English Translation
He came in spite of bad weather.
何か「をついて」何とかする to mean “doing something in spite of something” – is this a common turn of phrase? I can’t find much about it from other example sentences or in definitions of ついて or つく.
@kebukebu
Another bad translation sourced from Tanaka Corpus. If I were forced to translate the Japanese sentence in English, it would be
He followed (me/us) in spite of bad weather.
Let’s say, we are experienced mountain climbers and he is a beginner. It was a tough condition for a beginner like him. He tried not to be left behind. That’s the only situation I can deduct from this sentence.
The complete version is 彼は悪天候の中をついて来た – ～の中を in this sentence means “during the time when”. I don’t omit ～の中を and I regard the original Japanese sentence as broken, but some may say that way.
ついて来る = 付く (attach) + 来る (come) ==> “to follow someone”
“He came in spite of bad weather” should be translated in Japanese as:
彼は悪天候にもかかわらず来た。(Note: the connotation is “we were surprised, and we actually didn’t expect him to do so”.)
彼は悪天候の中、来てくれた。(Note: the connotation is “we really appreciate he could manage to come see us in spite of bad weather”.)
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