Meaning of 何が悲しくて


> 当番委員のペアが決まった日なのよ？他のみんなはお祝いしてるのに、 **何が悲しくて** 、そんな、さびれ果てたとこへ行かなきゃならないの？

What does 何が悲しくて mean here? It seems to mean "What's so sad that we have to go
there?" but I feel like I'm missing something.




> 「何が悲しくて～～しなければならない（のか）」

is an _**idiomatic expression**_ used to describe the unreasonableness,
unfairness, outrageousness, etc. of the situation where one must unwillingly
perform an action.

Thus, a literal translation of the expression will **not** work well because
the expression grammatically looks as if it meant " _ **because**_ something
is sad, one needs to ~~~".

The English counterparts I could think of would be:

> "Why the heck am I supposed to ~~~?" or
>
> ”What good does it do if (I) ~~~?”

This expression, therefore, differs in meaning from 「何が悲しいって」 or 「何が悲しいかって」,
both of which do mean what they literally mean -- "what is sad is that ~~."

Hope this helps.




> 「何が悲しくて～～しなければならない（のか）」

is an _**idiomatic expression**_ used to describe the unreasonableness,
unfairness, outrageousness, etc. of the situation where one must unwillingly
perform an action.

Thus, a literal translation of the expression will **not** work well because
the expression grammatically looks as if it meant " _ **because**_ something
is sad, one needs to ~~~".

The English counterparts I could think of would be:

> "Why the heck am I supposed to ~~~?" or
>
> ”What good does it do if (I) ~~~?”

This expression, therefore, differs in meaning from 「何が悲しいって」 or 「何が悲しいかって」,
both of which do mean what they literally mean -- "what is sad is that ~~."

Hope this helps.

