Is There A Thai Equivalent For Good Samaritan ?

[BookSanook]

Is there a Thai equivalent for Good Samaritan ?

I found this, พลเมืองดี, but it seems to mean only good citizen or good citizenship. Not really the same thing.

Thanks

BkSk

[klons]

This is a dictionary definition.

[N] ผู้มีจิตใจเมตตากรุณา S.good Samaritan; savior

[bhoydy]

It's unlikely that you'll find a direct equivalent, the Good Samaritan being from the bible and all that. However, you could look at the characteristics of a good samaritan.

kind - ใจดี กรุณา or kindness - ความใจดี

benevolent - ใจดีมีเมตตา or เมตตา for goodwill, to be kind

[bhoydy]

I stand corrected.

Another couple of ใจ words

ใจพระ saintly, charitable

Would ใจบุญ work here, or is that more used for someone who always gets the bill in?

[BookSanook]

Thanks for the replies!

I wonder if there is a match for the more narrow, modern meaning. That is, a person who will take risks, or self-sacrifice, to assist people in need or distress.

[mikenyork]

I once saw a plaque on a Roman Catholic chapel that called St. Paul a นักบุญ. There's no perfect choice here because, as pointed out above, this phrase carries with it, to most western-educated readers/listeners the entire story of the Good Samaritan. But I do think that the word บุญ whether combined with ใจ or with นัก gets as close as you can get in Thai since at least บุญ, to be genuine, requires selflessness.

[Peppy]

a person who will take risks, or self-sacrifice, to assist people in need or distress.

Usually the papers and TV news call folks like that พลเมืองดี. Dictionaries usually translate it as "good citizen", as you noted earlier, because that's what it literally means: พลเมือง means "citizen" and ดี means "good". I think the meaning's wide enough, though, that it could also mean a "good samaritan" like you describe above.

I once saw a plaque on a Roman Catholic chapel that called St. Paul a นักบุญ.

นักบุญ means "Saint".

[mikenyork]

Yes, นักบุญ means saint. The question is, if saint be understood outside the narrow confines of formal Roman Catholic doctrine, was the Samaritan in Jesus' story a saint? If not, why not? If so, then นักบุญ is a reasonable way to convey the meaning of the "Good Samaritan"

[Xangsamhua]

How about คนเสียสละ, as in คนเสียสละแก่คนอื่น?

[Peppy]

Yes, นักบุญ means saint.  The question is, if saint be understood outside the narrow confines of formal Roman Catholic doctrine, was the Samaritan in Jesus' story a saint?  If not, why not?  If so, then นักบุญ is a reasonable way to convey the meaning of the "Good Samaritan"

How about  คนเสียสละ, as in คนเสียสละแก่คนอื่น?

Here's the RID definition for นักบุญ. I don't think it's commonly used outside of religious or spiritual contexts.

นักบุญ    น. ผู้อ้างตัวว่าเป็นผู้วิเศษ, ผู้ที่ทําความดีไว้มากเมื่อตายแล้ว ได้รับ

 ยกย่องว่าเป็นผู้สําเร็จในทางศาสนาคริสต์นิกายโรมันคาทอลิก,

 ผู้ยินดีในการบุญ.

As for คนเสียสละแก่คนอื่น, it seems like more of a definition: A person who makes sacrifices for others.

I still think พลเมืองดี is the best word to use for "a person who will take risks, or self-sacrifice, to assist people in need or distress".

[mikenyork]

I can only speak for American English, but "saint" is used much more broadly in AE than the RID definition states. It is used as slang to denote a person who puts up with a difficult situation for a long time and, despite provocation, does not retaliate in kind for abuse received. "He was a loser. But she was a real saint." It is also used as a general term among Evangelical and Pentacostal Christians to mean anyone who has "believed in (or sometimes into) Jesus Christ as their personal savior". The Roman Catholic and Anglican traditions have a much narrower definition having to do with formal Church procedure for designating a saint.

My reason for preferring นักบุญ is that the concept of บุญ seems to me to be a close fit with the moral of Jesus' story, one important aspect of which is that it was precisely because the Samaritan was acting well outside the parameters of what would have been expected of a "good citizen". And in fact, the injured man was passed by be several people who would have considered themselves and have been considered by their society to have been "good citizens". The Samaritan was, by the mere fact of being a Samaritan, absolutely ineligible to be a "good citizen" of the Jewish Establishment, and, in particular, a total outcast from the Jewish Religious Establishment.

[Rikker]

mikenyork, the RID definition is only referring to the Thai word นักบุญ, which has no bearing on AE usage of "saint". Thai doesn't use the term นักบุญ in a figurative sense in the same way as English uses "saint", at least not in common usage. So it's not likely to be understood in the same way.

There's some evidence on the web for limited use of นักบุญ in a figurative sense, but the connotations might be different.

[mikenyork]

Mr. Rikker: you make a good point. My best native speaker source (yes, gf ) tells me that the concept that we are trying to translate from English to Thai can be handled by the following idiom: ปิดทองหลังพระ Literally to place gold (leaf) on the back of the Buddharupa. Even this doesn't get at the deeper meaning of Jesus' story which had to do with seeing the good that can be found in people whom we despise and reject (as the Samaritans were by the Jews of that time). But it does get at the point of going beyond the call of duty to help someone---which พลเมืองดี does not.

[ronz28]

khon jai boon. Kind hearted person.

[Rikker]

ปิดทองหลังพระ kind of fits -- to do good deeds without seeking praise or honor. Not a perfect match, though.

คนใจบุญ also sort of fits -- one who helps others, a charitable or benevolent person.

A Thai friend informs me that ผู้หวังดี is used on JS100 radio frequently, for bystanders who step in when they see an incident to help the victim. That makes sense in the context of a given situation, but doesn't really work for describing someone who is a Good Samaritan type by nature.

[Peppy]

I think คนใจบุญ does sort of work, but as Bhoydy noted earlier, its meaning may be wide enough to include those who are generous with their money, not just their good deeds. As Rikker says, not a perfect match--but it is close.

I've often heard ปิดทองหลังพระ, "to stick a bit of gold leaf on the back of a Buddha image", (where it will not be seen or acknowledged by anyone) used by people who lend money (to people genuinely in need) and never see it again. Of course it's sometimes used positively too--in the case of doing good without expecting anything in return--but for the karma-conscious, it kind of describes a breakdown of the ทำดีได้ดี system--you did something good, but you don't get anything back. A person who has been helpful and kind all their life but remains luckless or poverty-stricken could be said to have ปิดทองหลังพระ.

ผู้หวังดี is a very good one--kind of tricky to translate, as the literal Thai meaning comes out in English as something like "well-wisher" (ผู้-person หวัง-hope ดี-good)--it doesn't mean "well-wisher" in the English sense though, but rather in the sense of somebody who has good hopes for others. Somebody who goes out of their way to help people in need. Perhaps the closest match so far, I think, especially given that's it's often used in the same sort of context as "good Samaritan" is in English.

And I admit that พลเมืองดี (roughly, "good citizen"), even though I do think it's a good match, is somewhat broader than "good Samaritan" (not a real Samaritan from the Bible, just a helpful individual)--it's often used to mean people who are helpful to the government and society in some direct way, like by phoning the police to report a crime for example--it isn't just for people who go out of their way to help others, in the sense of "good samaritan", although it is used that way as well.

In short (though this is getting kind of long) I would say, in answer to the question "Is there a Thai equivalent for Good Samaritan?": No, there isn't a direct equivalent. There are words (as iterated above) that have a similar meaning when used in a similar context, but there isn't a Thai word that has the direct meaning of "a person who will take a risk, or go out of their way, to help people in need or distress". But then, there isn't in English, either, is there? "Good Samaritan" is just a metonym; "a figure of speech used in rhetoric in which a thing or concept is not called by its own name, but by the name of something intimately associated with that thing or concept" [Wikipedia]. Given the number of people who die in the street for lack of assistance from passers-by, perhaps it just isn't in human nature to turn away from one's own business and help strangers in distress, especially in public, and this is reflected in the lack of a word for such behaviour in our language. Does anyone know if there's a short, concise word for this in any other language?