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I've been staring at this part of a section I'm trying to read, and it's the latter part that has me thoroughly stumped:

image

While I can suss out the first two characters (pretty sure it's "倒壊"), I can't figure out what is going on after that. It looks like two more kanji, but that just gives me something like "寸先" which, as far as I know, doesn't make much sense given the "な" at the end, and a person's name afterward. That gives me three characters that don't fit with each other.

I think I need to get a different brain and pair of eyes to take a look, and give mine a break...

Edit: for context's sake, there is a loud, ringing noise (with "されて" tacked on to the onomatopoeia) going on that is affecting the person, and in that sentence "理性" comes right before "倒壊", so...perhaps the noise is so loud that it's making the person feel like they're losing their mind?

After that, the point of view moves to someone else's perspective, so it's just this sentence describing a loud, ringing noise, and how it must be affecting this person.

Hopefully that helps.

Scanning For Blues
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  • Hello, would you be able to provide any more information or the context these kanji are being used in? Maybe whoever wrote this didn't add the 一 kanji to 一寸先 which means "Immediate future" or "an inch ahead" but I have nothing else to work with. – shadownived Apr 18 '19 at 07:26
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    To me it looks like play on 倒壊寸前 is intended, especially if it comes before a name. But in that case it should be の not な... – By137 Apr 18 '19 at 08:09
  • If it helps, it exists the word 一寸先 （いっすんさき）that includes both kanji in a 3-kanji word and means "the inmediate future" or more literally, "an inch ahead". It comes from joining the word 一寸（いっすん) meaning one sun (3.03 cm) to 先. https://jisho.org/search/一寸先 https://jisho.org/search/一寸 – jarmanso7 Apr 18 '19 at 09:40
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    I'm voting to close this question because this is almost certainly a misspelling of [寸前](https://jisho.org/search/%E5%AF%B8%E5%89%8D). It's sometimes used as a *na*-adjective just like [最高な](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/48585/5010). – naruto Apr 19 '19 at 01:01
  • Do you have more context? It may help identify what it is. – broccoli facemask Apr 19 '19 at 02:41
  • I've added more information for context's sake. – Scanning For Blues Apr 19 '19 at 17:07

1 Answers1

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As @naruto pointed out, this is certainly a misspelling. However given the efforts and context OP has provided, I think an answer before closing won't hurt.

Now, the context is 理性[text in question] [person's name].

Looking at the picture, "倒壊寸先な" is the only possible transcription. This is almost certainly a misspelling of "倒壊寸前な". (which, as I explain later, would probably fit better if it were "崩壊寸前な"). 寸前の is actually more common, see the question @naruto linked to.

I can't provide any source but this kind of misspelling (in handwriting) is not uncommon. '先' and '前' shares somewhat similar meaning and the on-reading is similar (sen vs zen), which makes them mixed up in the brain.

As for the meaning, I think you are guessing right. The noise is so loud, that the person is almost losing their mind. 倒壊 to collapse is more often used for buildings and others, while 崩壊 is probably much more commonly seen with 理性.

Yosh
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