What does うさ晴らしとばかりに mean in this context?
up vote
9
down vote
favorite
I have read some similar answers, which mostly point out とばかりに as meaning "as if to say", but I am having trouble understanding this meaning in this excerpt I have from a manga I'm trying to read:
鬼は７００年の眠りから覚めるや否やうさ晴らしとばかりにオレに襲いかかってきた。
What I can make out of this, is this:
As soon as the demon wakes up from its 700 years of sleep うさ晴らしとばかりに it rushed on towards me.
Now, うさ晴らし means distraction... so the demon rushed on towards me as if it was distracted? I don't know how to give this meaning.
addition: Now that I'm rereading the sentence I have another question... shouldn't 覚める be in the past tense as well? Because the 'demon RUSHED on towards me as soon as it WOKE up'...
Thank you very much.
meaning
edited Nov 13 at 9:23
naruto
149k8141274
asked Nov 9 at 11:15
NeonGabu
1494
add a comment |
up vote
9
down vote
favorite
I have read some similar answers, which mostly point out とばかりに as meaning "as if to say", but I am having trouble understanding this meaning in this excerpt I have from a manga I'm trying to read:
鬼は７００年の眠りから覚めるや否やうさ晴らしとばかりにオレに襲いかかってきた。
What I can make out of this, is this:
As soon as the demon wakes up from its 700 years of sleep うさ晴らしとばかりに it rushed on towards me.
Now, うさ晴らし means distraction... so the demon rushed on towards me as if it was distracted? I don't know how to give this meaning.
addition: Now that I'm rereading the sentence I have another question... shouldn't 覚める be in the past tense as well? Because the 'demon RUSHED on towards me as soon as it WOKE up'...
Thank you very much.
meaning
edited Nov 13 at 9:23
naruto
149k8141274
asked Nov 9 at 11:15
NeonGabu
1494
add a comment |
up vote
9
down vote
favorite
up vote
9
down vote
favorite
I have read some similar answers, which mostly point out とばかりに as meaning "as if to say", but I am having trouble understanding this meaning in this excerpt I have from a manga I'm trying to read:
鬼は７００年の眠りから覚めるや否やうさ晴らしとばかりにオレに襲いかかってきた。
What I can make out of this, is this:
As soon as the demon wakes up from its 700 years of sleep うさ晴らしとばかりに it rushed on towards me.
Now, うさ晴らし means distraction... so the demon rushed on towards me as if it was distracted? I don't know how to give this meaning.
addition: Now that I'm rereading the sentence I have another question... shouldn't 覚める be in the past tense as well? Because the 'demon RUSHED on towards me as soon as it WOKE up'...
Thank you very much.
meaning
edited Nov 13 at 9:23
naruto
149k8141274
asked Nov 9 at 11:15
NeonGabu
1494
I have read some similar answers, which mostly point out とばかりに as meaning "as if to say", but I am having trouble understanding this meaning in this excerpt I have from a manga I'm trying to read:
鬼は７００年の眠りから覚めるや否やうさ晴らしとばかりにオレに襲いかかってきた。
What I can make out of this, is this:
As soon as the demon wakes up from its 700 years of sleep うさ晴らしとばかりに it rushed on towards me.
Now, うさ晴らし means distraction... so the demon rushed on towards me as if it was distracted? I don't know how to give this meaning.
addition: Now that I'm rereading the sentence I have another question... shouldn't 覚める be in the past tense as well? Because the 'demon RUSHED on towards me as soon as it WOKE up'...
Thank you very much.
meaning
meaning
edited Nov 13 at 9:23
naruto
149k8141274
asked Nov 9 at 11:15
NeonGabu
1494
edited Nov 13 at 9:23
naruto
149k8141274
asked Nov 9 at 11:15
NeonGabu
1494
edited Nov 13 at 9:23
naruto
149k8141274
edited Nov 13 at 9:23
naruto
149k8141274
edited Nov 13 at 9:23
naruto
149k8141274
149k8141274
asked Nov 9 at 11:15
NeonGabu
1494
asked Nov 9 at 11:15
NeonGabu
1494
asked Nov 9 at 11:15
NeonGabu
1494
1494
add a comment |
add a comment |
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
up vote
14
down vote
accepted
"Distraction" isn't really a very good translation of 憂さ晴らし. The word refers specifically to the act of doing something to take your mind off your own troubles (eg. drinking to distract yourself from the stress of work). It's kind of like "letting off steam". You can derive this meaning fairly easily from its component parts - 憂さ is a fancy word for "sadness", and to 晴らす is to clear something up, so an 憂さ晴らし is literally "clearing up your sadness" by doing something else.
So in this case, it sounds like the demon is rushing at the speaker as if to take out all of its pent-up frustration from being sealed away for 700 years on them.
As for the tense of 覚める, the structure ～や否や never takes a past-tense verb; the verb is always in plain form. This isn't particularly unusual - when linking multiple verbs together, it's usually only the final verb that needs to be marked for tense, since any other linked verbs take place relative to it. The same would apply if we were using a conditional like と (it's always 眠りから覚めると～, never 眠りから覚めたと～). And of course many ways of linking verbs, such as the basic て-form, don't even have any room for a past tense conjugation.
answered Nov 9 at 14:00
Ben Roffey
6,345315
So in this context とばかりに would be the ''as if'?
– NeonGabu
Nov 9 at 14:54
Yes, that's right.
– Ben Roffey
Nov 9 at 18:09
add a comment |
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
up vote
14
down vote
accepted
"Distraction" isn't really a very good translation of 憂さ晴らし. The word refers specifically to the act of doing something to take your mind off your own troubles (eg. drinking to distract yourself from the stress of work). It's kind of like "letting off steam". You can derive this meaning fairly easily from its component parts - 憂さ is a fancy word for "sadness", and to 晴らす is to clear something up, so an 憂さ晴らし is literally "clearing up your sadness" by doing something else.
So in this case, it sounds like the demon is rushing at the speaker as if to take out all of its pent-up frustration from being sealed away for 700 years on them.
As for the tense of 覚める, the structure ～や否や never takes a past-tense verb; the verb is always in plain form. This isn't particularly unusual - when linking multiple verbs together, it's usually only the final verb that needs to be marked for tense, since any other linked verbs take place relative to it. The same would apply if we were using a conditional like と (it's always 眠りから覚めると～, never 眠りから覚めたと～). And of course many ways of linking verbs, such as the basic て-form, don't even have any room for a past tense conjugation.
answered Nov 9 at 14:00
Ben Roffey
6,345315
So in this context とばかりに would be the ''as if'?
– NeonGabu
Nov 9 at 14:54
Yes, that's right.
– Ben Roffey
Nov 9 at 18:09
add a comment |
up vote
14
down vote
accepted
"Distraction" isn't really a very good translation of 憂さ晴らし. The word refers specifically to the act of doing something to take your mind off your own troubles (eg. drinking to distract yourself from the stress of work). It's kind of like "letting off steam". You can derive this meaning fairly easily from its component parts - 憂さ is a fancy word for "sadness", and to 晴らす is to clear something up, so an 憂さ晴らし is literally "clearing up your sadness" by doing something else.
So in this case, it sounds like the demon is rushing at the speaker as if to take out all of its pent-up frustration from being sealed away for 700 years on them.
As for the tense of 覚める, the structure ～や否や never takes a past-tense verb; the verb is always in plain form. This isn't particularly unusual - when linking multiple verbs together, it's usually only the final verb that needs to be marked for tense, since any other linked verbs take place relative to it. The same would apply if we were using a conditional like と (it's always 眠りから覚めると～, never 眠りから覚めたと～). And of course many ways of linking verbs, such as the basic て-form, don't even have any room for a past tense conjugation.
answered Nov 9 at 14:00
Ben Roffey
6,345315
So in this context とばかりに would be the ''as if'?
– NeonGabu
Nov 9 at 14:54
Yes, that's right.
– Ben Roffey
Nov 9 at 18:09
add a comment |
up vote
14
down vote
accepted
up vote
14
down vote
accepted
"Distraction" isn't really a very good translation of 憂さ晴らし. The word refers specifically to the act of doing something to take your mind off your own troubles (eg. drinking to distract yourself from the stress of work). It's kind of like "letting off steam". You can derive this meaning fairly easily from its component parts - 憂さ is a fancy word for "sadness", and to 晴らす is to clear something up, so an 憂さ晴らし is literally "clearing up your sadness" by doing something else.
So in this case, it sounds like the demon is rushing at the speaker as if to take out all of its pent-up frustration from being sealed away for 700 years on them.
As for the tense of 覚める, the structure ～や否や never takes a past-tense verb; the verb is always in plain form. This isn't particularly unusual - when linking multiple verbs together, it's usually only the final verb that needs to be marked for tense, since any other linked verbs take place relative to it. The same would apply if we were using a conditional like と (it's always 眠りから覚めると～, never 眠りから覚めたと～). And of course many ways of linking verbs, such as the basic て-form, don't even have any room for a past tense conjugation.
answered Nov 9 at 14:00
Ben Roffey
6,345315
"Distraction" isn't really a very good translation of 憂さ晴らし. The word refers specifically to the act of doing something to take your mind off your own troubles (eg. drinking to distract yourself from the stress of work). It's kind of like "letting off steam". You can derive this meaning fairly easily from its component parts - 憂さ is a fancy word for "sadness", and to 晴らす is to clear something up, so an 憂さ晴らし is literally "clearing up your sadness" by doing something else.
So in this case, it sounds like the demon is rushing at the speaker as if to take out all of its pent-up frustration from being sealed away for 700 years on them.
As for the tense of 覚める, the structure ～や否や never takes a past-tense verb; the verb is always in plain form. This isn't particularly unusual - when linking multiple verbs together, it's usually only the final verb that needs to be marked for tense, since any other linked verbs take place relative to it. The same would apply if we were using a conditional like と (it's always 眠りから覚めると～, never 眠りから覚めたと～). And of course many ways of linking verbs, such as the basic て-form, don't even have any room for a past tense conjugation.
answered Nov 9 at 14:00
Ben Roffey
6,345315
answered Nov 9 at 14:00
Ben Roffey
6,345315
answered Nov 9 at 14:00
Ben Roffey
6,345315
answered Nov 9 at 14:00
Ben Roffey
6,345315
6,345315
So in this context とばかりに would be the ''as if'?
– NeonGabu
Nov 9 at 14:54
Yes, that's right.
– Ben Roffey
Nov 9 at 18:09
add a comment |
So in this context とばかりに would be the ''as if'?
– NeonGabu
Nov 9 at 14:54
Yes, that's right.
– Ben Roffey
Nov 9 at 18:09
So in this context とばかりに would be the ''as if'?
– NeonGabu
Nov 9 at 14:54
So in this context とばかりに would be the ''as if'?
– NeonGabu
Nov 9 at 14:54
Yes, that's right.
– Ben Roffey
Nov 9 at 18:09
Yes, that's right.
– Ben Roffey
Nov 9 at 18:09
add a comment |
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
StackExchange.ready(
function () {
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fjapanese.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f62751%2fwhat-does-%25e3%2581%2586%25e3%2581%2595%25e6%2599%25b4%25e3%2582%2589%25e3%2581%2597%25e3%2581%25a8%25e3%2581%25b0%25e3%2581%258b%25e3%2582%258a%25e3%2581%25ab-mean-in-this-context%23new-answer', 'question_page');
}
);
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
