Help with 第一夜 by 夏目漱石: 「大きな潤のある眼で、長い睫に包まれた中は、ただ一面に真黒であった」


I bought the book "Breaking into Japanese Literature - Seven Modern Classics
in Parallel text" and burned some billions of neurons to (try to) understand
just the first page (lol).

Well, I am having problems with this sentence (from [第一夜【だいいちや】 by
夏目漱石](http://www.aozora.gr.jp/cards/000148/files/799_14972.html)):

> 死にますとも、といいながら、女はぱっちりと眼を開けた。大きな潤のある眼で、 **長い睫に包まれた中** は、 **ただ一面に真黒であった**
> 。その真黒な眸の奥に、自分の姿が鮮やかに浮かんでいる。

I know the meaning of the individual words:

  * 潤​【うるおい】 moisture, tenderness
  * 睫​【まつげ】 eyelashes
  * 包む​【つつむ】 wrap, cover
  * ただ only, just
  * 一面​【いちめん】 the whole surface/expanse
  * 真っ黒​【まっくろ】 pure black

Translation given by the book (which doesn't help much...):

> Whereupon she opened her eyes and replied, "Yes, I will die--of that I am
> certain". **_Her eyes were large and moist and beneath their long shading
> lashes were twin expanses of the jettest black._** My clearly mirrored image
> was floating in the depths of those jet black eyes.

I understand the first phrase, but the _second_ and third just don't enter in
my mind.

  * 大きな潤のある眼で in the big and wet eye, 
  * 長い睫に包まれた中は in the centre of something wrapped in the long eyelashes (??) I just don't understand... And by the way, how do I read the 中 after 包まれた?
  * ただ一面に真黒であった (????)

I would be really grate if someone helped me... Thank you very much in
advance!




First, permit me to point out a couple of words that you seem to be reading
incorrectly.

> 大きな潤のある眼 **で** 、 **_in_** the big and wet eye

「で」 ≠ "in"

**This 「で」 is an auxiliary verb, not a location particle**. More precisely,
「で」 is the [連用形]{れんようけい} of the affirmation auxiliary verb 「だ」. (As you are
already reading novels, I assume that you are familiar with the proper
Japanese names for all the verb and adjective conjugation forms.)

～～で、～～ = "X is ~~ and ~~"

> 長い睫に包まれた **中** は、??in the **_centre of something_** wrapped in the long
> eyelashes??(wtf?)

「中」 ≠ "center of something"

Though it may not be too far off, 「中」 here means "the inside". The author is
(almost) likening her eyes to a larger object that is wrapped (and partially
concealed).

> by the way, how do I read the 中 after 包まれた?

It is read 「なか」. No other possibilities there.

> ただ一面に真黒であった, WTF???

Really? No TL attempt to show us? If you just looked up 「一面」 and 「真黒」, you
could not go very wrong.

My own **_literal_** translation:

> "(They/Those) were large and moist eyes and wrapped inside the long
> eyelashes lay the whole surfaces of complete jet black."

