非ぼく, 非かえるくん - how to translate 非 in this context?


I'm reading a short story 「かえるくん、東京を救う」 by Haruki Murakami. I found a passage
where 非 is attached to two nouns, I guess to give them the meaning of
opposition.

> ぼくは純粋なかえるくんですが、それと同時にぼくは **非かえるくん** の世界を表象するものでもあるんです。
>
> ぼく自身の中には **非ぼく** がいます。

I know I'm reading a literary work so words can be made up but is it a normal
practice to attach 非 to words this way? How to translate that best into
English? Is "anti-" appropriate?

> I am a genuine Frog but at the same time I'm the symbol of the anti-Frog
> world.
>
> There's anti-me inside of me.




Yes! I think your interpretation is fine, and given the context I think "anti"
makes sense. There are several prefixes for negation, but adding one in
unconventional ways is fine so long as it fits the general pattern of use.
That said, however, it's not necessarily the most "normal" way. For example,
saying something like 非かえるくん and 非ぼく is kind of goofy, but it's clear that's
what the writer is going for. In general the use of a prefix in itself
shouldn't be too problematic; it's just the context that dictates how good it
sounds.




Yes! I think your interpretation is fine, and given the context I think "anti"
makes sense. There are several prefixes for negation, but adding one in
unconventional ways is fine so long as it fits the general pattern of use.
That said, however, it's not necessarily the most "normal" way. For example,
saying something like 非かえるくん and 非ぼく is kind of goofy, but it's clear that's
what the writer is going for. In general the use of a prefix in itself
shouldn't be too problematic; it's just the context that dictates how good it
sounds.

