半生缘

[Jim]

I'm not sure either, I think it means he has one side-wing where it's all connected inside (as opposed to having the doors open onto the yard or corridor as is common), so might be partitioned into, e.g., three inside. Stuck with Bing for searches here so could only find it appearing here, also in Shanghai, maybe it's a local turn of phrase?

在一座鸽子笼似的弄堂房里，住着六户人家：楼上统厢房住的是已被停职的某丝厂职员袁瑞三（王献斋饰）和他的会做人的太太（舒绣文饰）...

..使他异常焦急；楼下统厢房住的是范思全夫妇，男的在一家木器店当跑街，但拉不到生意，女的多产又多病，整天守着一群孩子；后客堂住的则是二房东吕老太婆和她的喜欢赌博的儿子。.

https://maoyan.com/films/207068

That at least suggests 统厢房 is a concept.

[Fred0]

Your theory that 统厢房 is a concept sounds right. Here's a quote I found on Google books that seems to suggest that a 统厢房 is a type of apartment. Maybe 统 has the implication of a unit, so a 统厢房 would be a side-wing of a bigger house separated off as a rental unit. What do you think? Likely a Shanghainese expression?

 

"施存统住在楼下统厢房,中间客堂间作餐厅。楼上正房住的是瞿云白,统厢房放着秋白的几架书,秋白和剑虹住在统厢房后面的一间小房里,我住在过街楼上的小房里。"

[Jim]

Wouldn't be surprised to learn it's Shanghainese, every city had its own turns of phrase and the linguistic differences only exacerbated that. I more and more suspect it's a larger mansion sub-let into multiple occupancy and now each wing in rented out as a unit, sort of like the way Georgian mansions in Dublin became tenements. Interested to know the correct answer, which is why I enjoy your questions here!

[Fred0]

Mrs. Gu, running from the war, has arrived back to Shanghai and has found her son's home, where he lives with his

wife and mother-in-law in one room where a partition has been built to create a separate space for the mother-in-law,

Mrs. Tao, who feels somewhat embarrassed (in the presence of her son-in-law's mother) to be living in a space that is being provided by her son-in-law. 

She is very eager, moreso than her daughter, to be hospitable to her son-in-law's mother, but she is being careful not to be too solicitous.

Her behavior is fluctuating between that of the guest who is playing host (to Mrs. Gu), to acting, to the contrary, as though

she were being made to feel unhappy by her counterpart (the other mother-in-law). As a result, it's a rather difficult to situation to manage.

Mrs. Gu only feels that her manner is unnatural, she goes from being hospitable to being cooly indifferent.

她找到伟民家里，伟民他们只住着一间房，另用板壁隔出一小间，作为他丈母娘陶太太下榻的地方。

那陶太太见了顾太太，心中便有些惭恧，觉得她这是雀巢鸠占了。

她很热心地招待亲家母，比她的女儿还要热心些，但是又得小心不能太殷勤了，

变了反客为主，或者反而叫对方感到不快，因此倒弄得左右为难。

顾太太只觉得她的态度很不自然，一会儿亲热，一会儿又淡淡的。

 

My question is about 或者反而叫对方感到不快. ( I am reading 叫 as indicating passive voice.)  Is Mrs. Tao being made to feel unhappy by her counterpart Mrs. Gu,  or is Mrs. Gu being made unhappy by Mrs. Tao?  Is the following clause, 因此倒弄得左右为难, saying that the situation is difficult to manage for Mrs. Tao, or Mrs. Gu?  The preceeding clause would suggest that it is Mrs. Tao who is having a difficult time. I also don't see how to read 变了 followed by 或者. She was transformed into the guest playing the host, or she was being made to feel unhappy by the her counterpart, Mrs. Gu.  Finally, what does 左右 mean in this context?

[Fred0]

顾太太总觉得她们只多着她一个人。

 

The translation says that Mrs. Gu could see that the two women were afraid that she would move in with them. How does this sentence say that?

[Jim]

I think you need all of this: 但是又得小心不能太殷勤了，变了反客为主，或者反而叫对方感到不快，因此倒弄得左右为难。

It's Mrs Gu who might be made unhappy - Mrs Tao "is careful not to be too solicitous, because if she acted like the host while really a guest she might end up making her unhappy instead...". I think the confusion arises because there's no explicit "if", it is there in the syntax rather than the vocabulary.

 

顾太太总觉得她们只多着她一个人。

Certainly doesn't say what your translation has, it's something like "Mrs Gu had the feeling that she was the only spare wheel/extraneous person in the situation." i.e. she was the only one there wasn't naturally room for. In context the translation might be a gloss that works I suppose.

[Fred0]

So  叫 in that sentence means "to make," or "to cause?"  

 

[Jim]

Yes.

[Fred0]

That all makes sense. Thanks very much.  How would you translate 左右 in the next sentence: 因此倒弄得左右为难?  Rather? Somewhat?

[Jim]

左右为难 is a set phrase: https://www.zdic.net/hans/左右为难 though if you break down the Classical there it's more literally "either choice brought difficulties", not knowing which way to turn for the best etc.

[Fred0]

Gu taitai is telling Manzhen that Mujin did not come to see her even when the war was at her doorstep in her house outside the city. She says that even then Mujin did not come to check on how she was faring.

 

等到打仗了，风声越来越紧，我一个人住在城外，他问也不来问一声。

 

I don't understand why the sentence has 问 twice. Should I read this as "With regard to him coming to see me (他问。。。）also (then even) he didn't come to see me (也不来问一声)?" Is this a topic- comment sentence structure with 他问 as the topic and 也不来问 as the comment?

[Jim]

It's a repetition for emphasis, similar to here but with the 连 dropped: https://resources.allsetlearning.com/chinese/grammar/Advanced_uses_of_"lian"

 

Here's an example of the same structure with the verb 看: https://www.douban.com/group/topic/153568793/ It really emphasises that the person hasn't even bothered watching

[Fred0]

Manzhen, in the process of trying to plan her divorce from Hongcai while the Japanese have occupied Shanghai, and honest businesses are at a standstill, thinks about trying to find a job:

 

现在这时候出去找事，时机可以说是不能再坏了，一切正当的营业都在停顿状态中，各处只有裁人，决没有添人的。

而且她已经不是那么年青了，她还有那种精神，能够在没有路中间打出一条路来吗？

 

-what does 不能再坏 mean?  “...cannot (could not?) be again (this) bad?”

 

-what does 能够在没有路中间打出一条路来吗？...enough, in the middle of  there being no road to hit,  a road comes?  Is this saying, when the situation is hopeless (without opportunities) does she have enough energy to (nevertheless) find and job?

[roddy]

再 before an adjective = more. So "couldn't be more bad", "couldn't be worse" .

 

打 can mean to create, make...

 

So something like "create a path for herself where none existed."

 

[Fred0]

The Shen family- mother, son (Shijun), wife (Caizhi), and widowed sister-in-law of Shijun  (大少奶奶） and her son- was not getting along, so split up with sister-in-law and her son getting their own place, and mother going with Shijun and Caizhi to live in Shanghai. The mother is unhappy in the new arangement, which she was instrumental in arranging, and frequently escapes back to Nanjing where she stays with her brothers.

她一直想回南京去，又怕被大少奶奶讪笑，笑她那样帮着二房里，结果人家自己去组织小家庭了，她还是被人家挤走了。

She wants to return to Nanjing, but she fears that her daughter-in-law will ridicule her for helping (to establish) a second family home.

The result is, the ones she helped to organize a little family, she is now, by them, being squeezed out.

 

Question 1: Is this a correct translation?

Question2: What is 里 doing there?  Does it mean “in which she is now living?”

[Jim]

My guess with the 里 is that it's because 着 is working as a verb "to arrange, set up" (so "set up...in) and the 二房 carries that slightly heavier sense of being a new/second branch of the family (https://www.zdic.net/hans/二房) - "laughing at the way she'd helped set them up in their new branch of the family only to be forced out"

[Fred0]

Shijun's domineering wife, although she says that he spoils the children, nevertheless when he tries to correct them, she protects them, The dog has been tied up in the storage room, where Shijun's books have also been thrown on the floor to make room for their guest to sleep in Shijun's study, and now the dog is busy chewing up the books. Shijun is scolding the dog, and his daughter, also angry at the dog has picked up a large volume and is about to throw it at the dog when Shijun intervenes and takes the book away from her. At that moment his wife walks in and begins to criticize him, saying:

 

“你看，你这人怎么跟小孩子一样见识，她拿本书玩玩，就给她玩玩好了，又引得她哭！”

 

How do I understand the word 见识？

 

You see, you are a person who has how much the same experience of the world as a child, or who is no more sensible than a child (yourself)？

 

Also, it seems like 引 here take the meaning "to lead?"  You lead her to cry, as in English you would say you made her cry?

 

[roddy]

The 'sensibleness' definition for 见识 I see in the dictionary seems to get the idea across best. 

 

引  has 'make' and 'induce' definitions, which suit here. 

[Fred0]

This is the zdic definition of the phrase 再行.

 

谓另外进行某项活动。用于动词前。

 

My best understanding of this is "you use this to indicate that there is something additional to add to some process which is already underway- to be used before a verb." Would someone check this and improve on it if indicated..

 

The word 活动 puzzles me. What is it's meaning in this sentence?  I am thinking "to use or employ."

[Jim]

Here it's "activity" or similar - "to conduct an additional instance of a certain activity"