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おろかもの！！！この洞窟に入れるのは、ぼろをきた心のきよらかなわかもの、ただひとりだ！

I need help in understanding what ぼろ means and the phrase/clause that follows.

I still haven't figured out what きよらかな is.

Also, I believe おろかもの means "fool" or "idiot". It must be extremely degrading to be called that in a real conversation, doesn't it?

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    Original English: "Know this. Only one may enter here. One whose worth lies far within. A diamond in the rough." (obviously a bit different in Japanese)
    – user1478
    Nov 25, 2016 at 17:39
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    You can search your words in a dictionary like jisho.org. You might want to look up 清｛きよ｝らか, 襤褸{ぼろ} and [愚か者]｛おろかもの｝. After gathering all the words' meaning you may try a translation to guess the underlying meaning of the sentence.
    – 永劫回帰
    Nov 25, 2016 at 20:25
  • @snailplane Quite a bit different, really. Different enough that I'd be inclined to claim that you quoted the wrong line. (But I don't have either language version to actually verify the claim.) The English is full of metaphor but the Japanese has not a single word of it ...
    – oals
    Nov 25, 2016 at 20:44
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    @oals I am pretty sure snailplane quoted the right line.
    – 永劫回帰
    Nov 25, 2016 at 20:59

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As far as I can tell

おろかもの！！この洞窟に入れるのは、ぼろをきた心のきよらかなわかもの、ただひとりだ

quite literally means: "Fool!!!The only one who can enter this cave is a rag-wearing(ぼろをきた) and pure hearted(心 の 清らか) young man([若者]{わかもの})".

In the Japanese sentence, "can enter this cave"(この洞窟に入れるのは) and "only one"(ただ ひとりだ) are separated by said person's description(ぼろをきた心のきよらかなわかもの).

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おろかもの is very archaic so if someone uses it in a real conversation, it's almost certainly a joke. An elderly person might use it without the joke element, however.

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