Japanese with Manga

Can't die in peace yet with 死んでも死にきれん

Grammar Explanation: Unable to finish with 〜きれない (Future entry)

The theater's elderly owner smiles with his eyes closed. Behind him, an old film plays to a packed audience.
名探偵コナン » Volume 23 » Page 56

The elderly owner of a small, struggling movie theater had planned to sell it after its final showing. Once a murder there is solved, the Detective Boys tell him how much they love movies, and he runs the monster film Gomera just for them. Watching them cheer at the screen, he decides not to sell after all.

館主(かんしゅ):
「すっかり忘(わす)れておったわい…　初(はじ)めて映画(えいが)に魅(み)せられたあの胸(むね)の高鳴(たかな)りを…　あふれんばかりの喝采(かっさい)に包(つつ)まれたあの空間(くうかん)を…」
“I'd forgotten all about it... the way my heart raced the first time a movie captivated me... that whole room wrapped in overflowing applause...”
館主(かんしゅ):
「このままでは死(し)んでも死(し)にきれん…」
“If it ended like this, I could never die in peace...”

Key Points

1死(し)んでも死(し)にきれん, “I could never die in peace”
  • The phrase repeats the verb in the 〜ても〜きれない frame. 死(し)んでも is “even if I died”, and 死(し)にきれない is “I couldn’t finish dying”, meaning he couldn’t truly be at rest.
  • It’s a set phrase for a regret strong enough to keep you from resting in peace. Something important would still be left undone.
  • きれん is きれない with the older negative ん. It suits the speech of an elderly man.
2このままでは, “if things stay as they are”
  • このまま is “the way things are”, and では makes it a condition with a bad outcome. Here, it means selling the theater without seeing it full again.
3Old-man speech
  • 忘(わす)れておった uses おる where most speakers would say いる: 忘(わす)れていた, “I had forgotten”. わい at the end is an old-fashioned sentence ending.
4あふれんばかりの喝采(かっさい), “overflowing applause”
  • 〜んばかり means “as if about to”. あふれんばかり is “as if about to overflow”. It describes how loud the applause used to be.

Vocabulary

(Completely)

すっかり describes a change that has gone all the way, so that nothing of the earlier state is left, as in すっかり忘(わす)れる, “forget entirely”.

(To forget)

忘(わす)れる is to forget something. It also means to leave something behind by mistake.

(To be)

おる is a humble or polite form of いる. In western Japanese dialects, it is the everyday word for いる, and after a て-form verb it shows an ongoing action.

(For the first time)

初(はじ)めて describes doing something for the first time.

(Film)

映画(えいが) is a movie, a story told in moving pictures shown on a screen.

(To captivate)

魅(み)せる is to captivate or enchant someone. 魅(み)せられる is to be captivated by something.

(That)

あの comes before a noun to mean “that” or “those”. It points to someone or something away from both speakers, or something they both know about.

(Chest)

胸(むね) is the chest. It also stands for the heart and one’s feelings, as in 胸(むね)の高鳴(たかな)り, a heart pounding with excitement.

(Pounding)

高鳴(たかな)り is a loud ringing or pounding, especially of the heart when someone is excited.

(To overflow)

あふれる is to spill over because something is too full. It also describes crowds, or feelings that can’t be contained. It is also written 溢(あふ)れる.

(To wrap)

包(つつ)む is to wrap something up or cover it completely. It is also used for a sound or atmosphere that surrounds someone.

(As is)

このまま means “the way things are now”. このままでは is “if things go on like this”, usually warning of a bad result.

(To die)

死(し)ぬ is to die. In casual speech, 死んじゃう exaggerates a hardship: “it’ll kill me”.

See Also

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