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笑顔で、いや、寝付けなくてという僕の袖を、彼女が引いた。

Who is smiling? Who can't sleep and what's the connection between smiling and problem with sleeping? The only clear part for me is that 'She pulled my sleeve'.

Source: light novel. The context doesn't really have connection with this sentence, but after it he looks back at her and sees that she seems troubled by something.

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    What is the source and context?
    – Amani Kilumanga
    Commented Feb 29, 2016 at 13:02

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笑顔で、いや、寝付けなくてという僕の袖を、彼女が引いた。

I'm sure this sentence actually should have been

笑顔で、「いや、寝付けなくて」 と言う僕の袖を、彼女が引いた。

So it is the man that is having trouble sleeping. And for smiling, it is highly likely the woman that is smiling, because considering the 「」 and a comma after 笑顔で (、) in the sentence above, the clauses will be

笑顔で、(「いや、寝付けなくて」 と言う僕の袖)を、彼女が引いた。

But the sentence looks like from some novel - there's some possibility that the man is smiling.

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  • Were it not for the comma after 笑顔で, the one who is smiling would have been the man.
    – Collapsed PLUG
    Commented Feb 29, 2016 at 13:58
  • Nevertheless, confusing. Especially if you want to put it in English sentence, having in mind "いや" part. In this novel she is pulling his sleeve very often, so maybe 寝付けない is about that sleeve, which is constantly bothered by her pulling, but then 笑顔 doesn't make sense for me at this point. Edit: Oh, maybe he's smiling that she's again pulling his sleeve. But I hate いや. It's often used and it's really hard to translate it to make proper sentence.
    – Igor
    Commented Feb 29, 2016 at 14:09
  • I don't think 寝付けない has something to do with the sleeve, because whether he or she is smiling, I'm sure he said 「いや、寝付けなくて」 before or almost at the same time she pulls his sleeve. And いや here is just an interjection meaning "Well..." or such in English. So he's saying "Well, I'm having trouble getting to sleep."
    – Collapsed PLUG
    Commented Feb 29, 2016 at 14:18
  • I know, but it sounds unnatural when translated, anyway thanks for trying. I think it might be that he's smiling to himself, thinking he can't go sleep with this sleeve pulling (という僕の袖を). The construction of this sentence is very confusing, because so many commas which instead of helping are making this even harder.
    – Igor
    Commented Feb 29, 2016 at 14:42
  • Yeah, i'd say this is sort of badly constructed sentence :(
    – Collapsed PLUG
    Commented Feb 29, 2016 at 14:44

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