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I was translating some stuff and ran into this line: 私の言葉を曲げて捉えていると思ってな.

Now, as the title said, my main issue here is the "曲げて捉えて" bit; would it be correct for me to read it as something like "misunderstanding"?

As in: "It seems you're misunderstanding (the point of) my words"?

I went with that because it seems like the 曲げて+捉えて would work as the point of the speaker's words being distorted and THEN wrongfully grasped? So, misunderstanding seemed like the proper choice.

Any confirmation or clarification is appreciated.

Thanks for the help!

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Trusting that the unmentioned subject of the verb 「[曲]{ま}げて[捉]{とら}えている」 is the listener as shown in your TL, I might go with something like:

"I feel that you're distorting my meaning, (I'm afraid)."

"Misunderstanding", to me sounds kind of too innocent (unless that fits the larger context better).

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  • Thanks for the answer. And you're right, the listeners are students to the speaker, their teacher; he's just given them a task and, as they're performing it, he comes out and says that. This seems more of a matter of preference but, in this context, both "distorting my meaning" and "misunderstanding" would work fine, no? Addendum: or, even, "misinterpreting my words" could work as a middle ground.
    – Brunom1
    Aug 2, 2014 at 14:44
  • I only have this short sentence to go by so you should know better. To me (a Jpn-speaker, BTW), "to misunderstand" implies no negative intentions on the part of those who misunderstand. 「曲げて捉える」, however, would generally suggest that those who do it do it for a purpose. So, it would all depend on the context as to which one fits in better.
    – user4032
    Aug 2, 2014 at 15:00
  • Hmmm, alright. Since the overall meaning is still the same, I'll go over the whole scene later and figure out which would fit better. Thanks!
    – Brunom1
    Aug 2, 2014 at 15:05

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