Suppose we have quantity that is surely at least one, but likely or possibly many, what would be the best way to say that?
Note that words that simply say many, several, few, isn't what I really search for, I want the emphasis more on one, but still maybe many.
As an example, a sentence from a mystic filled love story, I'm currently trying to write, for some strange reason it come to me in English, like I that or not.
"... but after [one-or-more] lives spent in North European peasant setting I would likely decide myself unworthy to touch such otherworldly object of incalculable value, even if I guessed she is waiting to be dressed, what couldn't have happened given the level of independence I enjoyed in my upbringing on the countryside."
I could just use "several," but that emphasise more-than-one, while I would like reader to still conclude that the current life is enough, despite the narrator may think otherwise.
The narrator, the boy also refer to, besides the current live in with he is just six years old at this point, actually exactly to one of his previous lives (as a girl btw.), but his memories of before are mixed up and fragmented, and he is not sure was there more of this kind he don't recall or discern, as many older memories are much more eventful and vivid.
As to narrator voice, there no restrictions, even arcane technical term can be considered if it express the meaning precisely, but easily understandable, vague expression would be preferable. Forty years old man inserts this as a memory flash while telling his high school love story.
I have rather skimpy knowledge of English, so forgive me errors there surely is, and don't be shy to point them out.