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From:

今日もようやく長い一日が終わった。この屋敷で働き始めて今日で三年になるが、ここの仕事は本当に辛い。旦那様と奥様はお優しいのだが、お嬢様がとても厳しく、理不尽な方だ。気に入らないことがあればすぐに怒鳴り、殴ってくる。こちらは手が出せないのをいいことにやりたい放題だ。

The text might be a bit above my Japanese skill...I'm around N4 level.

But anyway, this chapter has been fan-translated, so I did have something to check it against. The translator translates the final sentence as: "I’m just a nice maid girl who can only smile politely while receiving such abuse."

But I'm not sure how this connects with the original Japanese. Although, I'm pretty sure what I'm failing to understand has something to do with the use of いいこと.

The best I've been able to come up with in understanding the spirit of the original Japanese is: "As much as it would serve her right, I'm just a maid, so I can't raise my hand against her."

I'm still confused as to how the first clause relates to the second clause through the を particle, though.

Thanks!

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  • If you don't know the AをBに construction yet, this is a great chance to learn this useful pattern. It means "with A as B", "using A as B", etc.
  • 手を出す: an idiomatic expression that usually means "to start a fight", "to be the first to attack", "to be involved", etc.
  • こちら: literally "this side", but it's simply "my side" or "I" in this context.
  • こちらは手が出せないの: a nominalized phrase, "(the fact) that I cannot stop/interfere/retort (against her)"
  • いいこと: literally "good thing".
  • ～をいいことに: an idiom that literally means "using ～ as a good thing", but it's usually translated as "taking advantage of ～".
  • やりたい放題 is a set expression that works as a no-adjective. See: Why is やりたい放題 used as opposed to やり放題?

こちらは手が出せないのをいいことにやりたい放題だ。
She behaves as she pleases taking advantage of the fact that I am unable to stop her.

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  • Three idioms in one, huh? Well, I'm glad to learn so much all at once! Thank you for the explanation.
    – liriii
    Commented Mar 14, 2018 at 6:41
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こちらは手が出せないのをいいことにやりたい放題。

こちらは 'I'

手が出せない 'can't do anything about it (can't fight back)'

のを 'the fact that'

いいことに 'takes advantage of'

やりたい放題 'does whatever (she) wants'.

She takes advantage of the fact that I can't fight back and does whatever she wants.

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  • この場合の「手が出せない」って・・？
    – chocolate ♦
    Commented Mar 14, 2018 at 3:09
  • @Chocolate 少しその分を変更しました。
    – BJCUAI
    Commented Mar 14, 2018 at 3:21

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