Can someone help me to understand this monologue?

zeroh4nter · 17 Aug 2021

Context : MC is talking with another girl (a general) about the society during war time. The government official (state governor) is running away and abandoned their state /people inside it ,while they're supposed to stay and do their job

MC is going together with A-san and her group ,to bring peace back to the world
MC : ……州牧って、逃げるの？州の一番偉い人なんだろ？

G1: 普通なら逃げるわけないんだが、そんな腰抜けが州牧に収まれるのが今の世の中でな。……世も末だよ

マジか……。いくらなんでも世の中、乱れすぎじゃない？いや、乱れてるからA-sanたちも旅に出たんだけど。 >>This is the part I don't understand quite well .Can someone help me to understand this monologue of MC ? Thanks in advance !

Toritoribe · 17 Aug 2021

What part of the sentences don't you understand?

zeroh4nter · 17 Aug 2021

Toritoribe said:
What part of the sentences don't you understand?

いくらなんでも世の中、乱れすぎじゃない？いや、乱れてるからA-sanたちも旅に出たんだけど。The last part here

Buntaro · 17 Aug 2021

Zeroh4nter,

It seems it is the word ～だけど that is causing you trouble. だけど translates as "however" into English, but a deeper explanation is necessary. By using the word だけど, the speaker is being deferential to the listener. The word だけど injects the feeling that the speaker is not quite sure that what they are saying is indeed correct and factual. This conveys a high level of respect for the listener. (Being polite is extremely important in spoken and written Japanese.)

This use of deference is quite common in spoken Japanese.

Toritoribe · 18 Aug 2021

zeroh4nter said:
いくらなんでも世の中、乱れすぎじゃない？いや、乱れてるからA-sanたちも旅に出たんだけど。The last part here

I think it's an inversion. 乱れてるからA-sanたちも旅に出たんだけど、いくらなんでも世の中、乱れすぎじゃない？ makes more sense?

bentenmusume · 22 Aug 2021

MC : ……州牧って、逃げるの？州の一番偉い人なんだろ？
Is the governor just going to run away? But aren't they the most important person in the state?

G1: 普通なら逃げるわけないんだが、そんな腰抜けが州牧に収まれるのが今の世の中でな。……世も末だよ
Normally they wouldn't [i.e. a governor wouldn't typically run away and abandon his people], but the world these days is the type of place where even cowards like that can become governor (lit. "where governors also include cowards like that") ...It's the end of the world.

マジか……。いくらなんでも世の中、乱れすぎじゃない？いや、乱れてるからA-sanたちも旅に出たんだけど。
Damn, really...? Even still, isn't the world just too messed up? Well, [I know that] that's the reason why [i.e. because the world is such a mess] you (i.e. A-san) and your friends have set out on this journey, but... (even still)

bentenmusume · 22 Aug 2021

(Sorry, I don't usually like to give extended/full translations, and rather prefer to "lead" the OP in the right direction, as Toritoribe-san is doing above, but it was unclear from the nature of the question which point exactly was confusing the OP, and it seems to me that failing to understand the nuance of the first two sentences would make it difficult to interpret the third.)

bentenmusume · 22 Aug 2021

Buntaro said:
This conveys a high level of respect for the listener. (Being polite is extremely important in spoken and written Japanese.)

I'm not going to disagree entirely with what you're saying, but I think it's going a bit too far to say that だけど conveys "a high level of respect" or "politeness" (it's explicitly not a "polite" form, in the sense that we refer to です／ます調 as "polite speech".)

Rather, I would say that it is more common both linguistically and culturally in Japanese to express things in a manner that is less blunt/certain and more indirect.

bentenmusume · 22 Aug 2021

Ack, sorry, I just realized I replied to the poster's original question while completely missing the last few replies here by Toritoribe-san, Buntaro-san, and the OP. I'll leave my comments here in case they're helpful to the OP, but I apologize if I've stepped on any toes. (This is what I get for trying to post right after waking up from a nap...)

Can someone help me to understand this monologue?

zeroh4nter

後輩

Toritoribe

松葉解禁

zeroh4nter

後輩

Buntaro

運動不足

Toritoribe

松葉解禁

bentenmusume

原点回帰

bentenmusume

原点回帰

bentenmusume

原点回帰

bentenmusume

原点回帰

Similar threads