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In the song 老鼠爱大米 (Lǎoshǔ Ài Dàmǐ; YouTube; see also Mouse Loves Rice on Wikipedia) we have the following lyrics (English translation from the YouTube link):

我听见你的声音
Wǒ tīngjiàn nǐ de shēngyīn
Whenever I hear your voice

有种特别的感觉
yǒu zhǒng tèbié de gǎnjué
There's a kind of special feeling

让我不断想不敢再忘记你
Ràng wǒ bùduàn xiǎng bù gǎn zài wàngjì nǐ
That makes me think I'll never forget you

The first two sentences translate literally into English, but I'm puzzled how the last sentence pieces together.

Question: How do the words in 让我不断想不敢再忘记你 piece together?

Breaking it down:

  • 让我 (ràng wǒ) = let me, but in this context it means "makes me" (or "causes me")
  • 不断 (bùduàn) = uninterrupted
  • (xiǎng) = to think
  • 不敢 (bù gǎn) = dare not
  • (zài) = again
  • 忘记 (wàngjì) = forget
  • (nǐ) = you

I'm particularly confused about (a) what 不断 applies to (it looks like 不断想 meaning something like "uninterrupted thinking", which doesn't make much sense), and (b) why it's 忘记你 ("forget you again"), which suggests the person who it's being sung to was forgotten once before.

4 Answers 4

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Maybe you could break them down like such to get a better understanding:

让我不断想, 不敢再忘记你

In the first clause, “不斷” is an adverb, meaning "continuously; without stopping", that applies to “想”. That leaves us a meaning of "continuously thinking (of you)".

In the second clause, you forgot to include “不敢” here, so the meaning should be "not dare to forget you again".

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Question: How do the words in 让我不断想不敢再忘记你 piece together?

Answer: It does NOT!

It's a typical result of a bad translation!!!

In this particular translation, 不断, 敢, and 再 are ALL redundant and NOT in the original meaning of the sentence!

And if you want to say that you'll never do something, use 不会(Hui) is better!

So the better translation should be

让我想我不会忘记你

If you have to use 让我不断想不敢再忘记你, it becomes

Let me keep thinking that I'm not dare to forget about you again!
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  • The Chinese clearly is not the translation. The Chinese is the original lyrics while the English is translated from the Chinese. Take a look at the links OP gave.
    – Mou某
    Jan 29, 2018 at 13:58
  • Is that right!? My apologies! Then the English translation is wrong then! Still, a typical result of a bad translation! It just that the role are reversed!
    – Pikachu620
    Jan 30, 2018 at 1:38
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不断 is short for 不间断. It means keep thinking or having no intervals in the process of thinking of you.

再 means again or any more/longer. Here it implies I will dare not to forget you going forward.

Overall, the whole sentence means That makes me keep thinking of you and dare not to forget you going forward.

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Do take note that many mandarin pop lyrics are practical grammar junks. It is the rhythm that rescue most of these pop junks.

The phrase should be

让我不断想, 不敢再忘记你

In fact, @Pikachu620 almost touch the truth. Such rubbish is IN FACT plagiarise and translate from popular English Lyrics such as "I can't stop thinking of you", and more accurate : Shakira and Rihanna "Can't Remember To Forget You".

Scramble it slightly, you get the Mandarin lyrics rubbish. There is no problem if you sing it out in Karaoke/singalong. But please never ever use this is writing.

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