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Sentence translation help (「そう長く生きていない」「まだここに来て日の浅い」)

Japanese Language Asked by seryou on October 25, 2021

I was having trouble translating this sentence, specifically the last part:

だが、そう長く生きていないとはいえ、人生の半分以上をここで暮らし、また言葉を操る『言ノ葉使い』である僕には彼がまだここに来て日の浅い使用人であることが分かった。

I understand that 「長く生きていないとはいえ」 means something along the lines of ‘although I haven’t lived that long’, however I’m not sure about the function of ‘そう’ in that sentence. I translated the next part as ‘living here for over half my life’, and the next one is about him being able to use ‘Kotonoha’ to manipulate words. However the last part confuses me a bit, specifically the use of ‘まだ’, and also the use of te-form in ‘来て日’.

Also ‘浅い’ usually translates to ‘shallow’, but can it be translated to ‘young’ in this context?

One Answer

  • そう corresponds to that in "that long". It's interchangeable with そんなに and それほど.

    そう簡単ではない。 = そんなに簡単ではない。
    It's not that easy.

  • (te-form) + 日が + 浅い is a set phrase meaning "it hasn't been long (since ~)". の is replacing が because this part is in a relative clause. まだ is simply still or yet, and is often used with this set phrase.

    彼はここに来て日が浅い。
    It hasn't been long since he came here.

    The sentence is about the time after he came, not about his age.

Answered by naruto on October 25, 2021

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