How does one translate "one" (as in this very question)?

Question

How would I translate sentences like

"One should not treat others in ways that one would not like to be treated."

As far as I can tell, the russian Wikipedia version of this phrase uses the informal you.

But is there a literal translation without rephrasing to a you-form?

Related: http://russian.stackexchange.com/questions/2815/how-to-tell-a-personal-vs-impersonal-sentence — jwalker, Aug 27 '14 at 18:34
In fact there is a possibility to translate the phrase using the formal "you" (if the problem is in informal "you"). — Artemix, Aug 29 '14 at 21:08

score 9 · Answer 1 · edited Jun 18 '20 at 08:26

9

you can use generic 2nd person, which is typical for proverbs and morals. Use Singular but without pronoun:

Не относись к другим так, как не хочешь, чтобы относились к тебе.
You can opt for infinitive impersonal sentences:

Не следует относиться к другим людям так, как не хочешь, чтобы относились к тебе.

Literal treatment would be “Человек не должен относиться к другим так, как не хочет, чтобы люди относились к нему” but it is weird and is not typical for such constructions (sounds non-native, i.e. a person knows Russian but obviously lacks experience with how people do and do not say things).

edited Jun 18 '20 at 08:26

Community

1

answered Aug 27 '14 at 10:29

Shady_arc

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Not sure why you call it generic 2nd person, it's an imperative. – jwalker Aug 27 '14 at 18:39
@jwalker "Как переводить "one"?" - not an imperative – alamar Aug 28 '14 at 12:07
@alamar It's the other one, the impersonal. What's your point? – jwalker Aug 29 '14 at 00:27
@jwalker I merely mean that the meaning is generic. You compile a sentence that sounds as if it were adressing the person you are speaking to but actually means that the statement is true for everyone, i.e. any hypothetical listener. Similar expressions exists without imperative: "С кем поведёшься, от того и наберёшься", "Без труда не вытащишь рыбку из труда", "Его так просто не остановишь". – Shady_arc Aug 29 '14 at 10:29
This is a moderately frequent usage of 2nd person which is often overlooked by materials for Russian learners. ^_^ – Shady_arc Aug 29 '14 at 10:32
@Shady_arc I agree, the latter example is generic personal, but the former is plain imperative, only negative. Compare: не относись к другим так / не относятся к другим так. And this is actually another kind of impersonal construct which you might want to add to your answer. – jwalker Aug 29 '14 at 12:40
For reference: безличные предложения, неопределённо-личные предложения, обобщённо-личные предложения. – jwalker Aug 29 '14 at 12:43
@jwalker It seems that from your comments one can make a good answer. – Artemix Aug 29 '14 at 18:43
@Artemix Go ahead if you feel you can word it nicely. The question might need expanding, too. – jwalker Aug 29 '14 at 19:15

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 27 '14 at 10:26

While the Russian idiom is indeed using you (вы/ты) version, you could literally translate the English version using word человек (person, human):

One should not treat others in ways that one would not like to be treated.
Человек не должен поступать с другими так, как он не хочет, чтобы поступали с ним.
(or)
Человек не должен относиться к другим так, как он не хочет, чтобы относились к нему.

Note that pronoun он (he) is only used because Russian word человек is a masculine noun - the statement applies equally to men and women. In fact, it's exactly for this reason that English word one is used, rather than man or woman. As in English, words for человек and мужчина are one and the same - man and hence using it in the sentence above is likely to be interpreted as addressing a male audience rather than human audience.

Finally, it's worth noting that Russian word-for-word literal translation may sound overcomplicated due to double negatives. Instead, you could turn it into a positive version:

Человек должен поступать с другими так, как он хочет, чтобы поступали с ним.
(or)
Человек должен относиться к другим так, как он хочет, чтобы относились к нему.

I think "каждый" may be better option here. – Artemix Aug 29 '14 at 21:05 — Artemix, Aug 29 '14 at 21:05

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Feb 08 '16 at 06:39

The second "one" can be translated by any suitable pronoun depending on translation of the first. Examples: 1. Не поступай с другими так, как не хочешь, чтобы поступали с ТОБОЙ. 2. Не делай другим то, чего не желаешь СЕБЕ.

How does one translate "one" (as in this very question)?

3 Answers3