90613
> 仲睦まじい様子の男女二人連れと、幾度もすれちがう。この中で、どれほどの人たちが、いま一緒にいる相手のことを、
> **この人しかいないと信じられているのだろうか。**

This is a line from 「私の男」by 桜庭一樹著

When I searched for the translation online, I found this one [![enter image
description
here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/i1gJ4.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/i1gJ4.png)

> I wondered how many of them believed that the person next to them right now
> was the only one. Each person passing by might have his or her own
> circumstances.

[Source](https://www.proz.com/translator/1126210?text=English%20to%20Japanese%2C%20Japanese%20to%20English%20translator%20specialized%20in%20computer%20technology%20and%20general%20topics)

It does not seem to differentiate between 信じられている and 信じている. What is the
difference between この人しかいないと信じられているのだろうか and この人しかいないと信じているのだろうか and what
nuance does former have over latter?
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-10-01T17:10:20.150
90588
2021-10-05T14:33:06.307
18021
question
translation potential-form literature passive-form
How does 「信じられている」 differ from 「信じている」 in this sentence?
This is the teiru-form of 信じられる, which has a potential meaning here ("to be
able to believe"). So the difference between 信じている and 信じられている is basically
the same as that between 歩いている ("is walking") and 歩けている ("can be walking").
Thus the literal translation is "I wonder how many of them can be believing
...", but the translator may have thought this sounded redundant as an English
sentence.
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-10-04T01:15:57.480
90613
2021-10-04T01:15:57.480
5010
90588
answer
One important thing to note here is that this potential form doesn't translate
to "can" or "being able to" in English. The general meaning taken in this
context is a conditional: "I wonder _**if**_ they believed that [...]". This
usage is reflected in English with the use of "would" and "could". This
distinction is not present in Japanese. A representative translation of both
would be:

  * "I wonder how many of them were believing that [...]"
  * "I wonder how many of them _**could**_ have been believing that [...]"

Both of these sentences mean almost exactly the same thing, but as @naruto
suggested, the second sentence might indeed put more emphasis on the fact that
the situation is hard to believe. I suppose the nuance is the same in
Japanese.

The second one might seem a little redundant in English, because the sentence
starts with "I wonder", implying at the same time that you're questioning
whether they believe something or not. This information already tells us that
the situation is hard to believe in some sense. I'm guessing that, since that
information is at the end in the Japanese sentence (のだろうか), it might feel more
natural to mention it before.

Another thing to note is that the progressive tense of "believe" is generally
not used in English to the point where I'm wondering if the two sentences I
wrote are correct. The reason is that "believing" is thought to be something
more general, a _belief_. To believe "continuously" is something that doesn't
need to be precised in English. This is why we prefer using something like "I
wonder how many of them believed [...]". To talk about something happening
right now, "thinking" is generally preferred in that situation.
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-10-05T11:06:45.297
90624
2021-10-05T14:33:06.307
2021-10-05T14:33:06.307
45176
45176
90588
answer