Meaning of 楽に済ませようとする

Question

How should I translate this phrase?

楽に済ませようとする。

My literal translation is, "Decide to cause to finish/complete having fun," but that doesn't seem to make much sense.

Does 楽に済む mean to enjoy completely? Is 済ませる the causative form of the verb?

Answer 1

予定が済む means something like "the agenda is clear", where "clear" is intransitive, here. 済ませる is indeed the causative form of 済む (and is transitive).

So 済ませる is something like "to finish" (compare the (transitive) "to clear").

～ようとする is maybe "to try to ...".

The main point, however, is that 楽{らく} doesn't really mean "fun", but "comfortable/easy". The particle に turns this into an adverb "comfortably/easily/with ease".

Putting this all together, we get something like

楽に済ませようとする
to try to finish things easily (in an easy/comfortable way)