てなお

[Rinilex]

In this sentence:

人間は勝ってなお、醜さをまき散らしていく

what does なお do?

My guess is something like "the humans had done more than won, they had spread ugliness (hatred?)"

or "the humans had won, yet spread ugliness."

(I've put it in past tense because the piece I've taken it from is recounting an incident from a while ago.)

 

[Toritoribe]

It's the latter "yet / still / even".

The reason why the present tense is used there is that (the writer thinks) it's a general characteristic of humanity, as same as 敗戦国の戦後復興は果てしなく、そして険しい。 is a general truth.

 

[Rinilex]

Ohhh, I understand. Thank you!

So "humans win, yet spread ugliness."

Would it be all right to translate 醜さ as "hatred"? Or is it strictly an "unsightly/ ugly" nuanced word? It sounds a little strange in English.

国民の人などは無きに等しかった - this is earlier in the passage, is it saying the citizens were seen as nothing (unimportant), or that there wasn't many of them ?

 

[Toritoribe]

醜い doesn't refer to the appearance here. It's more close to "ignoble / dishonorable / mean".

The former one is correct for the second question.