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ここにいたとはあなたは幸いでした。
It was fortunate that you were here. (given translation)

This sentence looks like gibberish to me. If it is indeed good Japanese could you please explain what とは is doing, and the seemingly bizarre placement of あなた?

I assume it must be some kind of quotative と. If so, does it go with 幸い or is there an implied phrase that has been omitted (I cannot think of anything)?

Edit:

So the suggested duplicates perfectly answer the とは part of the question but, as you can see from the comment thread below, I'm still struggling with this sentence.

There is no context; it was a stand-alone sentence. I'm envisaging a scenario where person X rescues person Y from some predicament.

  1. Who says this sentence?

  2. Who is the subject of ここにいた?

  3. Does あなたは belong to ここにいた or 幸いでした or both?

I assume あなたは must go with 幸いでした. To move it after the verb in ここにいた seems too improbable. Therefore I read the sentence as "You were fortunate that (someone) was here. This means that X is the one saying the sentence, in contradiction to the given translation. A plausible translation then seems to be for X to be saying:

To think I (X) was here. You (Y) were fortunate.

Another option could be for X to be saying:

To think you (Y) were here. You (Y) were fortunate.

i.e. if you had been anywhere else then I (X) would not have been in the right place to rescue you. This seems much less likely

The remaining options involve Y saying the sentence.

To think you (X) were here. I (Y) was fortunate.

This one doesn't seem to work with the position of あなたは, but does match the given translation.

To think you (X) were here. You (X) were the bringer of good fortune.

This one works with the position of あなたは but relies on a totally different understanding of 幸いでした.

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  • What do you find bizarre in the placement of あなたは?
    – jarmanso7
    May 2, 2022 at 22:25
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    This sentence sounds a little pompous (like an upper class gentleman in fiction), but perfectly natural at least in novels.
    – naruto
    May 3, 2022 at 2:23
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    Ah, the given translation is a little off - it's more 'You were fortunate to be here'
    – Angelos
    May 3, 2022 at 2:23
  • @Angelos Sorry but I'm still having a tough time with this. I'm now not sure who the speaker is in this sentence. From your comment it sounds like あなた goes with 幸いでした rather than ここにいた, and that seems like the only sensible conclusion given it's position. But does that mean that the person saying this sentence is the one doing the rescuing i.e. "You were lucky I was here". I had originally assumed it was spoken by the person being rescued, as in the given translation.
    – user3856370
    May 3, 2022 at 18:27
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    Read it like "So you've been here, (that means) you were/are lucky!" For example, you may say this when you find your acquaintance is reading a book at a safe basement without knowing the town is being attacked by monsters. Note that this た is modal-ta, so it can be translated either as "you were here and you were lucky" or "you are here and you are lucky".
    – naruto
    May 4, 2022 at 16:38

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