# Meaning of ～ざらまし in this sentence **URL:** \ **Category:** Questions\ **Created:** [March 29, 2019, 1:20am UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/meaning-of-%EF%BD%9E%E3%81%96%E3%82%89%E3%81%BE%E3%81%97-in-this-sentence/35846 "2019-03-29T01:20:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![wonderousish](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/wonderousish/32/55154_2.png) [@wonderousish](https://community.wanikani.com/u/wonderousish)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2019, 1:20am UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/meaning-of-%EF%BD%9E%E3%81%96%E3%82%89%E3%81%BE%E3%81%97-in-this-sentence/35846/1 "2019-03-29T01:20:44Z")
Hello, I’m translating this song and I’m a bit stumped by this line: 虹色に目眩まし鬼ころし **ただただ人をも身をも恨みざらまし** I know ～まし is used to mean something is better than an alternative, and in finding one other example that ended in ～ざらまし, the meaning was, “if it were not ~”, but I don’t know if that makes any sense in this context? The song is about Mothra and is talking about the Mothra v. Godzilla movie. The first line is talking about killing demons. The second one is… something about (the demons?) hating people maybe. Does ~zaramashi have any specific meaning or what might it mean in this context? ---
**Author:** ![Leebo](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/leebo/32/439476_2.png) [@Leebo](https://community.wanikani.com/u/Leebo)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2019, 1:27am UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/meaning-of-%EF%BD%9E%E3%81%96%E3%82%89%E3%81%BE%E3%81%97-in-this-sentence/35846/2 "2019-03-29T01:27:17Z")
ざらまし is classical Japanese, from the quick googling I just did. > **[ざらましの意味 - 古文辞書 - Weblio古語辞典](https://kobun.weblio.jp/content/%E3%81%96%E3%82%89%E3%81%BE%E3%81%97)** > > ざらましの意味。・分類連語（もし…ならば）…なかっただろうに。出典古今集 恋二「思ひつつ寝（ぬ）ればや人の見えつらむ夢と知りせば覚めざらましを」\[訳\] ⇒おもひつつ…。語法仮定条件句（用例では「夢と知りせば」）の結びに...- 古文辞書なら「Weblio古語辞典」 I wouldn’t try to parse it as though it were modern Japanese. At the bottom of the entry, it says that ざら is the 未然形 (the stem that you can apply ない to in modern words) of ず, and then まし is the まし you were thinking of. ず is a classical negative form. ---
**Author:** ![wonderousish](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/wonderousish/32/55154_2.png) [@wonderousish](https://community.wanikani.com/u/wonderousish)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2019, 5:07am UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/meaning-of-%EF%BD%9E%E3%81%96%E3%82%89%E3%81%BE%E3%81%97-in-this-sentence/35846/3 "2019-03-29T05:07:21Z")
thank you !! 🙂 I think I came across that page while trying to look things up but wasn’t familiar with it and didn’t really understand what anything on the page meant! It seems like something I should try and get more familiar with for future use ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/original/4X/6/2/a/62a8b0f4c59ff2c5b6651ffcf43531480b3e5297.png) [@system](https://community.wanikani.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2020, 5:11am UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/meaning-of-%EF%BD%9E%E3%81%96%E3%82%89%E3%81%BE%E3%81%97-in-this-sentence/35846/4 "2020-03-28T05:11:25Z")
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