「無奈」這個詞在英語中怎麼翻譯？

01-21

比如「作者在寫這句話時會感到無奈嗎？」
想到過 helpless，但感覺還是不太符合語境。

我們平時經常不知道怎麼用英語表達的那個「無奈」，多半可以用「resigned/resignedly」或「with resignation」來翻譯。

柯林斯詞典里對「resigned」的英文解釋是：

If you are resigned to an unpleasant situation or fact, you accept it without complaining because you realize that you cannot change it.

這段話用來解釋「無奈」的話，甚至比漢語詞典里對「無奈」的解釋還要周到。

例：

Did the author write this resignedly?

作者是懷著無奈的心情寫下這個的嗎？

He accepted my suggestion with sad resignation.

他傷心又無奈地接受了我的建議。

Update：

為了更好地幫助一些朋友理解，我再引用幾個英語小說的原文作為實例好了：

Everyone was giddy then. Even the pilot. Elvi grinned and Fayez grinned back at her. Eric cleared his throat.
「Well,」 Fayez said with mock resignation. 「We came all this way. I suppose we should finish it.」

When the riots had started on Ceres after the ice hauler Canterbury had been destroyed, his partner had been more weary than fearful, and Havelock had faced the situation with the same grim resignation.

「Coop, please, don』t make this worse,」 Carol said with a resigned sigh.

Glass!
She was glass! The light glistened off her crystalline highlights, the blood ran fast over her smooth surface. And her expression, a look of resignation and apology, a look that said she had failed him and that he had failed her, drove a sharp point straight into the helpless onlooker"s heart.

Obi-Wan gave a great and resigned sigh and sat down at the console, noting the
coordinates Anakin had input.

說用 resigned 那個答案我覺得怪怪的，希望這裡討論下 @Roc Lee

中文無奈（至少我感覺）是被動的，沒有辦法、無計可施，還有「可惜」的味道在裡面

Resign 偏主動 例如炒老闆時甩封 letter of resignation

看到這個詞給我觸動很大，因為當年在讀kierkegaard 克爾凱墩兒 Fear and Trembling 戰慄與恐懼時有個infinite resignation 的概念，中文被業內翻譯成「無限棄絕」

克講的是亞伯拉罕因為信仰，相信上帝（是好意的）可以主動、平靜，永恆但痛苦的去進行這步"無限棄絕"，殺死兒子以撒來獻給上帝（當然這裡哲學與神學的解釋和背景要複雜多了）

但無論怎樣，亞伯拉罕不是「無奈」。

翻譯一定要講究上下文，精準的翻譯講究更多

回到「作者在寫這句話時會感到無奈嗎？」

作者為什麼會無奈？ 提問題的知友請提供語境，臣妾無能，猜不出來呀~

1。是對世界人生客觀描寫，作為渺小人類對大局無法改變感到無力如何powerless？

2。其它客觀條件限制，無法控制自己寫作內容，不能幫助自己，不得不違心的helpless/ have no choice but?

3。還是其它？請幫我腦補

還有翻譯可以靈活，不需要直譯，如果「無奈」是因為結局不可避免，那就可以換種說法

用「unavoidable, inevitable」更精確表達本意。

英語相對中文，思維上可以更直接表達，過於含蓄往往會讓母語英語人士在閱讀時感到困惑。

補充：經過討論，我覺得我個人對中文「無奈」把握可能和他人有不同感覺，

我覺得「無奈」有時可以僅僅是「沒有辦法」 奈：如何，無奈：「無法如何」

例句：「感到無奈。。。（但也）只能(從了)。。。」

如果題主想表達無可奈何，但已經主動接受現實兩者複合的意思，我覺得可以用resigned 「 having accepted something unpleasant that one cannot do anything about. 」

我個人對resign一詞敏感，一看到它就想起詞源

resign (v.) late 14c., "give up, surrender, abandon, submit; relinquish," from Old French resigner "renounce, relinquish" (13c.), from Latin resignare "to check off, annul, cancel, give back, give up," from re- "opposite" (see re-) + signare "to make an entry in an account book," literally "to mark" (see sign (v.)).
首先是已經主動放棄的意思。

謝謝題主問題，和 @Roc Lee ，討論中有收穫。

a surge of powerlessness might well then have seized him

powerlessly or defenselessly

如果我寫作文的，我會用helpless

I had no choice

feel forced (by the situation)

Have no choice

desperate, hopeless, nothing can be done, everything is in vain, ...

You happy is ok.

你開心就好