私：思い切って、もどったらどうでしょうね。
運転手：それが、前も後ろも車がいっぱいで、にっちもさっちも行かないんですよ。
Nicchi mo sacchi mo ikanai
(Kootsuu-jiko de juutai-chuu ni)
Watashi: Omoi-kitte, modottara doo deshoo ne.
Untenshu: Sore ga, mae mo ushiro mo kuruma ga ippai de, nicchi mo sacchi mo ikanai n' desu yo.
(In a traffic jam due to an accident)
Me: I wonder if we shouldn't just give up and turn back?
Driver: The thing is, there's a solid line of cars both in front and behind us. We're struck in a spot here.
The expression, nicchi mo sacchi mo ikanai describes being struck in a tight corner, either literally-unable to move because you are blocked on all sides-or metaphorically-being in a predicament or dilemma.
Recently, a friend accompanied me on a trip to Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh City, our first stop, was a bustling place, busy with traffic and cheerful people. We visited the Cu Chi underground tunnel complex dug by the National Liberation Front during the Vietnam War. This was where the American army, pinned down by the fire of the Viet Cong, nicchi mo sacchi mo ikazu komatte ita no da (were caught in a tight corner).
From Ho Chi Minh we flew to Da Nang, and chartered a car to Hue, the old capital. Our driver took us through beautiful open rice growing areas. We passed through small villages where people gathered at markets. And then all of a sudden, as we were going through a mountain pass, we got caught in a traffic jam. "What's wrong?" I asked the driver. "The bridge is down and a big truck has gone over the edge. And that's the only bridge connecting Da Nang and Hue," he told me
Trucks and buses were loaded up
to their roofs with luggage, and Kuruma ga tsugi-tsugi ni kite, nicchi mo sacchi mo ikanai jootai ni natte iru (Cars kept on coining and coining until we were well and truly hemmed in). The passengers who had been squeezed onto a long-distance bus from Ho Chi Minh to Hanoi started getting off and eating their lunch: The general consensus seemed to be that Nicchi mo sacchi mo ikanai nara, awatete mo shikata nai (If we're stuck here anyway, it won't help getting worked up about it).
But there were students waiting for me at the university in Hue. Kono, nicchi mo sacchi mo ikanai jootai kara, doo ni ka shite nukedashitai (I wish there were some way I could get out of this predicament), I thought.