2010-04-08

Grammar of the Week: 縁がない・えんがない・en ga nai

En ga nai (縁がない) is a phrase meaning "to have no connection to/no opportunity to", but I`m still not sure of all of its implications, or uses. Have you heard this phrase before?

 縁・えん seems a bit similar to 運・うん (as in 運命・うんめい・fate) , or 関係・かんけい・relationship, for example:

彼と縁がない・かれとえんがない `I don`t have any connection to him.` 

But I think that the phrase can be read as more than just `connection`, and perhaps translated as something  like, `We don`t see eye to eye`, `We aren`t meant to be`, etc.

ロシアに行くことと縁がない・ろしあにいくえんがない I don`t have the opportunity to go to Russia. But perhaps there is also an implication of, `I`ll probably never have the opportunity / It isn`t in my cards (It`s not my fate) to go to Russia`?

In an actual article (from the Asahi Shinbun, 非難し合うより共闘しよう、ドリュー・ギルピン・ファウスト), a line using this phrase shows up...

「ハーバードや私自身(わたしじしん)とこれまで縁(えん)のなかった女性(じょせい)たちが、自分(じぶん)のこととして、『世界(せかい)の大(おお)きな扉(とびら)が開(あ)いた』と喜(よろこ)んでくれた。」 

`Girls who until this had no connection to either myself or Harvard were overjoyed, believing that for themselves (as well) `a large door had opened in the world`.`

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