It is from a light novel, it might be set a bit in the past, so maybe he wanted to make their Japanese sound a little "old-fashioned" (?). It's only the second page, so the scene isn't clear, yet.

As always, thank you Nagoyankee!

I should just call this "Help me, Nagoyankee" instead of "Translate this".

Can you (or anyone) explain the use of ならざる?

This is the sentence it came from:

人間ならざる者の優越感が、口ひげに囲まれた唇に過ぎった。


As always, thank you!

ならざる　is an old way of saying ならない、ではない、でない、etc. This form is still used by the better speakers and writers of our country today.

なる here pretty much means 'to be', and ざる serves to negate it. 人間ならざる者, therefore, means 'one that isn't human'.

The phrases most often heard using ざる would be:

帰らざる日々

思わざるできごと

～～と言わざるを得ない

Thanks, Nagoyankee...that makes 100% sense. It's funny you should say "the better speakers and writers" as it is the same writer that wrote that slightly messed up sentence a couple days ago...:D That is the nature of the "light novel".

I can understand "あたたかい灯がとまっている。" as a poetic expression. But I think as Nagoyankee said, "彼女を受けている" is obviously wrong in every respect even though it is a light novel or he wanted to make an archaic phrase.
Could you give me some context or the title? I'm just curious what he meant.

It may just be a straight-up error. Basically the girl in question used the chaos of a country in revolution to hide herself from the people looking for her.

thanks your reply.
hmm, Isn't that 彼女を受けいれる（入れる）?
If '彼女' escaped into that country to concealed herself,
or if she is a chaos-side character and 混沌 means a dark power(atmosphere) in fantasy's sense,
that makes sense.

She does have "dark powers", so maybe...yes. She is the queen of 翼手.

BLOOD+?
I'll browse in a bookstore tomorrow on my way home.

Yes. Blood+. That sentence is from the 4th book.

I'd checked Blood+4 in nearby bookstore, that said 彼女を受けいれる and made sense in that context.
Yours edition would have a misprint. btw I bought Vampire Hunter D, my boyhood's light novel.

Is this the same thing that applies to the phrase "動かざること、山の如し?"

Exactly, Harold. You know a cool phrase, too.

Oh ok, that's great. Thanks!

I wasn't quite sure what it meant when I bought a shirt that had the phrase on it, but I wanted to get it anyways because it was pretty much the only time and place I would be able to buy it...

Thank's Debezo, I didn't mean for you to go through all that trouble. Glad to hear it's a misprint.

And Vampire Hunter D is great!

no problem. I'm interested in recent light novels since I read 'What are light novels?' thread in other forum.
they have much better quality than I thought it would.

Some are hardly "light" at all. I think that name doesn't work as well in English.

Anyway...another question:


落ち着きを矢うことはなかった


I cannot find 矢う. Am I missing something?

Yes, except for the fact that 上から目線　is a noun while　見下ろす is a verb. The word 上から目線 has only been in use the last several years.


I'm not MMM but I do agree with you.

I came across this sentence and thought it was an interesting one because you would hardly ever structure a sentence like this in English so it took me a few glances to feel comfortable I understood it.

誤解のないように申し述べておくと心身の浄化を行なっ ても、上記の心の負の部分が消えてなくなるわけではな い。

I realize the context isn't clear, but I am mainly referring to the last 1/3 of the sentence 消えてなくなるわけではない

MMM, that's a very fine sentence-ending clause there. A++++ would read again. :)

No too sure if you wanted us to try translating that. In case you did, mine would be:

"In order for us to be free of misunderstnading, let me state that even if one purified one's mind and body, it wouldn't (automatically) mean that all the negativities in one's mind would completely disappear."

The なる in MMM's sentence and Nagoyankee's translation raised a new question in my mind:

名詞になる
名詞となる

These have the same meaning (to become SOME NOUN), but the former is a more gradual change, and the latter is more instantaneous change.

How do you do this with adjectives? Is it possible?
嬉しくなる
嬉しいとなる
Is the latter grammatically correct? I can't recall ever seeing such a construction, but I don't necessarily know a reason why it wouldn't be correct. I was always taught い形容詞＋に becomes い形容詞く. I never received similar instruction for い形容詞＋と.

Sorry, I wasn't looking for a translation, but your translation reiterates how this would be a tough sentence to get away with in English. It seems like there is actually more "flexibility" in published works in terms of sentence structure in Japanese than in English. (Length, double-negatives, etc.)

KyleGoetz,
On first example,
名詞になる and 名詞となる are almost same meaning and interchangeable.
名詞となる is used in limited situation such as writing or official situation.
名詞になる can use in any situation.

Second example,
嬉しくなる is OK,
嬉しいとなる (or 嬉しいになる) is NG.
It should be 嬉しいと思う or 嬉しいと感じる.
It is because of collocation, you should memorize with no reason.

Minmin, I understand how to use と with those other verbs (思う、感じる). I was just trying to figure out if you could use い形容詞＋となる. I've never seen it before, so I assumed not. You've confirmed my suspicion. I've known い形容詞＋動詞 turns the final い into く, which I think technically speaking turns it from い形容詞 into a 副詞. Actually, I think in the structure な形容詞に動詞, な形容詞に is an adverb, technically (it does modify a verb). But I could be mistaken.

And I'm confused by your statement that the first two are interchangeable. I distinctly remember a professor at my Japanese university explaining that になる and となる are differentiated in that the former is a more gradual change, while the latter is more rapid (nigh instantaneous). Was I taught wrong? I've been using it that way for many years now...

Edit I did a little searching and found this blurb:
This disappoints me. I was taught incorrectly and I've been using it wrong. I had believed what I was taught because most of my Japanese reading now is newspaper articles, and I've been seeing stuff like 大統領となる, where you would pretty much instantaneously become President. It's not a gradual thing, as opposed to 大人になる, which is gradual.

Edit 2: For some reason a few characters are becoming boxes when I hit the "save" button in the forum. I can see them just fine in the editing box, but they become boxes after submitting the comment. Weird.

Kilegoetz, please see below, this is conjugation of い形容詞 and な形容詞.

い形容詞(officially called 形容詞)
未然形－かろ (used when it is not decided.)
連用形－かっ・く・う (declinable word follows）
終止形－い (ending)
連体形－い (indeclinable word follows)
仮定形－けれ (subjunctive mood)
命令形－かれ (imperative form)

だ形容詞（you mention な形容詞, 形容動詞 is offcial）
未然形－だろ （でしょ）
連用形－だっ・で・に （でし）
終止形－だ （です）
連体形－な （です）
仮定形－なら
命令形－

Therefore, 嬉しくなる：い形容詞連用形＋動詞終止形 and 嬉しく is not adverb.
Likewise, な形容詞に is not adverb.

Unfortunately, you　were taught wrong. As I said になる and　となる is interchangeable in almost all case.
To say in addition, 大統領となる/大人となる sounds strange when you use as spoken language.

Wondering if anyone has seen a good English (or French) translation of this new term in Japanese.

加齢臭

Merci d'avance!

Rikaichan says "Distinctive body odor of the middle-aged and elderly"

Old people smell?

Thanks, jesselt!

I actually knew what the word meant as I hear it in the media everyday now. I was wondering if there was a technical English counterpart.

Jesselt left off the part that said "(caused by the chemical nonenal)." 2-Nonenal - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Is that what you were looking for? Otherwise, "body odor" qualified with "of the elderly" or the like is probably about as neutral as you can get. I've never heard it referred to as anything other than "old people/man/lady smell" since mentioning it in a non-scientific context seems kind of crude.

Yes, I know of no technical term, but the slightly offensive (you wouldn't say it around an elderly person) "old lady/man/person smell" is what people say. I usually say "old man smell" or "old person smell." I've heard people say "lady," but I don't think it's that common.

The most polite way I know of saying it is "it smells like mothballs."