A：初めにイラクがクウェートを占領した。
B：そして、イラクと多国籍軍との戦いになった。
A：挙げ句の果てに、イラクが負けて、フセインは失脚したんですね。
Ageku no Hate
A: Hajime ni Irafeu ga Kueto wo senryoo shita.
B: Soshite, Irafeu to tafeofeusefei-gun to no tatakai ni natta.
A: Ageku no hate ni, Iraku ga makete, Fusein wa shifefeyafeu shita'n desu ne.
A: First Iraq occupied Kuwait.
B: Then war broke out between Iraq and the allied forces.
A: Andthen in theend Iraq lost and Hussein was overthrown.
Ageku no hate (ni) is used before describing a result (usually negative) and can be translated as "finally, in the end, to make matters worse, ultimately, to top it off." The word ageku originally refers to the last 7 syllables of a renga or haiku. The first 17 syllables (5, 7, 5) are called hokku.
I chose this week's example because I thought it would be easy to understand. Instead of ageku no hate ni Arabs, though, would probably want to say zan'nen na koto ni. Indeed, there must be many politicians who regret that they weren't able to do more to prevent the bombing of Baghdad - the death and destruction have now left the city in ruins. Many of the allied soldiers, victors to be sure, must be returning home wounded inside, spiritually scarred.
Let's look at another example. Imagine there is a salaried worker who doesn't get along with one of his colleagues and that one day their quarreling takes a turn for the worse. Ageku no hate ni, kare wa kaisha wo yamete shimatta (In the end, he ended up leaving the company). One continues to hope adults will learn to talk through their differences. Our continued and collective inability to do so seems to be one of our greatest weaknesses, however.
Here is another example: A married man invites his secretary out for coffee. Soon after he asks her out to dinner. They then begin dating. In the end, they end up living together (Ageku no hate ni, kanojo to kurashi hajimeta). If this had happened 20 years ago, the Japanese wife would probably have put up with her husband's behavior and patiently waited for him to return. "For the sake of the children," she would have said. Women today, however, are more apt to get angry and ask for a divorce. Ageku no hate ni, otto wa tsuma ni rikon wo yookyuu sareta (In the end, the wife asked her husband for a divorce). It's too bad many Japanese husbands would probably be shocked at this. Haven't they realized times have changed? Note also that instead of ageku no hate ni it's possible to say simply ageku i.e. Sono ageku, rikon suru koto ni natta (Their marriage ultimately ended in divorce).