0

I'm currently reading Yoshimura Tatsuya's 危険なふたり, which I randomly bought at a Book-Off recently. So far I've been able to cope with the help of a dictionary, but I've come across a sentence that I cannot wrap my head around.

二年ほどのちに、その言葉を皮肉な思いをもって脳裏によみがえらせることになるとは、そのときの[豪太]{ごうた}は想像していなかった。

I'd translate the last part as:

At this moment, Gouta could not imagine [that ...].

But I'm stuck with the first part of the sentence. So far, I've gotten the following bits:

  • のち means "later", so 二年ほどのちに means "two years later"
  • 皮肉 means "irony", "sarcasm", so 皮肉な思いをもって means "with a sarcastic thinking", which probably translates into "half-sincerely"
  • 脳裏 means "one's mind", since there's I guess it has the nuance of "the back of one's head"
  • よみがえる means "resurrect"

But I just can't put it all in order. Could you please highlight the structure of this sentence, and explain me its meaning?

1 Answer 1

3

脳裏によみがえる seems to be something of a set phrase, but you can figure out the meaning from the individual parts. Literally it means that something is "resurrected in your mind", so it's a somewhat poetic way of saying that you recall or are reminded of something (most likely something you had forgotten for a while).

The other part you seem to be having maybe a little trouble with is 皮肉な思いをもって. 皮肉 can indeed refer to sarcasm as well, but in this sense I think the more general sense of "irony" is probably more appropriate. It's difficult to be sure without more context, but it sounds to me like Gouta is reminded of this word because of some kind of situation that made it ironically appropriate, so I would perhaps translate 皮肉な思いをもって as "with a sense of irony".

The rest of the sentence seems fairly straightforward, so putting it all together we get something like:

"Little did Gouta know that he would be reminded of this word about two years later in the most ironic of ways."

(I may have taken a few liberties to make the English sentence sound natural, but hopefully you get the idea!)

1
  • Thanks, it's pretty obvious now. I guess I can't think in the morning :)
    – Right leg
    Apr 25, 2018 at 13:35

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .