を・を・を・を・を

[Mike Cash]

We sometimes get questions about sentences with two を in them. I thought I'd share a sentence I just found with FIVE of them:

From 春の鳥 by 国木田独歩

そこで私は、六蔵の教育を骨を折ってみる約束をして気の毒の婦人を帰し、その夜はおそくまで、いろいろと工夫を凝らしました。

 

[Kraise]

分けたら:

そこで私は、「六蔵の教育を骨を折ってみる約束をして」「気の毒の婦人を帰し」、その夜はおそくまで、いろいろと工夫を凝らしました。

Is [骨を折ってみる約束] working as an adverbial construction for 「六蔵の教育をして」, or is it somehow closer to [六蔵の教育を骨を折ってみる約束として]? the meaning I extract out of the bolded part is ,( limited to what I know) : [... "laborious" attempt of undergoing the rokuzou tranining/education ...]

 

[lanthas]

六蔵の教育を (骨を折ってみる)約束をして
I promised the education to try and break someone's bones? That can't be right...

 

[Toritoribe]

気の毒な婦人を帰し(sorry for nitpicking, as always)

に is more commonly used instead of the first を nowadays.
骨を折る is an idiom.

六蔵の教育に骨を折ってみる約束をして
I promised her(= the poor woman = Rokuzō's mother) to try to put in the effort to educate Rokuzō

 

[Kraise]

気の毒な婦人を帰し(sorry for nitpicking, as always)

に is more commonly used instead of the first を nowadays.
骨を折る is an idiom.

六蔵の教育に骨を折ってみる約束をして
I promised her(= the poor woman = Rokuzō's mother) to try to put in the effort to educate Rokuzō

I didn't know Rokuzou was someone's name, in fact I thought it was some place's name.

そこで私は、六蔵の教育を骨を折ってみる約束をして気の毒の婦人を帰し、その夜はおそくまで、いろいろと工夫を凝らしました。

Is it (adapted translation) "at that time, I promised the pitiful woman to work hard on rokuzou's education, after dispatching her, the same night I stayed awake untill late, "trying" to figure out how(a plan to do so)" ?

 

[Toritoribe]

I don't blame you. In fact, your interpretation "place's name" can be possible.

 

[Mike Cash]

I knew I'd have at least ONE error in my transcription....

"Having promised the pitiable woman to spare no efforts in attempting to educate her son, I sent Rokuzou's mother away and stayed awake late that night, turning over in my head various ideas."

Or some variation thereof.

Some of you might like to try reading this story. It is neither long nor difficult and the good folks at Aozora Bunko have modernized the kanji and kana usage. Available on Amazon for the Kindle (free!) or from Aozora Bunko.

 

[Kraise]

Thank you all!