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If anyone is willing, I'd like to check my reading of the following sentence:

ところが夜だかは、ほんとうは鷹の兄弟でも親類でもありませんでした。

"However, for a number of nights, there is a lie that [he] is a family member
or even a brother of the hawk, but it is not so."

I'm reading **夜だか** as "a number of nights" (e.g. for a while), but I'm
wondering if a better reading of -だか in this context would be "all" as in "all
nights" or "nightly".

Also, I read **ほんとうは** as "in contrast to the truth" e.g. a lie. Was that
correct?  
**EDIT: I found a good link explaining why this reading (as explained in the
answers) is wrong. Apparently, multiple は "topics" can be grammatically
correct.** [Can we have two thematic は particles in a
sentence?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/5375/can-we-have-two-
thematic-%E3%81%AF-particles-in-a-sentence)

* * *

**On a side note,**  
These kind of translation questions feel a bit out of place on Stack
Exchange... since this site seems to focus more on specific grammar and word
usage.

As I continue to read, I'd like to do more regular translation checks. Could
anyone recommend a forum where that might be more welcome (if not here)?
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question
translation particle-は suffixes
Would someone mind checking my translation of -だか and a contrastive は?
夜だか would be 夜鷹, the nighthawk.

本当 means 'truth. 本当は would be 'the truth is'. In this case, it would be 'in
contrast to what may be assumed/believed.

> ところが夜だかは、ほんとうは鷹の兄弟でも親類でもありませんでした。

As it is, the nighthawk is, in truth, neither a sibling nor a relative of the
hawk.
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answer