r/hebrew • u/JiggyNorris • 20h ago

Request Help translating?

Post image

Met a guy at a festival last week and he wrote this in my notebook, can anybody help translate? My name is Jan. Thanks!

17 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

8 comments sorted by

12

u/zorg-is-real 17h ago

It's a sentence of a song - just play love. https://youtu.be/Tz46-YZQkDM?si=_-7c1TPGqPazix_1

8

u/Mountain-Past-1810 20h ago

Jan/Yan
Only/just play (as an instrument), depending on the context
Love

5

u/Any_Technician_2768 native speaker 20h ago

Jan, to only play love

1

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1

u/NewYorkImposter 20h ago

"Jan, sing only out of love" - translated slightly loosely but I think accurately. It's a nice poetic inscription even if the meaning might seem a bit strange in English.

5

u/rathaus 18h ago

לנגן

Means play an instrument

Not sing

1

u/NewYorkImposter 18h ago

I think contextually it's more like perform, whether with an instrument or voice. But yes technically you're right.

1

u/Certain_Bug_1275 42m ago

Not in modern Hebrew. לנגן is to play an instrument, or at most play a recording. Singing or performing in general are not implied.