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I'm learning a song from the pillows

One Life, The first couple lines go:

青い芥子の花びらが 風もなく揺れてたら
Aoi keshi no hanabira ga Kaze mo naku yurete tara
If the blue poppy's petals sway without the wind...

But I don't get the grammar. is なく a the negative of ある? Is noun A が noun B もなく a way to say noun A without noun b?

Also the multiple verbs confuses me. When do you use multiple verbs and how do you organize them?

1 Answers1

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Yes, it's a form of ない. ない conjugates like an i-adjective, and なく is the 連用形 (aka ku-form, continuative-form) of ない. This form can work adverbially (i.e., as a verb modifier) in a sentence. For example, 彼女は元気なく答えた means "She responded cheerlessly". See: い-ADJECTIVE く FORM

As a sentence, 風もない means "There is not even wind" (or more literally, "even wind is nonexistent"). 風もなく is the adverb version of this, hence "(even) without wind".

There are not multiple verbs. The only true verb in this line is 揺れる. (ない is technically an auxiliary that conjugates like an i-adjective.)

naruto
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