Can a contrast be implied without using けど for example?

Question

Recently I've come across this sentence in a book:

貴様……面倒すぎて若干自棄になっておらぬか……?

If I've translated this correctly, then I believe it means something like:

You……are too troubled (but) have not become somewhat distressed……?

貴様 Is derogatory but the person speaking it is actually talking respectfully to her superiors so in this context it should mean the archaic 'you'. The おらぬ is also interesting I believe it's a humble version of いる with the ぬ being equivalent to ない.

Assuming all the above is correct, I've translated the sentence as if there's a 'but' there, however as you can see there is no word like けど in that sentence, so my question is, is it.possible the 'but' is being implied? Or have I mistranslated the sentence?

Answer 1

「貴様{きさま}……面倒{めんどう}すぎて若干{じゃっかん}自棄{やけ}になっておらぬか……?」

(I myself would tend to read 「自棄」 as 「やけ」 here, but the author might want to read it as 「じき」.)

I am afraid that you are reading the sentence incorrectly. The specific part that you are understanding incorrectly is indeed 「おらぬか」 at the end.

「おらぬか」 surely means the same as 「いないか」 as you correctly stated. What you failed to understand, however, is that 「おらぬか」 here is not used negatively despite its negative structure using 「ぬ」. In reality, it is only making the sentence a rhetorical question It is affirmative.

In other words, 「～～おらぬか」 means 「～～おる, right?」. Excuse my strange way of explaining this, but you will get the point.

For the reason above, there is no equivalent of "but" implied or left unsaid here.

"too much trouble" ⇒⇒ resulting in ⇒⇒ "becoming desperate", "going mad", etc.

This is a resultative conjunction; therefore, no "but" needed. The 「て」 in 「面倒すぎて」 already expresses the resultative conjunction here.

Likewise, if I said to you 「かっこいいシャツ着{き}てるじゃないか。」, it would mean 100% of the time "Good-looking shirt you're wearing!" Quite a few Japanese-learners, however, take it to mean the complete opposite thing. If there is one group of people in this world that ruin my compliments on a regular basis, they are Japanese-learners.

"You...too much trouble and getting kinda reckless/desperate, eh?"