木村：最近、娘がつまらないことで悩んでいるようで。
佐藤：親には愚にもつかないことのように思えますが、本人にとっては重大なんですよね。
Gu ni mo tsukanai
Kimura: Saikin, musume ga tsumaranai koto de nayande iru yoo de.
Sato; Oya ni wa gu ni mo tsukanai koto no yoo ni omoemasu ga, honnin ni totte wa juudai nan desu ne.
Kimura: My daughter worries about the silliest things lately.
Sato: They may seem trivial to her parents, but to her they're very important.
Gu ni mo tsukanai means silly, ridiculous, absurd or trivial.
Anyone with a daughter of a marriageable age must have experienced the same thing: there are trials and tribulations that she goes through which her parents just cannot understand.
What should she wear to her friend's wedding? "How about the dress you bought the other day?" you suggest. No, that's too colorful, and she doesn't want to stand out. "Well, how about a kimono?" you offer. That's no good either because it will get dirty when they go out after the reception. You can't win. "Why don't you just decide for yourself, then?"
Gu ni mo tsukanai koto de nayande iru to omotte iru n'desho (You think I'm getting all bothered about nothing, don't you?), she retorts. And she's right. She worries about how to get rid of the pimples on her forehead, she anguishes over how to politely refuse invitations from her bosses at work, Dore mo kore mo, gu ni mo tsukanai koto bakari da (They're all such trivial matters).
Sometimes my daughter has to give presentations at work, and she'll spend days beforehand worrying about what only amounts to a 5-minute task. "Do you really need to spend so much time preparing just for a 5-minute presentation?" I ask her. She answers, Gu ni mo tsukanai shitsumon wo sum hito ga, kanarazu iru no yo (You can guarantee there'll be someone who'll start asking totally trivial questions.)
If that's the case, then I've experienced the same thing myself. After giving a lecture and allowing time for questions at the end, there are often people who get completely off the point and Gu ni mo tsukanai koto wo, kiite kuru no da (Ask the most absurd questions).
Sometimes they even go as far as to begin by saying Chotto gu ni mo tsukanai koto wo, o-kiki shimasu ga... (This is a rather silly question, but...). Unfortunately, I can't reply by saying, Gu ni mo tsukanai koto nara, kikanaide kudasai (If it's a silly question, then don't ask it), because this is really a uniquely Japanese expression of the speaker's humility. In reality they are asking in all seriousness.