Need help with a sentence

Japanese Language
1

I need some help with understanding this sentence.

神様に皮肉が言えるほどおれは胆が据わってない。

I’m pretty sure this is supposed to be a sarcastic comment.

So I understand that “saying a sarcasm to god is installing his liver?”
so my problem is in the last part. I looked it up and I haven’t found if it was an expression.

神様 = god
皮肉 = sarcasm
言える = to say
胆 = liver
据わって = to install

Thanks you

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胆 can also mean “courage” (i.e. as in, guts).

胆が据わる

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So the sentence mean “I won’t have the courage to say sarcasm to god”?

By the way how can you be so fast. I post it 3 minutes ago and you already have an answer and a link. Can you see into the futur?

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神様に皮肉が言えるほど (literally “to the extent that I could be sarcastic to god”)
おれは胆がすわってない (I’m not courageous)

So, he as lacking in courage generally as you would be to speak sarcastically to god. Basically maybe it’s impossible for him? That’s how much this guy isn’t courageous.

Is how I read it. I misread and edited it once.

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Gotta be fats if you want to be fatter than @Leebo.

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damnit didn’t correct my typo fast enough

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POST OF THE DAY

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fats enough

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Actually it’s dammit or damn it
…since we’re correcting typos lol

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Leebo is pretty much spot on. The last part is from a phrase 胆が据わる, which is defined as follows:

物事に恐れたり驚いたりせず、大胆になる
Being audaciously bold in holding no fear nor surprise at anything (i.e being courageous)

The full translation of your sentence I’d say would best be put as:

“I have no courage, to the extent where I can be sarcastic with a god.”

I don’t really know how to interpret that out of context, my expectation of such a sentence would instead for it to be:

神様に皮肉が言えるほどおれは胆が据わっている

I’m brave to the extent I can be sarcastic with a god. But obviously it’s the opposite, interpret it how you will depending on the context of the story!

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Possibly one character, who is a god, is accusing another character of being sarcastic, and this is the second character’s response. (Which may itself be sarcastic, mind. “Are you being sarcastic?” “Oh, of course not. I wouldn’t presume to be sarcastic with a god.”)

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“I don’t have the guts to speak sarcastically to God.”

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You’ve got a lot of great explanations here (that helped me in understanding, as well) and I’m gonna go with something along the lines of “I don’t have the balls to back-sass the Gods” in terms of a more natural translation.

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Thx for the help guys. It’s really appreciated. I have no idea who to chose for the solution though. :sweat_smile:

Since some people looked like they were interested in the context here it is:

この状態下でぼんやりできるやつなんて、そうそういないぜ。緊張のあまり放心状態になり者はいくらでもいるけどな。まして風の音をきいたり、のんびり他人さまのことを考えられるなんて神業だ。あんたは、神様クラスの大物だよ。これからは毎日、朝夕に拝ませてもらう。

皮肉か

まさか。神様に皮肉が言えるほどおれは胆が据わってない

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Oh, that’s definitely sarcasm the whole way through. :stuck_out_tongue:

But yeah, Japanese is a much more contextual language than English, so context is frequently quite important. Sometimes that context also means exactly what book/game/anime/whatever we’re actually talking about…

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