Understanding tense in 見たまんまだ


> だが、藤木{ふじき}はぼーっと空中を見た **まんまだ** 。  
>  However, Fujiki vacantly looked at the sky.

Literally "...in a state where he looked at the sky".

I'm struggling to understand the difference between this sentence and the
simpler だが、藤木はぼーっと空中を見た.

1) Why add まんまだ what nuances does this bring?

2) I'm confused over the mixture of tenses. I understood that relative clauses
have a tense which is relative to that of the main clause. This suggests to me
that the state he is in now is a state in which he had been looking at the
sky, but is no longer doing so. I feel certain that this interpretation is
wrong.




I'd translate as follows:

> だが、藤木はぼーっと空中を見たまんまだ。  
>  However, Fujiki is still vacantly looking at the sky.

The "is" could be "was", depending on the context.

* * *

As you know, 「まんま」 (== 「まま」) means that a certain state is being kept
unchanged. So it adds the nuance of "still looking" in this case.

If you say 「だが、藤木はぼーっと空中を見た」, it means he looked at a sky for a while and then
perhaps looked at another thing.

* * *

Next, your understanding of tenses seems correct. Here 「見た」 is a past tense
and this is relative to the main verb 「まんまだ」. Actually, his action of
directing his eyes to the sky happened in the past. He is keeping his line of
sight to that direction, resulting in the current state where he is looking at
the sky.

So 「見た」 here refers to just directing his eyes to the object, rather than the
whole from-start-to-end action of looking at something.

You can rephrase it using present tense as follows:

> ただ、藤木はぼーっと空中を **見ている** まんまだ。  
>  However, Fujiki is still vacantly looking at the sky.




I'd translate as follows:

> だが、藤木はぼーっと空中を見たまんまだ。  
>  However, Fujiki is still vacantly looking at the sky.

The "is" could be "was", depending on the context.

* * *

As you know, 「まんま」 (== 「まま」) means that a certain state is being kept
unchanged. So it adds the nuance of "still looking" in this case.

If you say 「だが、藤木はぼーっと空中を見た」, it means he looked at a sky for a while and then
perhaps looked at another thing.

* * *

Next, your understanding of tenses seems correct. Here 「見た」 is a past tense
and this is relative to the main verb 「まんまだ」. Actually, his action of
directing his eyes to the sky happened in the past. He is keeping his line of
sight to that direction, resulting in the current state where he is looking at
the sky.

So 「見た」 here refers to just directing his eyes to the object, rather than the
whole from-start-to-end action of looking at something.

You can rephrase it using present tense as follows:

> ただ、藤木はぼーっと空中を **見ている** まんまだ。  
>  However, Fujiki is still vacantly looking at the sky.

