English Translation
Your soul is seeking help.
The Japanese sentence is a very robotic unnatural word-for-word translation sourced from Tanaka Corpus… We don’t usually say 心が助けを求める. We avoid non-animated object or concept as a subject.
The English sentence can be interpreted as several ways. Here are my alternative free translations (although I don’t even think the English one is a good exercise in the first place):
- 無意識の内に助けを求めている。（むいしきのうちにたすけをもとめている）
- 精神的な支えを必要としている。（せいしんてきなささえをひつようとしている）
The first translation literally means “you are seeking help without being aware that you are doing so.” - You don’t say anything, but you actually need help and I can see it from your face or through my “sixth” sense.
The second translation literally means “you are seeking mental support.” - It doesn’t mean that you are mentally ill, but you are devastated and need someone on your side or nice words from someone in order to energize your drying soul.
I intentionally omit お前 (you) from my alternative translations. お前 is one of the possible translations, but only 1) male speakers use the expression お前 in a very casual conversation; or 2) an angry mom addresses to her kid in a bossy way (, which doesn’t fit this case of “your soul is seeking help.”) In order to broaden the context, お前 can be also translated as 君（きみ）or あなた. But we rarely say あなた. ○○さん instead of “you” is the best choice.
The original sentence drops い from the verb 求めている. 求めてる is a colloquial shorten form. Dropping い is not wrong at all like “wanna” is a shorten form of “want to” in English. But be careful when you use い抜き言葉 in your real life.