This is what the Emperor in Star Wars Return of the Jedi tells Luke just before he unleashes his first burst of lightning upon him. If you put it in Google Translate, even with the woman's voice, it sounds very close to how the Emperor sounds in the Japanese dub:
Quote:
余に使えぬというなら、最早死ぬしか道はないもの！
Translation is imperfect, though. More accurately, this would be translated as "If you say I cannot have you as my servant, then already you are on the path that leads nowhere but death."
余（よ）=archaic masculine first-person pronoun used in Japanese. It seems designed to show the dominance of the speaker.
余に="by me," with verb afterward
使(つか)えぬ=archaic form of 使えない (kanji's pronounced the same, though), meaning "cannot be used." However, this word is also highly tied with the concept of being a servant in certain contexts such as this one.
Together, 余に使えぬ=literally, "[You] cannot be used by me." With the context, however, it translates better as, "You cannot be of use to me" or more in this context "I cannot have you as my servant."
余に使えぬと=makes the clause in the last entry a quotation, either exact or a paraphrasing, of something previously said or written.
いう(pronounced same as ゆう when coming right after a quotation)＝"to say"
In this context, 余に使えぬという can be understood as saying, "You say I cannot have you as my servant."
なら=makes preceding clause conditional, like adding "If."
Now next part of the sentence. Note since this comes after なら, this is the part of the sentence which in English we would open with "then" (sometimes).
最早（もはや）="already." Pretty much the same as もう by itself, but adds more a sense of finality.
死（し）ぬ="to die."
しか="nothing but," referring to the previous word which can be a relative clause (as it is in this case) or a noun. There will always be a negative verb or negative predicate that follows this. If the previous words this modifies are part of a relative clause, then the negative will come with the verb or predicate following the noun the relative clause describes; if it's a noun that this modifies, then the verb or predicate of the noun will be negative.
死ぬしか="nothing but to die," literally, but we're still waiting for our noun this relative clause modifies (as the use of the verb means it's going to be a relative clause) and the negative verb or predicate of that noun.
道="road," "path." This noun is modified by the preceding relative clause 死ぬしか.
は(pronounced the same as わ when used like this)=topic particle, modifying preceding noun. However, it is also often used when the verb or predicate that is the verb or predicate of the noun's clause is negative.
ない="does not exist." Here is our negative predicate we've been waiting for since coming across しか.
So 最早死ぬしか道はない literally translates as "There already is no path but to die," which actually might sound cooler than the translation above.
もの=our sentence ender. It basically means "thing" or "idea," but when used as a sentence ender it seems to add a very subtle meaning (often not actually translated into English) of "It is that situation [described in the preceding sentence]."
So there you have it, Japanese learners!
EDIT: Should be 最早 instead of もうはや
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"You have a responsibility to consider all sides of a problem and a responsibility to make a judgment and a responsibility to care for all involved." --Ian Danskin
12 May 2014, 11:27 am
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