The story so far:
おむすびを ひろった かにに さるが いいました。
The monkey said to the crab, who had found a rice ball:
「かきの たねと おむすびを こうかんしようよ。 たねを うえたら おいしい みが どっさり なるよ。」
"Let's exchange your rice ball for my kaki seed! If you planted the seed, lots of delicious fruit would grow!"
「それは いい。 こうかんしよう。」
"OK. Let's exchange."
かにが たねを うえて まいにち みずを やると かきの みが たくさん なりました。
When the crab planted the seed and gave it water every day, a lot of kaki fruit grew.
かには かきを とろうと おもいますが つるんと おちて きに のぼることが できません。
The crab thinks he'll pick the kaki, but he falls down making a sliding sound; he can't climb the tree.
Our next sentence is easy:
かにが こまっていると さるが やってきました。
crab[subj] be-worried[ING][when] monkey[subj] come-along[polite,past]
"While the crab was worrying, along came the monkey."
The verbs used here are こまる, to be troubled or worried, used in the -ing form っている; and やってくる, which is listed in the dictionary as 'to come along/around, to turn up', used in the polite past form.
This was such a doozy that we can go straight to the next sentence.
「きのばりは おいらに まかせて。」
This, too, is a pretty straightforward dictionary search:
きのぼり means 'tree climbing', and is obviously related to き (tree) and the verb のぼる (to climb) that we saw two sentences ago.
おいら means 'I, me', and as 'Systemjap' explained to us in his video in an earlier post, this is a form used in manga/anime, and by little boys living in the country, as he put it.
The last word is the -TE form of まかせる, to entrust, to leave to.
Again, the translation is easy:
"Tree-climbing[topic] me[to] entrust[-TE]."
"Leave the tree climbing up to me!"
Wow, this was also easy. Let's take on something more challenging:
さるは するすると きに のばり かきを ぱく ぱく ぱくと いただきます。
The first word is our monkey.
Next するすると is listed, with and without the と, as 'swiftly, quickly'.
のばり is a noun, but it doesn't have any particle with it.
ぱく is another onomatopoeia, which stands for eating. The game PacMan is named after this sound (if you've ever played it, PacMan also makes this sound). As with onomatopoeia before, this is followed by a と for some reason. A good English equivalent would be 'myam myam myam'.
いただきます is a well-known expression, 'bon appétit', but it's also the polite form of いただく, which means (among others) to eat or drink. But this is a bit of an unusual form called "kenjougo", normally used when a lower person talks about himself to a higher one. I think that this form is used here to remind kids of the expression.
As you can see, the grammar is very loose:
monkey[subj] swiftly tree[to] ascent;climbing kaki[obj] myam-myam-myam eat[polite].
Especially the 'climbing' without any particle is strange, but we can come up with some sort of free translation:
"The monkey quickly climbed up the tree and ate the kaki. Yummy!"
Thursday, September 17, 2009
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I am truly freaked out! I was never as optimistic about our level as you, but this is just a slap on the face.
ReplyDeleteIt's humbling to think that 3-year-old Japanese kids can listen to this story without problems. What have we got ourselves into?! ;)
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