一線を画する ambiguity


This passage comes from _Underground_ by Haruki Murakami:

> 年長者であり医師であり、科学技術省の「武闘派」とは一線を画している林が敢えて実行者として選ばれた理由は不明だが...

The translation by Alfred Birnbaum is

> Why Hayashi - a senior medical doctor with an active "frontline" track
> record at the Ministry of Science and Technology - was chosen to carry out
> this mission remains unclear...

When I look around for examples of the expression, for example on
[here](https://proverb-encyclopedia.com/isenwokakusu/) or
[here](https://www.linguee.jp/%E6%97%A5%E6%9C%AC%E8%AA%9E-%E8%8B%B1%E8%AA%9E/search?source=auto&query=%E3%81%A8%E3%81%AF%E4%B8%80%E7%B7%9A%E3%82%92%E7%94%BB%E3%81%99%E3%82%8B),
it seems like instead of the above translation, it should be something like:

> Why Hayashi, who has always stayed away from the "frontline" of the Ministry
> of Science and Technology, was chosen...

How is this ambiguity resolved?

Also should 「年長者であり医師であり」 be always understood as a "senior medical doctor"
(i.e. someone who has worked as a doctor for a long time) or "a senior and a
doctor"?

Thank you for any help.




This ～と一線を画す is an idiom, and in this context it means "to keep a distance
from ～". It's not even ambiguous, and I think your translation attempt is
correct.

年長者であり医師であり is of course "being a senior, and (also being) a doctor", and it's
technically different from 年長の医師であり ("being a senior medical doctor"). I don't
know the story, and this may not be a severe mistake.

