it, because it likely contains money. But if this child's father should come up and say "Do the right thing", it is clear to us that the father wants the child to take the wallet to the police, or somehow try to find its owner.

In that respect I'd translate the phrase as "Agu juste"

ĝusta means right as in, not incorrect
justa means right in the sense of being just and morally right.

It depends on the nuance you want though. The phrase could also be used in cases where morals weren't at stake, only difficult decisions.

diogotux (Å vise profilen) 2009 9 3 16:14:04

Very simple:

Faru la dekstran aferon.

The best translation ever.

Mendacapote (Å vise profilen) 2009 9 3 16:50:55

Erinja is right: Agu juste pli tauxgas.

mnlg (Å vise profilen) 2009 9 3 19:56:32

Even though I could accept juste, I think that 'doing the right thing' is something that might occasionally be different from 'doing the fair thing'. It could be about making the most correct choice, from which at least you, and up to some degree your community, will benefit the most, even if it is not "fair" in its deepest sense.

I think that 'agu ĝuste' can be a fitting translation, at least in a few occasions. My dictionary also suggests 'agu laŭ via bontrovo', or 'agu taŭge'.

Also 'agu saĝe' could work.

ceigered (Å vise profilen) 2009 9 4 01:17:01

diogotux:Very simple:

Faru la dekstran aferon.

The best translation ever.
rido.gif Translating that back into English could be a bit awkward

russ (Å vise profilen) 2009 9 4 19:19:17

Agu bone.

Greyshades (Å vise profilen) 2009 9 8 03:55:30

Mendacapote:Erinja is right: Agu juste pli taŭgas.
She always is rideto.gif

I'd say either "agu juste" aŭ "faru juste" would be easily understandable and get the meaning across okulumo.gif

tommjames (Å vise profilen) 2009 9 8 09:22:26

Thanks for everyone's responses. Though my question was more about whether faru la [adjektivo] aferon is something that would be well understood, regardless of which adjective we actually use. Obviously the choice ĝust' or just' will depend entirely on context, and I imagine there may even be a need for a slightly different adjective depending on the scenario.

Faru la justan aferon appears only once in Google and Faru la ĝustan aferon doesn't appear at all, so I'm guessing this is a vernacularism of English that doesn't appear in Esperanto. The only reason I ask is forms like agu juste could be read as a general manner of behavior, whereas "the right thing" seems to suggest a single act. It would be nice if I could conserve this nuance.

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