文(ぶん)明(めい) bunmei人(じん) jinも mo一(ひと)皮(かわ)む()け()ば() hitokawamukeba野(や)蛮(ばん)人(じん) yabanjin。 Scratch a civilized person and you find a savage. Literal Civilized-person [even-も] one-skin peel-[if-ば] savage. 一皮むけば is a vivid idiom meaning 'if you peel off one layer of skin' — suggesting that the veneer is thin. The も after 文明人 means 'even a civilized person.' The sentence has a proverbial, cynical tone — beneath the surface, humans are still wild. civilizationproverbs and sayingsconditional~ば (conditional)一皮むけば (scratch the surface and)
文(ぶん)明(めい) bunmei人(じん) jinも mo一(ひと)皮(かわ)む()け()ば() hitokawamukeba野(や)蛮(ばん)人(じん) yabanjin。 Scratch a civilized person and you find a savage. Literal Civilized-person [even-も] one-skin peel-[if-ば] savage. 一皮むけば is a vivid idiom meaning 'if you peel off one layer of skin' — suggesting that the veneer is thin. The も after 文明人 means 'even a civilized person.' The sentence has a proverbial, cynical tone — beneath the surface, humans are still wild. civilizationproverbs and sayingsconditional~ば (conditional)一皮むけば (scratch the surface and)