Help needed translating this sentence...
  • 全てを凌駕せんがため生まれし

    It's the "せんが" bit which is confusing me...
  • After googling and finding a possible context "不浄なるこの世に警鐘 全能に進化する細胞 そう 今 全てを凌駕せんがため生まれし" my interpretation is as follows:

    不浄なるこの世に警鐘 - Wake up (Alarm/Make people notice) this unclean/messed up world
    ((adjective〜)なる is a copula in classical Japanese and was shorted to (adjective~)な is modern Japanese btw)
    全能に進化する細胞 - Cells becoming almighty
    そう 今 That's right, now:

    So, we have some kind of end world super technology scenario, which also explains the presence of classical Japanese.
    全てを凌駕せんがため生まれし: The verb する is taken in its 未然形 form, せ, to which the classical Japanese "helper word" む is added, forming せむ, which was shortened to せん, but in modern Japanese the m-sound was dropped, was becoming せむ->せう->しよう. In classcial Japanese, せむ・せん had a more generic "future" meaning. が in classical Japanese quite closely corresponds to modern Japanese's の. ため is為. 生まれし is 生まれた in classical Japanese. Taking this into account, I would translate the sentence as "It is born to surpass anything.". In the song "BIO GENESIS" by "Schwart Stein", for example, the "it" part is filled by 思考, thoughts.
    Incidentally, せん could also be する->(未然形)せ+ず->(終止形)せず->(連体形)せぬ->せん with ず being the classical Japanese verb for negation, thus meaning しない. The sentence would then translate to "born NOT to surpass anything", but from the context, this does not appear to be the case.
  • Wow... thanks for the detailed reply blutorange, I didn't realise it was a form of する.

    And yes, it was from that song.
  • んがため is a literal form of ため. Althoug it uses 未然形, it does not have negative meanings. Therefore, せんがため=するため, instead of しないため. The tone of んがため is stronger than that of ため.

    There seem to be lots of people who are working in order to pay the fixed property tax.

    To keep one's store going even one more day, one is frantically working.

    (させんがため=させるため )
    In order to finish the project, he worked day and night without sleeping.
  • Thank you for this thorough explanation. I was looking for this very grammar point.

    ~ fv

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