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By now I can usually understand even small texts, but I am having trouble translating this one sentence. I think it hast to do with wrong parsing.

彼が注目を浴びるのを避けたということは、人々が知っておくべきだと私が思うほどには、彼について知らない、ということでもあります。

My attempt:

The fact the he tries to avoid attention is that, The more I think I come to the conclusion that people must know it, because they don't actually know about him.

彼が注目を浴びるのを避けたということは The fact the he tries to avoid attention is that

人々が知っておくべきだと私が思うほどには The more I think I come to the conclusion that people must know it

彼について知らない、ということでもあります because they don't actually know about him.

This sentence for some reason is very confusing for me, what you think of my translation?

Thanks!

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  • The subject of 彼について知らない seems ambiguous to me, and I cannot tell which of the two existing answers is correct. Could you give us a few surrounding sentences?
    – naruto
    Commented May 24, 2018 at 23:34
  • @Naruto basically I took it from a jlpt n2 lesson, they already had their translation but I wanted to translate it “on my own” because I was not understanding it. japanesetest4you.com/flashcard/… “彼が注目を浴びるのを避けたということは、人々が知っておくべきだと私が思うほどには、彼について知らない、ということでもあります。 The fact that he had avoided the limelight means that people don’t know about him to the extent that I think they should.”
    – Felipe Chaves de Oliveira
    Commented May 24, 2018 at 23:36
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    Okay, so this one has no context at all :) This ほど doesn't mean "the more."
    – naruto
    Commented May 24, 2018 at 23:42

2 Answers 2

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I'd parse it this way:

［彼が注目を浴びるのを避けた］ということは、［人々が｛（知っておくべきだ）と私が思うほどには、｝彼について知らない、］ということでもあります。

Its basic structure is 「～～ということは、・・・ということでもあります。」"～～ also means ・・・".

「～～ほど(に)(は)・・・ない」 means "not so ・・・ as ～～" "not ・・・ to the extent that ～～".

To break it down...

彼が注目を浴びるのを避けたということは、
The fact that he avoided getting people's attention

（人々が）知っておくべきだと私が思うほどには
to the extent that I think people should know

人々が...彼について知らない
people don't know about him

ということでもあります。
also means

To put them back together...

"The fact that he avoided getting people's attention also means that people don't know about him to the extent that I think they should."

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  • つまり、「彼は人々の注目を避けたので、あまり知られていない」「彼は注目されないようにしたので、（彼の才能の割に）知名度がない」"Because he avoided people's attention, he is not getting people's attention that he deserves -> he's not so famous as he should be"って意味です。
    – chocolate ♦
    Commented May 24, 2018 at 23:02
  • 「人々が、知っておくべきだと私が思うほどには彼について知らない」とか「知っておくべきだと私が思うほどには、人々は彼について知らない」って書いたほうがわかりやすいような・・・
    – chocolate ♦
    Commented May 25, 2018 at 0:10
  • Thanks a lot for the answer :) I will study it carefully right now
    – Felipe Chaves de Oliveira
    Commented May 25, 2018 at 12:34
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I would parse it like this:

｛「［彼が注目を浴びるのを避けた］ということは、人々が知っておくべきだ」と私が思うほどには、(私は)彼について知らない｝、ということでもあります。

Also, it helps to work your way backwards, so to speak:

...ということでもあります。 It also means that ...

...と私が思うほどには、(私は)彼について知らない I don't know him to the extent that I would think ... / I don't know him enough to think ...

...ということは、人々が知っておくべきだ People should know (the fact) that ...

彼が注目を浴びるのを避けた He avoided drawing attention

I think what's giving you trouble is that the first は is replacing the object marker を, topicalizing the object. Also, you'll want to be careful with ほど because it has several uses including approximation, extent, comparison, and proportional change. Here, it is being used to show extent.

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