# 必死の彼は手段を選ぶ余裕を失っていた



## Njckfurybbq

Hi everyone,
How can I understand the meaning of the bold line? Context: A is telling the others about his past when he killed his own friend in a match. This comes from a game.

A: タルニガスの力は私には及ばなかった。勝負は無難に決着するはずだった. だが*必死の彼は手段を選ぶ余裕を失っていた*


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## thetazuo

My try:
He was so desperate that he lost the time to choose the means (he could only resort to few means).


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## Flaminius

*tazuo*, 余裕 is not just time.  It's difficult to find a one-for-all noun translation in English, so I gloss over my inability by approximating with a verb phrase, "to afford to."  It is pretty close to 余裕がある.

Tarnigas was out-ranked by the speaker, and hoped to win by dirty strategies.


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## SoLaTiDoberman

必死の彼は手段を選ぶ余裕を失っていた。
=必死の彼は余裕を失い*手段を選ばなかった*。　(手段を選ばない is an idiom or set phrase.)
=必死の彼は余裕を失い*卑怯な手段*を使った。
=必死の彼は余裕を失い*反則技*を使った。(←スポーツやゲームの場合）



_However, he was so desperate that he wasn't able to choose a fair/legal/right method.
=However, he was so desperate that he had to choose an unfair method._


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## gengo

Njckfurybbq said:


> A: タルニガスの力は私には及ばなかった。勝負は無難に決着するはずだった. だが*必死の彼は手段を選ぶ余裕を失っていた*



My version:
Tarnigas was no match for me.  The victor was supposed to be decided without any bloodshed, but in the throes of desperation, {he lost sight of that and got carried away / he no longer cared what he had to do to win}.

I suppose the idea is that Tarnigas forgot that he was supposed to lose gracefully, and instead threw himself headlong into the fight, determined to do anything to win, which cost him his life.


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## SoLaTiDoberman

＠＃５：
「私」が今ここで生きてしゃべっているのだから、この文脈は、なぜ「私」が「タルニガス」をゲームの中で殺すに至ったかを説明している途中の文章なのだとわかりますよね。（＃１の提示が正しいことが前提ですが。）
「タルニガスが手段を選ばず、ルール違反な技をしかけてくるので、私もそれに反撃せざるを得ず、その結果、私が彼を殺害するに至ってしまったのだ。」的な文脈のはずですよね。

”, which cost him his life”は、それを簡潔に言い表しているように思いますが、この英語を読んで、ネイティブ英語話者はそういう文脈であると理解できるのですね？


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## gengo

SoLaTiDoberman said:


> 「私」が今ここで生きてしゃべっているのだから、この文脈は、なぜ「私」が「タルニガス」をゲームの中で殺すに至ったかを説明している途中の文章なのだとわかりますよね。（＃１の提示が正しいことが前提ですが。）


Right.


SoLaTiDoberman said:


> 「タルニガスが手段を選ばず、ルール違反な技をしかけてくるので、私もそれに反撃せざるを得ず、その結果、私が彼を殺害するに至ってしまったのだ。」的な文脈のはずですよね。


Right.


SoLaTiDoberman said:


> ”, which cost him his life”は、それを簡潔に言い表しているように思いますが、この英語を読んで、ネイティブ英語話者はそういう文脈であると理解できるのですね？


Well, it's my attempt to convey the idea that Tarnigas and the speaker were supposed to fight/compete (I don't know what the "match" consisted of), and it was supposed to end without either one getting hurt, but Tarnigas got too caught up in the fight and forced the speaker to defend himself and eventually kill Tarnigas.  My suggested translations didn't include "cost him his life," but I think you could probably work that into a translation as well.  

There are many ways to translate the OP's sentence.  As Flaminius said above, 余裕 can be difficult to translate into English.  For example, "そんな余裕がない" could translate to "I don't have time for that," but it's not always about time, and could refer instead to being mentally occupied, physically exhausted, etc.


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## SoLaTiDoberman

gengo said:


> My version:
> Tarnigas was no match for me.  The victor was supposed to be decided without any bloodshed, but in the throes of desperation, {he lost sight of that and got carried away / he no longer cared what he had to do to win}.
> 
> I suppose the idea is that Tarnigas forgot that he was supposed to lose gracefully, and instead threw himself headlong into the fight, determined to do anything to win*, which cost him his life.*


　Are you sure?


gengo said:


> Well, it's my attempt to convey the idea that Tarnigas and the speaker were supposed to fight/compete (I don't know what the "match" consisted of), and it was supposed to end without either one getting hurt, but Tarnigas got too caught up in the fight and *forced the speaker to defend himself and eventually kill Tarnigas.* My suggested translations didn't include "cost him his life," but I think you could probably work that into a translation as well.
> 
> There are many ways to translate the OP's sentence.  As Flaminius said above, 余裕 can be difficult to translate into English.  For example, "そんな余裕がない" could translate to "I don't have time for that," but it's not always about time, and could refer instead to being mentally occupied, physically exhausted, etc.


BTW, does the bold part means 正当防衛, right?


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## gengo

SoLaTiDoberman said:


> Are you sure?


I'm always willing to be proven wrong, but that's how I understand it.


SoLaTiDoberman said:


> BTW, does the bold part means 正当防衛, right?


Right.  If the speaker hadn't fought back, he would have been hurt or killed himself.


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## SoLaTiDoberman

Oh, there is a minor miscommunication happening here, I think.

I think your translation *did include* the expression ", _which cost him his life_." in your post #5. You wrote it in #5 first.
So I asked about it in #6.
Then you answered in #7 that your translation *didn't include the "which cost him his life."*
Therefore, I asked "_are you sure?"_ in #8.

Then you answered, _"I'm always willing to be proven wrong, but that's how I understand it."_ in #9, whose meaning I couldn't understand.
Could you say that in another way or in Japanese?
If it were "that's how I underst*oo*d it", I could understand.


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## gengo

SoLaTiDoberman said:


> I think your translation *did include* the expression ", _which cost him his life_." in your post #5. You wrote it in #5 first.


ポスト＃５に提供した翻訳は以下のものです。
...in the throes of desperation, {he lost sight of that and got carried away / he no longer cared what he had to do to win}.
"Which cost him his life" という文書はそれに含まれていません。
英訳の真下に出る文書は翻訳ではなく、単なるコメントです。



SoLaTiDoberman said:


> Then you answered, _"I'm always willing to be proven wrong, but that's how I understand it."_ in #9, whose meaning I couldn't understand.
> Could you say that in another way or in Japanese?
> If it were "that's how I underst*oo*d it", I could understand.


現在形を使ったのは、初めて読んだときから今現在まで "understand" という動詞の効果が続くからです。

分かりにくい英語だったら、ごめんなさい。


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## SoLaTiDoberman

Now I understand what was going on here.
I was confused to use "your comment/post/interpretation" and "your translation."
My fault. I apologize to you.
I wanted to ask if the expression "which cost him his life" could convey the meaning that he was killed by the speaker in the end.

Now it's clear. And I don't have any more questions. Thank you for taking your precious time. 

In that case, the "understand, not understood" makes sense, of course.
I thought you thought you didn't mention "which cost him his life" in your post.
I thought you misunderstood it somehow.


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## gengo

No problem.  I'm glad we're back on the same page again.


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