At, Over, In, Only (after, when, or because)
Structure:
Number + Counter + にして
Noun + にして
I’m a bit stuck on how this functions in this example sentence:
これは西尾維新のような文豪にして初めて書ける名著だ。
All the other examples have にして modifying something with a clear chronological aspect (eg. overnight, the 50th year of marriage, the first year of university).
Here it modifies:
“これは西尾維新のような文豪”
The English translation is quite off sounding (which is pretty common for the N1 translations, but not really a huge issue as you should have the Japanese to not need them by this point). However, for this one that I can’t figure out it’s not enlightening much for me.
“This is a masterpiece that could only be written when a literary giant like Nishio Ishin did it for the first time.”
Any pointers greatly appreciated!
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anybody?
For what it’s worth, I found one other example sentence on the JLPT先生 page linked on Bunpro that seems to use this structure in the same way:
「天才の彼にして間違えるのだから、できないのは当然である。」
“If that genius couldn’t solve it then it’s only natural that you couldn’t either.”
I guess this pattern is best described by this sentence in the explanation:
“While にして marks (A) as some particular exemplar, what follows may either be something that is or is not considered befitting of that example. In this way, (B) generally describes something that either does or does not fulfill the expectations of (A), and perhaps why.”
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