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I was watching an anime and the character said something along the lines of "私{わたし}は、このままでいいの". This translated into something like "Do I really want things to stay like this?" But what does まま do in this sentence? Does it mean to keep something in the state as it already is?

I feel like this is kind of a weird word since there's no direct Japanese-English translation.

Would this also work in past tense?

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まま literally means "condition" or "state", or if you want to go fancy, "state of affairs."

Thus,

このまま = things being how they are
このままで = keeping things how they are/things staying the way they are
私はこのままでいいの？ = Is it okay for me, if things stay the way they are? (the translation you saw essentially says the same thing)

So your understanding is pretty good.

I am not sure what exactly your last question is about. Do you mean to ask if まま can be used to talk about past events? Yes.

そのままでよかったのに
would have been nice if (things/I/you/someone/something) had stayed like that

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  • Cheers! This was very helpful and made sense
    – user48830
    Commented Dec 4, 2021 at 8:46

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