Confusing use of verb+ばよかった


> 物置から全財産を二階の寝室に移すのに、ハリーはたった一回階段を **上がればよかった** 。  
>  It only took Harry one trip upstairs to move everything he owned from the
> cupboard to this room. ( **original text** )  
>  Harry hoped that he only had to go up the stairs once to move everything he
> owned from the storage room to the upstairs bedroom. ( **my bad
> translation** )

I cannot understand how 上がればよかった is working in this sentence. It surely
doesn't have anything to do with hoping/wishing. I'm clearly missing something
fundamental. Because of this I'm also not sure whether to translate のに at the
end of the first clause as 'even though' or 'in order to'.




The ばよかった is used in the literal sense.

...ばよかった, taken literally, means _If ..., it was good/sufficed_. The meaning
_hope/wish_ comes from interpreting this as _would have been good_ instead of
_was good_.

As such, to some extent, all ばよかった sentences are ambiguous. A few things to
note are

  * In the _hope/wish_ sense, the hoping subject should be _I_.
  * さえすればよかった unambiguously means _had only to_. (In the example, it could be 上がりさえすればよかった though it's a bit strained.)

* * *

Examples:

  * 昨日は買い物に行けばよかった

can mean

  1. All I had to do yesterday was to go shopping.
  2. I wish I had done shopping yesterday. (I didn't)

1 is the literal sense. ( **昨日** 買い物に行けばよかった can only mean 2, I don't really
know why.)

  * ゲームをするためにグラフィックボードを買えばよかった

  1. In order to play games, I had only to buy a graphics card. (I had a PC already)
  2. I wish I had bought a graphics card to play games. (I didn't and it's become more expensive)

Adding a word like ゲームをするために **あとは** グラフィックボードを買えばよかった makes it unambiguously
mean 1.

  * 彼は専門家に相談すればよかった

  1. He had only to consult an expert.
  2. **I wish** he consulted an expert. (He didn't and is in a mess)

I suppose the context disambiguates in most cases.




The ばよかった is used in the literal sense.

...ばよかった, taken literally, means _If ..., it was good/sufficed_. The meaning
_hope/wish_ comes from interpreting this as _would have been good_ instead of
_was good_.

As such, to some extent, all ばよかった sentences are ambiguous. A few things to
note are

  * In the _hope/wish_ sense, the hoping subject should be _I_.
  * さえすればよかった unambiguously means _had only to_. (In the example, it could be 上がりさえすればよかった though it's a bit strained.)

* * *

Examples:

  * 昨日は買い物に行けばよかった

can mean

  1. All I had to do yesterday was to go shopping.
  2. I wish I had done shopping yesterday. (I didn't)

1 is the literal sense. ( **昨日** 買い物に行けばよかった can only mean 2, I don't really
know why.)

  * ゲームをするためにグラフィックボードを買えばよかった

  1. In order to play games, I had only to buy a graphics card. (I had a PC already)
  2. I wish I had bought a graphics card to play games. (I didn't and it's become more expensive)

Adding a word like ゲームをするために **あとは** グラフィックボードを買えばよかった makes it unambiguously
mean 1.

  * 彼は専門家に相談すればよかった

  1. He had only to consult an expert.
  2. **I wish** he consulted an expert. (He didn't and is in a mess)

I suppose the context disambiguates in most cases.

