What's new

This line from a song is stumping me a little bit.

poursuislavie

Registered
22 Oct 2019
1
1
13
Hey there!! I'm an advanced level Japanese language learner, so to practice more causal forms, I often translate new Japanese music I find.

There's a line from the song "Perfect Baby" by RADWIMPS that I cant quite seem to put together,

「ナイフの歯も立たんくらい 足蹴にされても腹立てんくらい
唄いながらなんでもないように 血まみれでハニかめるよ紳士に」

Especially the first part, though. I know 「歯を立てる」is "to bite", but I'm quite confused on what meaning they're trying to convey overall, especially since, as far as I understand it, 立たん is not a conjugation of 立てる.

Thank you so much!!
 
It's from 歯も立たない (the intransitive form). 歯を立てる literally means to bite, but 歯が立つ can have an idiomatic meaning of being effective against or able to stand up to something, so this would be the negative of that:


Does that help you figure it out any more?
 
Back
Top Bottom