"to believe is to see?" - Getting a Tattoo in Polish and Want Proper Grammar!

Hello,

I am 24 years old, live in Canada, my parents were born and raised in Poland. I lived and worked in Poland for 7 months from 2010-2011. When I arrived I remembered little of my original first language, after the 7 months I could carry a decent conversation, most important I became close with my family in South Western Poland.

Since then my life attitude has changed. When I was 20 I made a bucket list, #13 is to get a tattoo that means something to me. I've figured out what I want, the saying "to believe is to see" in Polish. Two of my cousins said it would be "wierzyc to widac", they asked for me to confirm to be sure.

Can people confirm? Is "wierzyc to widac" the best Polish translation of "to believe is to see?"

what exactly does 'To believe is to see' mean?
I have heard "seeing is believing", but not other way around.

same meaning :)

I don't know.. one seems that what you believe, you "see", which is like religious stuff, and the other is opposite - I only believe what I see.

Neither is very wise.

Or, maybe I'm misunderstanding.. maybe you mean more like "you'll believe it once you see it"?

Nope I mean once you believe it, you'll see it. It's not meant to be religious.

If you believe in Santa/aliens/yeti, it makes it so? Ouch.
Or, maybe it's more about power of positive thinking? Which is not very Polish. ;))

Hello,

I am 24 years old, live in Canada, my parents were born and raised in Poland. I lived and worked in Poland for 7 months from 2010-2011. When I arrived I remembered little of my original first language, after the 7 months I could carry a decent conversation, most important I became close with my family in South Western Poland.

Since then my life attitude has changed. When I was 20 I made a bucket list, #13 is to get a tattoo that means something to me. I've figured out what I want, the saying "to believe is to see" in Polish. Two of my cousins said it would be "wierzyc to widac", they asked for me to confirm to be sure.

Can people confirm? Is "wierzyc to widac" the best Polish translation of "to believe is to see?"

should be wierzyć to widzieć

and make sure to include the acute accents over the C's!

Ooo ok :) I'd like to understand.. what is the difference?

Is this a fallen snowman? ;)

haha yup :) can anyone explain the difference between wierzyc to widac and wierzyc to wiedziec?

widać góry - I can see the mountains.
wiedzieć - to know
widzieć - to see

hey " wierzyć to widać" is not correct. should be "wierzyć to widzieć" widzieć means see. Forgive for my english. We have two similar words : widzieć and wiedzieć - looks very similar but these words means completly diffrent things

widać is not a verb, it means "can be seen", more or less. The verb you need is widzieć, as has already been stated above.

Wouldn't this sound more natural in Polish: wierzyć znaczy zobaczyć or uwierzyć znaczy zobaczyć ?

Wierzyć to widzieć - sounds more like: to believe is to be able to see (most likely because i have eyes) :)

to believe is to see - wierzyć to widzieć


I would keep it simple: wierzyć to widzieć


"to widac" means "it shows" so "to belive it shows" doesn't make sense

sounds like an optometrist office advertising slogan - :)

Wiara to Wzrok

Belief is sight, or something like that. Looks cool in Polish.

I would agree with the latter of the above two, however in a reverse order i.e. zobaczyć znaczy uwierzyć. All others sound unnatural or outright weird. But even this expression is rarely used in Poland so if you are trying to impress upon the poles you meet, you probably won't.

Thanks for the help! "Wierzyć to widzieć" it is.

The tattoo is for myself :)

Please don't start two threads about the same subject.

To be honest- "wierzyć to widzieć", however is grammatically correct, does not make any sense in Polish.
The expression "seeing is believing" or "to believe is to see" sounds: "zobaczyć to uwierzyć". But that means something like, that only seeing something through your own eyes can make you believe. Not what you want


Than I'd recommend "wierzyć to wiedzieć" (to believe is to know/believing is knowing) but still i would not be clear. Maybe "wiara to wiedza" (faith is knowledge) but is sounds very religious. There is no proverb like that, and nobody says like that. So maybe explain more, what you really want to tell with this tattoo- personally- I dont get it.

"Widać" can be explained as "visible", but visible as an adjective should be "widoczny" (in male form, singular), and "widać" is a verb. Haha, the Polish vitrual dictionary even says, that use in sense of "visible" is incorrect, and can only be used as a conclusion, ex: widać nie dałaś z siebie wszytkiego i nie wyszło- Hm... so the colclusion is that you didnt do your best, so it didnt work.

AlicjaK

Thanks for that response!

I'd like the tattoo to make sense in Polish, an explanation of what I want:

I believe that life is what you believe it is. Example- if you think a person is nice, then they are nice. Or if you believe you have true love, you have true love. For me, it works. If you believe wszystko bedzie dobrze, then everything will be ok. Controlling your thoughts controls your happiness. If you believe you are happy, you are happy.

I liked 'wierzyc to widziec' for the alliteration.. anything else that makes more sense in Polish, means what I want it to, sounds pretty? :P

Then there is a Polish proverb: "Wiara czyni cuda"; Faith works miracles.

I don't want the tattoo to refer to faith. "To believe is to see" saying applies to every part of my life, not only spiritual beliefs.

Wierzyć to widzieć... I would like to go with it even if it doesn't "make sense" in Polish. It is a saying I like, translating best I can into Polish, but in a way that I like how it sounds or when I think it in my head.

I booked the appointment. It's in 8 days.

I could not care less what you choose for your tattoo, but I had simply noticed that your explanation in post #23 matched exactly the Polish saying "wiara czyni cuda".

And that saying is not actually religious at all. Firstly the word "wiara" in Polish translates into: faith, belief, confidence, trust, religion, creed, credence. Secondly, the noun "wiara" and the verb "wierzyć" are closely related, so if you like the latter, why are you opposing the former?

What this saying actually means is this: if you strongly believe in something to happen then you will achieve it - even though the probability of such thing to happen borders with miracle. Hence the word "cud", which translates into: miracle, wonder, marvel and prodigy.

And here is a little poem that fits so well here.

Wiara..

wiara czyni cuda pojęcie wszystkim znane
lecz czy do końca zrozumiane?
wiara to praca, to pot i ból
wiara to nasz największy trud
wiara jest w nas
głęboko w sercu drzemie smok
jeśli go obudzisz góry przeniesiesz
czy warto wierzyć?
a czy warto marzyć?
wiara z serca płynie a sercu rozum pomaga
i ciężka praca...
wysiłek i determinacja konsekwencja i zaufanie sobie
to wiary podstawa...
- by Tomasz Ostapiuk

historiusmiedzyrzeca.pl/poezja_rodem_z_miedzyrzeca

I like the poem.

I'm going with wierzyc to widziec because I like how it sounds and it means something to me, if it doesn't mean anything or doesn't make sense to anyone else. It's not for others.

Thanks for your help :)

Where are you getting the tat and how necessary is it?

My point being you're young and have a lot of time left to regret such a decision, and if it's immediately visible may scupper your chances for some well paid jobs in the future.

Now I understand. Wierzyć to widzieć can be ok, than. But still people will not know what it is about- but maybe it's even beter ;)

I like what boletus wrote- it's the closest Polish proverb to what you wrote.

WIARA TO WZROK, I'm tellin' ya!

"Uwierzyć to zobaczyć"