The closest I could find was
jan ike | awen pali e ona | pilin ike tawa
enemy | continue | hate
But I've not figured out if that the right way to combine those phrases
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2 Answers
The consensus answer (thanks Oliver Mason) for how to translate Haters gonna hate into Toki Pona is the following:
tenpo ale la jan ike li ike
Tenpo ale la translates as at all times and captures the sense of inevitability in haters gonna hate in English. It also serves to rule out other possible readings such as the tautological bad people are bad. Here ike is used as "commit evil acts", one of which is presumably hating.
I interpret Haters gonna hate as a phrase for dismissing all criticism as inevitable or unfounded regardless of its content.
I don't think hate in this context literally refers to feeling hatred/enmity, but to hating on, which is not quite the same thing and covers things like insults and ridicule.
I think we strip out a lot of the detail of haters gonna hate and get something reasonable.
jan ike li ike
person bad PRED bad
bad people are bad
Since jan ike is so much broader than bad person in English, I think this does a good job of conveying the intent of the expression. People predisposed to ridicule or insult you are going to ridicule or insult you regardless of what you do.
The right way to combine the phrases you gave above would be
jan ike li awen pali e pilin ike tawa.
However, there are a few constructions in there I'm not sure about
li awen pali
PRED keep do
I don't know whether you can use awen like this as an auxiliary verb of sorts to mark habitual or progressive aspect, as you seem to be doing here.
pilin ike tawa
feeling bad towards
I don't know whether you can use an objectless preposition attributively like this. My guess is yes since prepositions besides e (if analyzed as a preposition) do not form a distinct word class in Toki Pona. I'm having trouble finding an explicit citation for the non-existence of prepositions as a distinct word class, this is the closest I can find.
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1This is a lot to digest, but I feel like the restatement of "bad people are bad" is no more accurate than "long cat is long" or "Boys will be Boys". It feels like tautological emphasis instead of the subtext of "let people who are hateful be hateful, and don't let them get to you, because no matter that you do to appease them they will remain unchanged." I'll try to go over what you said later, to understand the technix6 points you are making. Commented May 28, 2020 at 21:03
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2maybe add a tenpo ale la to the front: at all times/always bad people are bad. Commented May 29, 2020 at 16:39
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@olivermason I'm close to accepting this answer ingles you want to add your own with that addition? Commented Jun 18, 2020 at 0:25
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1@GregoryNisbet would you consider editing in the 'always' part ? Commented Jun 19, 2020 at 9:29
I'd say something like
jan pi lawa ike li wile e ijo ike tawa sina lon tenpo ale
Which means: "People of bad heads want bad things for you, always".
You could also use:
jan pi toki ike li wile e ijo ike tawa sina lon tenpo ale
Which means: "People of bad talking want bad things for you, always".
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"People of bad heads want bad things for you, always". You could also use: "jan pi toki ike li wile e ijo ike tawa sina lon tenpo ale" > "People of bad talking want bad things for you, always".– KNTROCommented Jun 2, 2020 at 23:33