どうせ is a word that characterizes the Japanese view of the transient and mutability of life. いろは歌 is a typical example.
bamboo4
The second example is a quote from a old Japanese pop song about a man and his wife whose life would end up as a river boat ferry man.
bamboo4
しぶい歌ですね。My mother knows 船頭小唄.
your name
I think どうせ also can be used as in "anyway", ex 3
dc
もちろん、bamboo4さんはしぶいでしょう!
dc
Thank you, dc!
bamboo4
In example 3, we normally use ついでに, rather than どうせ. 郵便局に行くんだったら、ついでに切手を買ってきて.
bamboo4
someone used the phrase どうせ男 the other day, in a kind of sarcastic way. could this mean "at best, kind of like guys (but not really)" .. ?
testy
or more like, "after all, they are guys (so they would do that kind of thing)"
testy
どうせ男 means an irrsponsible, happy-go-lucky guy, whose view would be どうせ(after all), so that he would just go about his life without really trying.
bamboo4
dc, Roma-ji for どうせ is wrong. It should be doUse.
anon
ah, thats a little problem, as all the comments etc are linked from "doose"... I can change + the examples but will lose the comments for now.
dc
Whether there is such a thing as incorrect romaji is a debate for another forum, but douse is consistent with the romaji used on this particular site so I went ahead and made the change (we can do that now but couldn't before when DC posted his comment).
yookoso
#1090 Put "。" at the end of the sentence.
Nick
In #1090 there should be a "the" thrown in there after "(eventually)" ... but even then its still kind of awkward.
ixtli
Wouldn't #1090 correspond with the English idiom "you can't take it with you"? Regardless, it would probably read better as "Eventually (In the end) the money you have now will (all) be gone".