57350
While I was reading a text, I came across this idiom 「蜘蛛の子を散らす」but this is how
it shows up in online dictionaries. I understood what it means and in what
context can be used but it would seem that most of the sentences that I have
found also use ように, with the full expression being  
「蜘蛛の子を散らすように逃げる」. The sentence from the text I was reading lacked ように and
other verbs, only 散らす being present. I don't know why the author wrote it like
this:  
「臆病な男蜘蛛を散らせ」  
Because it lacks some particles, I wondered if it would translate differently.  
Without the use of ように and 逃げる, it couldn't sound like "The cowardly boy
scattered ( **in all directions like baby spiders** ). Can it be translated
just "The cowardly boy fled?".
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2018-03-17T20:42:59.307
57336
2018-03-18T05:59:21.813
22175
question
translation idioms
蜘蛛の子を散らす-help with this idiom
> (1) 臆病な男蜘蛛{おとこぐも}を散らせ

散らせ in the above sentence is an imperative form of 散らす as is said in
Chocolate's comment.(+1)

(1) implies (2).

> (2) 臆病な **男ども** を散らせ！ or 臆病な **男ども** を蹴散{けち}らせ！ _Drive the cowardly men
> out!_

The reason why they used 男蜘蛛｛おとこぐも｝ in place of 男ども in the above sentence is
that they imaged the idiom of "蜘蛛の子を散らす _to go flying in all directions_ or
_to run off all directions_ ". That is to say, I assume that they compared the
cowardly men to baby spiders that escape as soon as they are threatened.

By the way, 男蜘蛛 is not an established word in Japanese language. Judging from
the context, I could understand the meaning of the usage of it, but I think
that it is a word promptly coined by the man/author who used the sentence with
(1).
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2018-03-18T05:59:21.813
57350
2018-03-18T05:59:21.813
20624
57336
answer