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While translating something, I was wondering how should I do a certain a line because I can't determine exactly whether the speaker says it in a way talking about himself or is referring to another character.
So there are 2 characters that I will call A and B. A says:

まだ三戦しかしていないだろう

This, if I'm translating okay means "We only (or merely) fought 3 times", but the reply from character B had me asking just who was he referring to. He says this:

なんだよ。昨夜はずっと「もうやめてくれ」言ってたくせにさ

So I was wondering here, how would this line sound? I can see that he is quoting, my first interpretation was 'Come on, geez! Even when last night you kept saying "stop it already"?
Then I thought, but isn't it possible that B could say it like this?:
Even though last night I said "give it up already".

So, B could be quoting himself? Is that a possibility? Honestly, sometimes I don't know how to identify who was the one who did an action if I don't specifically have a pronoun clearly mentioned (like in this case, maybe if B said お前, I could go with my first translation).
I can deduce most of the time without pronouns, but there are instances when I can't figure out.
I hope I explained well enough...

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  • Clarification: 三戦 doesn't sound like "fought three times"? Wikipedia noted that "Sanchin (三戦) is a kata of apparent Southern Chinese (Fujianese) origin..."
    – user15816
    Commented Jul 6, 2019 at 16:52
  • @clearkimura That was just a quick translation that I planned to look over later (the characters also speak colloquially).Now looking over it again, because there is the structure of しかしていない I guess it actually be more like "We haven't done/had a third battle/match." Hmm now it got me wondering, even though I said I had a problem with the second line, now that I look at the first one, what is the difference between まだ~していない and してなかった ? Commented Jul 6, 2019 at 18:16

1 Answer 1

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I think your first translation is right and thinking B quote himself is strange.

Your translation of A is I think perfect.

We fought only three times.

I think key is 〜してたくせに.
In conversation, This phrase is mostly used to quote and criticize other’s behavior .

and I also think you can deduce the person who said「もうやめてくれ」from context.
In this sentence, A is trying to provoke B to continue “fight” with A.
So you can deduce that B said something like “ I want to stop fighting” or B couldn’t continue to fight before the A’s sentence.
And then B respond 「なんだよ」. this represents little sulking of B.(I don’t know “sulk” is correct word of ふてくされてる in English)
the reason why B is sulking is A change his attitude to “fight”. last night, A said「もうやめてくれ」 when B tried continued fighting, but tonight A is trying to continue fighting even though B says someone like what A said last night.
This is my interpretation as naive Japanese speaker.

For the first time I reed your sentence, I thought you translate some kinds of BL book. Sorry if I’m wrong. If you explain the whole situation, maybe I can explain this more accurate

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  • thank you for giving more explanation! (also its from a context where the two characters just like to fight a lot and have had a score to settle xD) The reason why I thought that the thing about B quoting himself, was that, because it is something written and quotation marks or other formatting on words can be used for emphasis. I actually thought of an example such as (imagine that I'm talking with a friend)<br> Friend: So, last night, what did you tell him? Me: I said, "no". I didn't need to say more. (This kind of situation, which I hope it makes sense) Commented Jul 6, 2019 at 19:48
  • @AliceB.Rabbit Oops! My mind is too dirty... So You mean you have read some kind of books or articles explaining that 「」can be used for emphasis? and the knowledge confuse you? Sorry my English skill is very poor.(>_<)
    – tatmius
    Commented Jul 6, 2019 at 20:04
  • It was just my assumption so I thought it's better to ask. And I understood what you said, you gave me more insight :) Commented Jul 6, 2019 at 23:29
  • @AliceB.Rabbit OK! I’m glad that I could help you!
    – tatmius
    Commented Jul 7, 2019 at 12:04

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