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制服を着てしまうと組織の一員となって個人は消える。職業声も同じです。仕事に個性などいらないということでしょうか。しかし一日の三分の一は仕事をしているわけですから、その時間を制服のような借り物の声で話すことは、気楽ではあるかもしれないけれど、心身には大きな負担であろうと思います。

The bold sentence confuses me, I don't know what it means by 時間を, because it seems there is no verb linked to を.　

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    You have been asking questions on this site for a while now. Have you gathered yet that you need to be a bit more specific for your questions to be received well by others?
    – jogloran
    Commented Apr 8, 2023 at 4:05
  • sorry,I am trying to revise it
    – CN.hitori
    Commented Apr 8, 2023 at 5:09

1 Answer 1

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その時間を制服のような借り物の声で話すこと

The verb here is 話す. その時間 is the を-marked part, and 【【制服のよう】な【借り物】】の声 is a で-marked part. The entire phrase to that point modifies こと.

その  時間          を     制服    の       よう    な
that time(duration) (acc.) uniform -type-of resembl-ing

借り   物        の       声    で          話す  こと
borrow -ed-thing -type-of voice by-means-of speak -action

"[The act of] talking then in the voice [of someone] borrowing a uniform" (metaphor for someone who was deputized?), I guess. The のs here seem a bit abstract.

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  • Do you think 時間を話す make any sense?I search this phrase in google and turn out nothing.I think change を into に will make sense
    – CN.hitori
    Commented Apr 8, 2023 at 12:59
  • Hmm, good point, that wouldn't work as a direct object in English, either. So I guess it must go with な, but I'm a little too tired to puzzle it out at the moment.
    – Karl Knechtel
    Commented Apr 8, 2023 at 13:01
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    I think this を corresponds to this definition from Daijirin:「④動作・作用の行われる時間・期間を表す。「この一年―無事に生きてきた」「今―盛りに咲く」」
    – Jimmy Yang
    Commented Apr 8, 2023 at 23:50
  • @JimmyYang yes, that makes sense and I can't think of anything better. I edited the translation accordingly.
    – Karl Knechtel
    Commented Apr 9, 2023 at 0:02
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    I don't think the sentence has anything to do with being deputized. It just compares speaking in a certain way (in a way that's perhaps unnatural to you) with wearing a uniform. 制服のような借り物の声 ~ a "borrowed" voice which is like a uniform. You don't borrow the uniform. You "borrow" the voice, which the writer says is similar to wearing a uniform.
    – andrewb
    Commented Apr 12, 2023 at 6:13

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