In Akutagawa Ryuunosuke's "藪の中" the wandering monk tells about the man who was killed:
男{おとこ}は、―いえ、太刀{たち}も帯{お}びておれば、弓矢{ゆみや}も携{たずさ}えておりました。
The translation is:
The man? No, he wore a sword but had also bow and arrows equipped.
What I don't get is the meaning of おれば
the polite "conditional" form of いる
.
I have read in several posts how the ~ば conditional can be used: here, many details, here and here. Unfortunately, I am not able to make work any of those explanations with the sentence in question.
In my opinion, the closest way to still use a conditional form and meet the translated meaning of the sentence would be なら
as in the second item なら-explanation by Derek in here: "while/with" wearing a sword he also wore a bow
.
The only other explanation would be, because the monk was obviously interrupted by the questioner as can be deduced from: 男{おとこ}は、―いえ...
that the questioner asked something like "Did the man have no sword?" (because the man's sword is taken taken away and disposed of by Tajoumaru) Unfortunately this question must be inferred by the reader, it's not in the story. Still, how would a ~ば-conditional figure in a reply to such a question?
Thanks a lot!