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Hello everyone I cannot grasp the meaning of さて in the following sentence, as far as I can understand it's same as this, however I'm not confident about it. "...for young man it was like throwing the dice, whose number will definitly show up, sooner or later."(I translated only the part with さて)

どうせ行くあてもなく、帰る途もなく、三界に置き所もないこの身の上だ、ままよと、渡し守の申し出を受け入れたのが、青年には賽を投げ出すようにも思われてさて、この目は一体いずれと出ることだろう。

Also there is a part that makes me wonder, why the author put この before 身の上? The narration is in 3rd person, but with この it translates like "my body" which sounds strange in this sentence, or maybe I'm misunderstanding something?

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Your understanding as to the meaning of さて is correct. The young man is wondering which number will show up as his destiny.

The narration is indeed in 3rd person. However, two lines are understood as the young man's thought (or monologues). 

どうせ行くあてもなく、帰る途もなく、三界に置き所もないこの身の上だ、ままよ

and

さて、この目は一体いずれと出ることだろう。

The author is omitting square brackets.

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    That is called intrusive narration, not monologue.
    – user4032
    Commented Nov 2, 2013 at 12:51
  • Thank you very much for your reply! I have one more question about この目は・・・・・・ I thought that here it means 賽の目 (dice numbers)?
    – renchan
    Commented Nov 2, 2013 at 13:12
  • Yes, 目 in この目は indicates 賽の目.
    – aki
    Commented Nov 3, 2013 at 8:04

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