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ただ、直さないのか直せないのか、悲しさが悔しさになって、意地と好意を微妙な塩梅でオーバーラップさせてやり返す根性の曲がり具合と意地の強さが本当にダメ人間。

Source: https://komachi.yomiuri.co.jp/t/2019/0627/904351.htm?g=04

If I divide the sentence into parts,

ただ、直さないのか直せないのか、悲しさが悔しさになって

It's just that, the question/problem of whether it cannot be fixed or I cannot fix it, has turned my sadness into frustration

意地と好意を微妙な塩梅でオーバーラップさせてやり返す根性の曲がり具合と意地の強さが

This problem has made my pride/obstinacy/stubbornness and my kindness/friendliness turn into this weird combination where there is an overlap between the will to do it all over again i.e., fix this and my strong obstinacy/stubbornness.

本当にダメ人間。

I am a good for nothing human.

I don't know if my translation for the second part is correct but the way the second part connects with the third is something that I have trouble understanding. Why does 強さが abruptly end with ダメ人間. I thought the second part was an attributive clause but the が ending makes me think otherwise.

Thank you :)

vadasambar
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  • Maybe for a full correct sentence there should have been something like "あるわたしは”, between which would have made it clearer that the description in the 2nd part was her describing herself and making the conclusion. A separate question is to what extent is makes sense to analyze the sentence structures taken from komachi. If she knew that her post was chopped into pieces and analyzed on this forum, she would probably be surprised (not in a positive way), so I also feel a bit bad to even have sent this comment. – Tuomo Jul 02 '19 at 14:37
  • Thank you @Tuomo. How do you understand a sentence without analyzing it ? And how do you ask a question without knowing what you do not understand i.e., without analyzing it ? – vadasambar Jul 03 '19 at 03:32
  • of course I understand, and I "am also guilty" as I commented even while thinking I that if I wrote something like that on some non-language forum, I would be surprised if I found the sentence being used for study purposes. – Tuomo Jul 03 '19 at 12:57
  • I do not understand what you are saying. – vadasambar Jul 04 '19 at 03:27
  • I thought your "How do you understand a sentence without analyzing it ?" was criticizing my comment [QUOTE START] "A separate question is to what extent is makes sense to analyze the sentence structures taken from komachi. If she knew that her post was chopped into pieces and analyzed on this forum, she would probably be surprised (not in a positive way), so I also feel a bit bad to even have sent this comment [QUOTE END], I was just feeling bad that we were using someone's personal post as a tool to help improve our Japanese skills. – Tuomo Jul 04 '19 at 07:44
  • Personal post does not make sense. It was posted on a public forum by an anonymous user. I do not understand why you are feeling bad about it. – vadasambar Jul 05 '19 at 03:22

1 Answers1

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直さないのか直せないのか、
(I don't know) whether I won't fix it (=my bad habit described as follows) or I cannot fix it, (but) ...

This part is a comment that can be understood independently.

～が本当にダメ人間。
I am a terribly useless person because of ～.
～ indicates I am a really hopeless person.
～ is why I call myself a useless person.

This part is a little tricky and I don't know which is the best way to explain it logically, but she is essentially describing the reason why she thinks she is a ダメ人間.

Everything else (the content of ～) is the reason part. The main reason is this noun phrase:

根性の曲がり具合と意地の強さ
my distorted and stubborn character

Which is modified by the following long relative clause (as a gap-less relative clause similar to 勝つ意志 or よく笑う性格):

悲しさが悔しさになって、意地と好意を微妙な塩梅でオーバーラップさせてやり返す
my sadness/shock (of being dumped by a man) becomes a revengeful feeling, and I (always try to) strike him back with a fine balance of obstinacy and affection

This is a rather unique and perplexing expression, and it's hard to grasp the intended meaning without fully understanding the context. Basically this clause is a rephrasing of what's mentioned in the first half of her post, 振られた男性を惚れさせて振り返す. Whenever she was dumped by someone, she has always made him love her again and then dumped him back, just in order to satisfy her vanity.

naruto
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  • I did not know that が could be used this way too. Thank you! – vadasambar Jul 03 '19 at 03:26
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    @retrazil Well, 根性の曲がり具合がダメ人間だ is not really well-formed in that the subject and the predicate do not match. Still, I somehow feel this is acceptable at least as a colloquial sentence. I cannot explain why I feel so... – naruto Jul 03 '19 at 14:53