Whose regrets?

[Lu]

Main character in the novel I'm translating is living with his retired aunt, who never married. Aunt could have left with 小唐 at some point, when main character was still a boy, but didn't: she couldn't bring herself to leave main character with his vicious grandmother (aunt's mother), so she got off the train at the last minute. Main character didn't actually ask her not to leave, but did imply that he would get himself in trouble if she went away. Now she still occasionally mulls over whether she should have gone with 小唐. She can spend long evenings asking herself two questions:

 

一个是小唐后来过得幸不幸福，这个问题还有一个衍生问题，就是她当时应不应该跟小唐一起走。随即会引发对我的怨恨，要是我说是谁说自己不后悔的，她就会说，看看你现在是什么鬼样子，继而爆发激烈的争吵。

 

I don't get what 要是我说是谁说自己不后悔的 means here. The author likes to use direct quotes without quotation marks and that might be happening here too, but I'm not sure. Mainly I'm not sure who 自己 is here.

 

Can anyone help?

[amytheorangutan]

The way I read it would be 要是我說 「是誰說自己不後悔的」as in “who doesn’t have regrets?”  Or “who would say they don’t have regrets?” As in everyone have regrets. 

[pinion]

1 hour ago, amytheorangutan said:

要是我說 「是誰說自己不後悔的」

I agree with @amytheorangutan's parsing above, but I think the implication is that the aunt has claimed in the past that she doesn't regret anything, and yet here she is resenting the main character over this decision she allegedly doesn't regret. So it's, "Who was it that said they didn't have any regrets? [It was you.]"

[amytheorangutan]

@pinionactually this makes more sense now that I think about it haha that would definitely cause a 爆發激烈的爭吵 

[Lu]

Thanks both! I'll go with that, and I'll keep an eye on this thread in case someone else chimes in.

[matteo]

I read it slightly differently but I could be completely wrong...

 

The Aunt mulls over whether she should have gone with 小唐 and whether 小唐 is happy or not.

Immediately, this sparks resentment towards the main character (who is also the narrator). If the main character tries to play down the situation or cheer up the Aunt by saying something on the lines of "who doesn't have regrets (get over it)", she doesn't take it well and they fight. 

[Jim]

No, @pinion has it right, it's not even ambiguous.

[amytheorangutan]

This actually worries me a bit, how much I’ve misinterpreted the books I’ve read ??

[pinion]

Haha, I know that feeling!

 

I think this case is one of those particularly Chinese forms of expression, up there with "誰讓..." Just takes some getting used to.

[Lu]

16 hours ago, amytheorangutan said:

This actually worries me a bit, how much I’ve misinterpreted the books I’ve read

You'll have missed something here and there. That can't be helped. The only thing is to keep reading.