~乙女ならばともかく: Translation and grammar issue


I was reading _The Tatami Galaxy_ , and I came across the following sentence:
**うら若き乙女ならばともかく** 、二十歳過ぎたむさ苦しい男を誰が抱きしめてやりたいものか。[pg.295] I know ~ともかく means
"leaving aside", "never mind X,..." But I'm having trouble making sense of it
in this sentence.




There's certainly something to be said for writting down your ideas. half way
through wrriting my question the lightbulb came on!

Since I didn't find anything on ~ならばともかく on the exchange, I figured I would
post my answer for the use of the community.

First things first, this ~ならばともかく is equivalent to ～ならともかく (much in the same
way ならば・なら are the same thing). I guess it has more of the archaic/high-flown
flavor "watakushi" (the main character of the Tatami Galaxy) is known for.
Now, this ~ならともかく is a bit different from regular old ~ともかく. It also makes a
contrast, but in the following way :

**Noun1** ならともかく、 **Noun2** + Verb

_While **Noun1** might be/do/go (for)/etc, **Noun2** + Verb_

[1](https://takoboto.jp/bunpo/1554) Verb is in the negative (for what I've
seen)

[2](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/97293/what-is-the-meaning-of-
this-%E3%82%82%E3%81%AE%E3%81%8B) Verb determines the meaning of both parts of
the sentence.

This is a bit abstract, so let's parse the passage in the question to gorund
it:

**うら若き乙女ならばともかく、二十歳過ぎたむさ苦しい男を誰が抱きしめてやりたいものか**

So, the verb here is 抱きしめる [to hug]. The negative sense is given by the
construction [～ものか](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/97293/what-
is-the-meaning-of-this-%E3%82%82%E3%81%AE%E3%81%8B). The verb applies to both,
parts of the sentence (what's before and after ~ならばともかく）, with the idea that
it applies to the former, but not the latter. Finally, we get:

_While it might be possible to embrace a fresh, young maiden, who could ever
want to embrace a filthy twentysomething?!_

Notes:

  1. The thing that threw me off, is that in this case what's being opposed is the **object** of the verb, not the **Subject** . I'm not 100% sure of this, but the alternative reading seems a bit contradictory ( _" While a fresh young maiden might want to, who [else?] could ever want to embrace a filthy twentysomething"_). If I'm wrong here, I'd love to know why.

  2. For more examples (and a a more concise explanation) look [here](https://takoboto.jp/bunpo/1554)

