English Translation
The old man had his only son die three years ago.
Is the translation right? Because I would have translated this as “That old man has been dead for three years to his only son”.
@mike-lima
Yes, the meaning of the original Japanese sentence is correct. The old man still alive, and his only son passed away three years ago.
However, I find 死なれた a bit unnatural like a robotic word-for-word translation. We usually say その老人は3年前、一人息子に先立たれた。instead.
先立つ (sakidatsu) literally means “to go ahead of someone/something”. It’s an euphemism of “a child or a spouse passed away and left their beloved one”. 先立つ is particularly used when the deceased person was supposed to live longer.
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Ah! Thank you very much, this was very helpful – especially the 先立たれた part.
My problem was I couldn’t really understand how die could be used in its passive form or what its meaning would be in that case. I don’t think you can use die in the same way: “He was died by his son three years ago” in English is not used. But with 先立つ, it makes sense: “he was preceded (in death) by his son” is something I can understand.
Even if the original sentence is not natural, it is still useful to know that 死ぬ can be used in the passive form.
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