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What is the meaning of "一世..." on its own?


Jan Finster

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I have come across  "一世..." several times in the subtitles of different TV shows. 

 

I know that it means any of the following: generation · period of 30 years · one's whole lifetime · lifelong · age · era · times.

 

However, none of them make any sense... ?

 

Here is context from the last episode I encountered it:

中国 人民 应该 帮助 自己 的 人民 。 你 为什么 是 叛徒 ?

三哥

三哥 三哥

他们 在 看 。

一世 ...

想 和 你 一起 工作 。

但是 你 不 相信 我 。

所以 我 不得不 去 别的 地方 

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Any reason why the "all my life" sense wouldn't work here? You could render it "All my life I just wanted to work alongside you but you never believed in me so I had to go off somewhere else"  as one example, which seems natural enough.

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中文知音 - 田丁

Hi Jan, I agree with Jim. According to the lines you quote from the TV show. I guess the character is meaning 'I want to work with you for the whole life'. But it places 'my whole life'/一世at the beginning of the sentence, which may be for the purpose of emphasis. I guess the non-typical position of this word makes it a bit confusing indeed.

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18 hours ago, Jim said:

"all my life"

Yes, Jim is right. I did not see the solution right in front of me.

"All my life, I just wanted to work alongside you..." 

 

9 hours ago, 中文知音 - 田丁 said:

'I want to work with you for the whole life'

This would be an alternative translation, but I favour Jim's, which is slightly different in meaning.

 

Thank you both!

 

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I thought I got it, but here is another text passage where "all my life" does not fit... ?:

 

有 一个 俄罗斯 女人 。

嗯 ...

没有 。

你 应该 早点 说

一世 ...

对 ?

那 我们 就 不留 你 了

提出 来 很 尴尬 。

我们 走 吧 。

牛 弟兄 保重

我 送 你 出去

牛 弟兄 不要

不错 。

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