君は、持っているものに気づかれなかったのか、元から持っていないのか、どっちだ。Meanining passive


I have a problem with the following sentence:

> 君は、持っているものに気づかれなかったのか、元から持っていないのか、どっちだ。

The sentence was translated as: "Did they not notice what you had, or wasn't
it yours from the beginning, which is it?"

Based on the passive 気づかれなかった shouldn't it be more like: "Weren't you noticed
by what you had...", but that would imply the person was noticed by the things
he had with him which doesn't really make sense.

Basically, I want to know how 君は、持っているものに気づかれなかった works. Can it also mean that
he was noticed by others through the things he had with him? Or is the
translation correct that the things were not noticed, even though 気づかれなかった is
passive (and it's most likely not the polite passive) ?




This 気づかれない is not "to be noticed" (passive) but "to be able to notice"
(potential). So 持っているものに気づかれなかったのか is "is it that you could not notice what
you had?"

Of course 気づく is a consonant-stem verb and thus has the distinct potential
form (気づける) which is far more common. But we occasionally see the れる-form used
in the potential sense (especially in older documents, I think).

See: [Passive usage of 「済まされない」 in
sentences](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/14065/5010)

