The meaning of ”あれは魔術師に与えられた祝福”


I translated the sentence "あれは魔術師に与えられた祝福” to something along the line of
"That is something that was given a blessing by a sorcerer" but in the
translation that I compared it to, the translator translated it to "That is a
blessing to sorcerer" (Something that bestows blessing instead of being
blessed, so in this case, it's the sorcerer getting blessed instead of the
"あれ” subject). So my question is what did I get wrong?




あれは魔術師 **に** 与えられた祝福(だ) is **ambiguous**.

  * That is a blessing given **to** a sorcerer.  
(the same as あれは魔術師 **へ** 与えられた祝福だ, which is unambiguous)

  * That is a blessing given **by** a sorcerer.  
(the same as あれは魔術師{ **から/より** }与えられた祝福だ, which is unambiguous)

(Replace "blessing" to "blessed item" if you like.)

In this case, both seem equally possible, so you have to decide the more
plausible interpretation purely from the context. Likewise, 彼に渡された手紙 means
both "the letter passed to him" and "the letter passed from him" depending on
the context.

Japanese relative clauses work by dropping a particle, and sometimes have
inherent ambiguity like this. There are many similar questions on this site.

  * [Clarification about how 惚れた should be translated](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/60895/5010)
  * [が in subordinate clauses](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/30171/5010)

* * *

**EDIT:** Here's the detailed breakdown.

>   * 誰かが魔術師に祝福を与えた。  
>  Someone gave a blessing to a sorcerer.
>   * (誰か[によって](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/a/54990/5010))魔術師に祝福 **が**
> 与えられた。  
>  A blessing was given to a sorcerer (by someone).
>   * 魔術師に与えられた祝福  
>  the blessing which was given to a sorcerer
>

>   * 魔術師が誰かに祝福を与えた。  
>  A sorcerer gave a blessing to someone.
>   * (誰かが)魔術師に祝福 **を** 与えられた。  
>  Someone was given a blessing by a sorcerer.
>   * 魔術師に与えられた祝福  
>  the blessing which was given by a sorcerer
>

Notice the particle in bold (が/を) has been dropped.

