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> 何【なん】人【びと】も触れる【ふれる】こと能わぬ【あたわぬ】才媛【さいえん】

I'm having trouble with this sentence. I'm just confused as to whether '能わぬ'
counts as a negative verb that affects 何人も or not.

Since I know 何人も means everyone/all unless there's a negative verb attached in
which case it becomes nobody/no-one, and I'm wondering if the negative verb
would be considered attached to this, because there's the presence of こと. It
suggests to me a meaning more along the lines of "a talented woman for who
can't get close to everyone" or, to be more literal "a talented woman [for
whom the matter of] becoming close to everyone is impossible"

So would this be more along the lines of "to let everyone near her is
impossible for her" or "it is impossible for her to let _anyone_ near her"?
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2014-11-04T15:59:01.397
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2014-11-05T00:02:11.307
2014-11-04T19:35:59.053
question
grammar translation nuances
Translation help with this sentence? 何人も触れること能わぬ- everyone or no one?
It literally means "a talented woman whom no one is able to touch". 能わぬ would
mean "not be able to". But, I would personally translate this to "a talented
woman whom no one can get close to" or something similar.
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2014-11-04T19:22:04.107
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answer
The sentence looks old. In modern Japanese, it would be:

> だれも触れることのできない才媛

Here, “何人も” is translated into “だれも”, and “する [こと] 能わぬ” into “することができない”.

This phrase is a derivative of the following sentence:

> その才媛にはだれも触れることができない。

Now, does this mean “No one can” or “Not enveryone can”? The answer is “No one
can”. Why? “だれも” is usually used as an adverb. Thus, the sentence can be
analysed as:

> だれも (その才媛には 触れることが できない)。

This means:

> One cannot touch the talented lady. This applies to everyone.

Therefore the original phrase means:

> a talented lady who no one can touch
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2014-11-04T23:53:04.073
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answer