1

それにしても役者は憑かれてよーが憑かれてまいが顔が怖いのはいかんともしがたいっつーのが痛し痒し！狼男の悲劇を思い出すぞコラァッ！！

This comes from a character who wakes up to somebody else intruding in her home and half-asleep she starts rambling stuff at the intruder seemingly out of context. I'm interested in the bolded part specifically. My attempt at a translation:

In any case, whether the actor is possessed or not, the fact that their face frightens me and is something I can't help really troubles me.

Not sure I'm on the right track here with いかんともしがたい and 痛し痒し completely throws me for a loop since as far as I know it's used with two choices in a "damned if I do, damned if I don't" kind of situation of which I can't really see any here.

Any ideas? :)

Improve this question

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
1

I think your translation is mostly right and your understanding of 痛し痒し is correct - so it is its use in the sentence that is incorrect. I think it means just annoying (= painful and itchy) here.

The sentence can be analyzed as

  • [ [顔が怖いの] は いかんともしがたいっつーの ] が 痛し痒し

So a translation would be

  • Nothing can be done about the face being frightening - it is annoying.

I'm not sure what exactly the context is, esp. about being possessed, and about what 狼男の悲劇 refers to. But my feeling is that the use of 痛し痒し is incorrect in the sentence anyway (a possible cause would be 憑かれていよーが憑かれてまいが, which sounds like a choice).

The translation something I can't help may be possible for いかんともしがたい, but I'm just not sure whether the situation is supposed to be in the speaker's control.

Improve this answer
7
  • Really, that whole sentence came entirely out of left field, before that she was talking about some sort of 雪山ホテルクローズドサークル thing, then came this. Looking up the character synopsis, she seems to fall asleep to movies and be heavily influenced by them in her sleep so that's probably what's going on here, random ramblings about the last movie(s) she saw. You wrote いたしかたない but is that the same as いかんともしがたい here or was that a typo? :) Interesting about 痛し痒し though, so they probably misused it or something like we'd misuse a word in English when we have the wrong idea of it, huh?
    – Boolicious
    Sep 29, 2021 at 11:58
  • 1
    @Boolicious: It is possible that by 痛し痒し she means the actor’s face looking scary is a mixed blessing for the movie. On the one hand, it is good that he looks scary when he (his role) is possessed. On the other hand, it’s not too good that he looks scary even when he is not. However, that’s something you cannot do anything about. Hence いかんともしがたい.
    – aguijonazo
    Sep 29, 2021 at 12:53
  • Oops, that’s my typo. Corrected.
    – sundowner
    Sep 29, 2021 at 12:54
  • To me @aguijonazo 's interpretation seems possible, but I can't read the sentence that way as it is. Maybe I would use 顔が怖いのは痛し痒しだがそこはいかんともしがたい.
    – sundowner
    Sep 29, 2021 at 13:43
  • It is of course the actor's face looking scary whether or not he is possessed that is いかんともしがたい and it is that fact that is 痛し痒し.
    – aguijonazo
    Sep 29, 2021 at 14:13

You must log in to answer this question.

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