老朽也不清楚是何缘故
“I'm not sure about the reason.”
THE DIALOGUE REEL
“Do you know what happened to my father?”
老朽 也不 清楚是何缘故
“I'm not sure about the reason.”
待我再去给将军 熬副提神补气的汤药来
“I'll make him some medicine for refreshment and replenishment.”
“Please do not blame me; this illness is beyond my diagnosis or too dangerous for me to speak on.”
Using self-effacing terms like 'laoxiu' lowers one's status before powerful superiors to elicit mercy, respect for age, and leniency during perilous situations.
LEARNING CHUNKS & PARTICLES
this old man / I (humble self-reference by an elderly person)
A self-deprecating first-person pronoun used exclusively by old men in historical or formal contexts.
what cause / for what reason
A classical phrasing for 'what reason', commonly found in formal medical or court dialogues.
VOCABULARY & EXPRESSIONS
Parallel Spoken Cinema Scenes (语义近邻切片)
“I found the reason is not important at all.”
“I don't know why, but heaven just”
“But I asked all the neighbors, and none of them knows why.”
“but don't you know it, Sixth Grandfather?”
“anything special about it.”