English translation: extreme, a different level of (depending on context)
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06:19 May 15, 2009
Japanese to English translations [PRO] Art/Literary - Poetry & Literature / 雪国
Explanation: Since you gave more context, here is how I would translate it:
"Is it really so cold that you have to dress like that?"
"Yeah, we have to get ready for winter already. After it snows, the night before a sunny day is when it especially gets cold. Tonight it's probably already below freezing."
"No wonder! No matter what I touch, the coldness is biting."
"Last year, the coldest it got was twenty-something below freezing."
"What about snow?"
"I dunno... Normally it's about 78 feet, but when it gets deep, it's probably more than 23 feet over 1 joh"
[1 joh = 10 shaku = 10 feet approximately]
I applaud your efforts to wade through a book in another language! Good luck!
I am sure it is translated in many languages, but I want to read this work in original to learn Japanese. I just needed some explanation of what was not quite clear to me. Thanks a lot!
This expression means that the coldness is far greater (far colder) than elsewhere, I believe. "No wonder! The coldness is extreme, no matter what you touch." is one way to translate it -- "extreme" can be "deep" or "cutting" or "amazing", et cetera, depending on the nuance.
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Answers
1 hr confidence: peer agreement (net): +4
No comparison.
Explanation: It means;
The cold climate here is outstanding, far different from other places.
In Japanese, ちがうmeans 1) wrong 2) different
and in this case it's 2) from 格が違う meaning
it belongs to a different level/rank.
Other related expressions for the same meaning
are 格別 and 格段.
Yumico Tanaka Local time: 11:15 Works in field Native speaker of: Japanese PRO pts in category: 16
The translation workplace 
peer agreement (net): +4
