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> なぜかと言えば、この宿場の猫背の馭者は、まだその日、誰も手をつけない蒸し立ての饅頭に初手をつけるということが、それほどの潔癖から長い年月の間、独身で暮らさねばならなかったという彼のその日その日の、最高の慰めとなっていたのであったから。

May I know if my translation is accurate?

> Why is that so? The driver with a hunchback and obsession with cleanliness
> at the post station has to live alone for a long period of time. Making
> steamed buns that no one has made before is the best consolation for those
> days.

May I also know whether その日 in the first line refers to 長い年月の間 and what それほど
in the second line refers to?

Thank you.
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2018-02-06T03:24:27.520
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question
translation meaning
Meaning of 誰も手をつけない蒸し立ての饅頭に初手をつけるということが
The basic structure of the sentence is:

> A は B が慰めとなっている。  
>  For A, B serves as a consolation.

  * A is この宿場の猫背の馭者
  * B is まだその日、誰も手をつけない蒸し立ての饅頭に初手をつけるということ  
(This その日 modifies 手をつけない; buns no one has made/eaten _that day_ )

And 慰め is modified by the following three phrases/clauses.

  * それほどの潔癖から長い年月の間、独身で暮らさねばならなかったという彼の  
(長い年月の間 modifies 暮らす. それほどの is an intensifier " _such_ an obsession with
cleanness" or "obsession _to that degree_ ")

  * その日その日の daily; day-to-day
  * 最高の

I understand this sentence is fairly complex and you have to aggressively
rephrase it to translate it naturally. I think your understanding of the
sentence is basically okay, but there are two things I'm not certain about:

  * I'm not sure what 手をつける here actually means. (食べ物)に手を付ける [usually means "to start to eat"](https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/jn/148920/meaning/m0u/), but maybe it can mean "to start to make" or "to work on" depending on the context. Why do people hate 蒸したての饅頭, which is usually delicious? 初手を付ける can also mean either "to be the first to eat it" or "to be the first to make it".
  * Is "cleanliness at the post station" okay? Your translation looks to me as if his workplace and his personal obsession were related. Is that really so?
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2018-02-06T03:40:00.590
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answer