Are you familiar with the Abba song ‘Winner Takes It All’? One of the particular lyrics in this classic is very close in nuance to the Japanese proverb below. It’s often used in business contexts to describe the situation where the successful are seen as right, and in contrast the unsuccessful are seen as wrong. Let’s see if we can tie in Star Wars, Harry Potter, Apple and Microsoft into one post too!
勝てば官軍、負ければ賊軍
かてば かんぐん、まければ ぞくぐん
The Winner Takes It All, The Loser Has To Fall
It’s not a direct translation and a part of the Japanese is lost in translation, but the message is clear. Let’s explore more about the lost nuance from the original. Once you’ve understood the vocabulary and Kanji, visualising and understanding this useful business proverb should be quite easy!
First up, identifying the conditional form. There are two useful words worth learning in this proverb, which also happen to be a synonym and antonym. 勝つ (かつ) Win and 負ける (まける) Lose. In the potential form (the ability to do something) they become 勝てる (has the potential/ability to win) and 負けれる (has the potential/ability to lose). Modify that into the conditional form by changing the final る to ば. Hence, 勝てば (if [you] win) and 負ければ (if [you] lose).
Finally, the last vocabulary pair – 官軍 (governing army) and 賊軍 (rebel army). When we put it all together we get something that is literally translated like below:
勝てば官軍、負ければ賊軍
かてば かんぐん、まければ ぞくぐん
If you win you’re the governing army, but if you lose you’re the rebel army.
In other words, if you win you’re seen as the correct power and if you lose you’re seen as the troublemaker who was wrong.
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