Translation - Japonese-English - この時をただひたすら待ち続けた。 ようやく君と会えたな･･･。

"have" or "had", Ian? It sounds a bit awkward as it stands now, I think.

You're right, I suppose "have" would be okay too...

I just tried to make it reflect the fact that he's not waiting anymore: the guy he was looking for is in front of him now.

"I have always been waiting" would mean, literally (but not in context of course), I'm still waiting. But now that the guy's in my face, that wouldn't make sense. (E.g. "Since 1999, I've always been living in Vancouver," which you technically couldn't say if you don't live there anymore...)

Anyway, I felt comfortable with the "had": it was grammatically correct, and didn't stretch the Bounds of the Possibly Sayable for me. But if to your ears it Hurts, then by all means, "have" is okay too!

イーエン先生、１００％理解したいので↓の文章を
日本語で説明していただけますか？お願いいたします。

You're right, I suppose "have" would be okay too...

I just tried to make it reflect the fact that he's not waiting anymore: the guy he was looking for is in front of him now.

"I have always been waiting" would mean, literally (but not in context of course), I'm still waiting. But now that the guy's in my face, that wouldn't make sense. (E.g. "Since 1999, I've always been living in Vancouver," which you technically couldn't say if you don't live there anymore...)

Anyway, I felt comfortable with the "had": it was grammatically correct, and didn't stretch the Bounds of the Possibly Sayable for me. But if to your ears it Hurts, then by all means, "have" is okay too!

Mikairu, what did you say above? I'm not sure why you copied and pasted Ian's message under yours.

Ian, I'm willing to leave it as is - admittedly, it follows the rules of the tenses. It just sounds odd to me. But if it doesn't to you, and you're just as much a native speaker as I am, let's go with it.

Hi Kafetzou,

ミハイル just wanted me to explain my rationale for choosing "had" over "have" to him in Japanese, so here's the Japanese translation of what I wrote above:

ミハイルくん、今日は！すみませんね：
些か口語的な英語だったんで、分かり辛かったでしょう。要約翻訳しましょう：
その通り、haveでも好かったかもね。
ただ、表現したかったのは、もう相手を待ってない、何故なら、相手は現に目の前に居るので。
I have always been waitingという言い方にすると、（もちろん現状を見て、正しく理解はできるが）彼がマダその目の前の相手を待っているから、矛盾が生じる。例えば、Since 1999, I've always been living in Vancouverというと、もう住んでいないんであれば、厳密では言えない言い方です。
僕自身は、文法上では正しいhadでも大丈夫かなと思っていて、ま、必ずしも言えないではないかと感じていたけど、あなたには耳障りであれば、どうぞhaveに変えてもいいですよ！

As Above, So Below... I love Theosophy!

CC: ミハイル

Sorry, I can only deal with one person at a time now: a clear sign that things are slowly going downhill...

Thanks for that, Laura: you know, I actually did Sit There for a minute or two looking at that "had" when I did the translation, because you're right, I can Hear someone saying "have" in that situation too...

I just thought it was funny that (with the "have" ringing in my ears) when I looked at it closely read:grammatico-logically, it actually had to be "had." But as you know, native speakers don't always follow the Rules ("John told me he is coming to the party tomorrow," not "John told me he would come to the party tomorrow" ), and that's why the "have" was echoing in my ears too. I guess I just made a choice of accuracy over naturalness...

I probably do a bit of hyper-correction because I've been living in Japan so long and I have to maintain clear standards for correct production so my English doesn't go to Pot like so many other native speakers' here...

Uh-oh: looks like I may have to translate this one too...

How about "I was always waiting for this moment"?

Dat's Poifect!

Tanks!

So you'll see the New Improved Version there now, (1.5 brains are better than 0.5) and I gave you the gloves-off version of the Japanese in full under it in the notes too, for reference!

Now you know what I have to go through every day...sniff... ;;