My friend showed me a doujinshi that she asked me to translate and there is one page that has me stumped. I think it would be difficult without knowing the whole story of it, but I will try my best to explain in short the context. First, these are the lines on the page I have problems with:
切り花なんていつか枯れる。切ったのは俺？それとも自分で
The speaker (I will call him Red from now on because of his clothes) is remembering his friend with whom he parted ways after he had a clash with him (they were rivals as well and fought because of different opinions. They were close before things happened and ended up fighting).
Red received some flowers and their color reminded him of his friend.
In the above sentence, Red is comparing his friend (which he is not sure if he is dead or not) to a cut flower, that will wither at some point.
When they parted it was a little dramatic, because Red's friend slashed Red's arm with a sword as one last act, then he jumped off a cliff.
I can't explain the whole story, but what I am not sure of is the part 切ったのは俺？
"Was I the one who was cut?"
Or if I take it in a figurative manner (because there have been so many comparisons, like the flower one), could Red also be saying "Was I the one who cut you?" (was it my actions and the things I said that cut you?)
Then followed by それとも自分で
Or did you (wanted to cut yourself)?
Perhaps with the meaning of 'cutting yourself from me'
I can only guess that after 自分で the verb 切る is implied.
I apologize if I made it all very confusing, any interpretation would be of help and maybe will make me realize something, because I tried from many perspectives to translate this part and it's difficult despite the fact that I know the context.
