I'm curious as to what you thought it could have been mmm.
also i don't think that anything is intrinsically waiting for anyone...to me it seems that the light "resting" approximates the feeling i get from the Japanese.

I should have noticed and asked you about this at the same time I made my first post here about another mistake.

But 灯がともる is the usual phrase. I just cannot swear that i haven't heard 灯がとまる, though. As far as dictionary forms, the former would be the winner.

I think you're right, Nagoyankee...it's from a light novel, so every so often "unique" Japanese is used.

That's pretty much how I saw it. It's serene, in a way.

何もできはしない

I don't remember seeing this before today.

Is this part of the game, too? I know what it means but I'm trying hard not to participate and let the younger players play.

"Game" or just phrases we come across that we think we can stump each other with... I don't expect to stump you, Nagoyankee...but just to make discussion on forms we don't see as often. Please don't hold back any opinions...

Thanks MMM!

「何もできはしない」 means "There's nothing (someone) could do." It's more dramatic speech than everyday speech. You will hear it in plays, films, manga/anime, dramas, etc. You would look pretty strange if you said that orally in real life. However, you will see people using this phrase 「～～はしない」 in serious letters.

My own translation of 「農家の窓にはあたたかい灯がとまっている。」 would be:

"Warm light burned in the farmhouse windows."

There's no verb 'wait' in that sentence at all.

Thanks Nagoyankee. I think that "burning" conveys the warmth or serenity I felt was implied, (maybe I was overthinking it).

I had heard 「～はしない」before, but not 「何もできはしない」. I suppose it does sound a bit overly dramatic. This was from the same light novel, and it is from the perspective of a person who basically threw his life away after a tragic event, and was making excuses to himself about his pathetic state.

I'll try and post some more zingers...but if anyone else comes across a sentence or phrase that might make "the masters" think twice, please don't hesitate to share!

I felt the same thing from the original Japanese. While I wouldn't call this figurative speech, I really think that 'warm light' is an indirect way of expressing the tender, loving family atmosphere at dinner time or after dinner inside the house.

So I was actually right? Maybe I unleased a Japanese language gene into my system.

That's one of the fun, but frustrating things about deep language learning. Sometimes I know exactly what something means in Japanese, but I don't know how to describe it in English.