How to understand this long and complex sentence in Spanish?
Here is a sentence from a book I am reading. The part before this sentence is about the main character wanting to end his relationship with a married woman. The parts especially confusing to me are in bold.
...demasiado tarde se dieron cuenta del peso que ejercían sobre su ánimo unas normas sociales que habían juzgado diverido contravenir para comprobar luego que formaban parte no sólo de su conciencia, sino de su propia identidad.
...too much later, from the weight laid (why plural ejercían?)over his spirit they (who? ) realized some social norms which have judged fun transgression (can I treat "contravenir" as a noun?) for testing (makes no sense), which later formed not only part of his conscience but also his own identity.
Maybe I totally misunderstood this sentence. I would appreciate some help to properly understand it.
Gracias,
2 Answers
.demasiado tarde se dieron cuenta del peso que ejercían sobre su ánimo unas normas sociales que habían juzgado divertido contravenir para comprobar luego que formaban parte no sólo de su conciencia, sino de su propia identidad.
..too late they discovered that some social norms, which they had thought amusing to violate, weighed heavily on his mind and afterwards proved part of not just his conscience, but his very identity.
That's my very best offer of translation. For the grammar, murkilator is right, the normas sociales are in plural. Contravenir is a verb. To break the rules, to violate. I hope this helps!
They realized the weight that some social norms that they had thought to be amusing to break were putting on their spirits, only to confirm later that they formed part of not only their conscience, but also of their own identity.
It is ejercían because "unas normas sociales" (plural) is what is putting the weight on their spirits. I'm not really sure if contravenir is a noun here, I'm not a grammar guy.
