しろくまカフェ: Week 3 Discussion (Chapters 5 and 6)

Start of chapter 6!

Page 25, bis version

  • Panel 3

    • Unknown panda: 起床ー!!
      • 起床 - rising, getting out of bed, etc.
    • Unknown panda: Time to get up!
  • Panel 4

    • Commentary: 僕の家の朝は早いです
      • 僕 - I
      • の - (possessive/modifier particle)
      • 家 - house, household, residence, etc.
      • 朝 - morning
      • は - (topic marker)
      • 早い - early
      • です - to be (copula)
    • Commentary: Morning at my house begins early. (Literally, “As for my house’s morning, it is early.” I’m not sure if he means it in the sense I used, or if in the sense of “This is what early morning is like at my house,” or some other meaning. I went with this because I feel like it fits his personality to be mildly commenting on/complaining about how early it is, but really it’s just a guess.)
  • Panel 5

    • Commentary: 朝起きて一番に

      • 朝 - morning
      • 起きて - to wake up (て-form of 起きる)
      • 一番 - first
      • に - (target/indirect object particle)
    • Commentary: First after getting up in the morning (朝起き is a noun meaning “early rising”, but since it’s 起きて rather than 起きして, it looks to me like it’s 朝 + 起きる’s て-form rather than one word here. I might just be overthinking it, and it should be “getting up early” rather than “getting up in the morning” or similar.)

    • Commentary: 家族みんなが中庭に集まって

      • 家族 - family
      • みんな- everyone, everybody, all, etc.
      • が - (subject marker)
      • 中庭 - courtyard
      • に - (target/indirect object marker)
      • 集まって - to gather (て-form of 集まる)
    • Commentary: Everyone in my family gathers in the courtyard

    • Label: パンダさん

    • Label: Panda

5 Likes

Short pages again, so another back-to-back one :slight_smile:

Page 26, bis version

  • Panel 1

    • Commentary: 太極拳をします

      • 太極拳 - Tai Chi Chuan
      • を - (direct object marker)
      • します - to do
    • Commentary: We do Tai Chi Chuan

    • Scribbled commentary: パンダらけ

      • パンダらけ - Full of pandas (Pun combining パンダ and だらけ–full, riddled with, etc.)
    • Scribbled commentary: Panpacked (The best I could come up with :wink: )

  • Panel 2

    • Commentary: おじいちゃんが中国拳法の達人からです

      • おじいちゃん - Grandpa
      • が - (subject marker)
      • 中国拳法 - Chinese martial arts
      • の - (possessive/modifying particle)
      • 達人 - master
      • から - because
      • です - to be (copula)
    • Commentary: We do it because Grandpa is a Chinese martial arts master (“We do it” is implied here, I think. A more literal translation would be like “It’s because Grandpa is…”, but I thought that sounded excessively unnatural in English.)

    • Grandpa: 健康にいいんじゃよ

      • 健康 - Health
      • に - (target/indirect object marker)
      • いい - good
      • ん - (explanatory particle, shortened の)
      • じゃ - to be (copula–equivalent to だ here–in some dialects–Kansai?–and for old/archaic characters–here I think probably because it’s his grandpa)
      • よ - (assertive emphasis particle)
    • Grandpa: It’s good for your health, you know.

  • Panel 3

    • Commentary: 太極拳が終わったら朝ごはんをたべます
      • 太極拳 - Tai Chi Chuan
      • が - (subject marker)
      • 終わったら - when finished (たら-form–if, when, after, etc.–of 終わる–to end/finish, etc.)
      • 朝ごはん - breakfast
      • を - (indirect object marker)
      • たべます - to eat
    • Commentary: After we finish Tai Chi Chuan, we eat breakfast.
6 Likes

I’ll see if I can get a couple of panels in real quick.

bis version page 27

Panel 1:

  • Offscreen commentary (probably Panda’s): 食後はすこし散歩したりします

    • 食後: After a meal
    • は: Marks the topic
    • すこし: Small, slight
    • 散歩: Stroll
    • したり: ~たり form of する; implies one from a selection of actions
    • します: Polite form of する. If I recall correctly, this is “doing” the list of things prevously given with one or more verbs in the ~たり form. “I do things like” the aforementioned.
  • “After eating, we might take a short stroll.” (Not very literal, but I think this is a fairly natural way of saying something similar in English. Imperfect, because it implies that the choice is between taking the stroll or doing nothing, as opposed to between taking the stroll or doing some unspecified other activity.)

  • Panda: シロクマくん家まで行ってみよう

    • シロクマくん: Shirokuma (with familiar suffix)
    • ~家: Suffix for someone’s home
    • まで: “Until” or “as far as” particle. (I think they’re using まで rather than に or へ here to suggest that Panda’s primary goal is just strolling around, and he just happens to stop when he’s close to Shirokuma’s house, rather than going there as a specific destination. )
    • 行って: 行く in ~て form
    • みよう: Volitional of 見る. When joined with another verb in ~て form, implies “do something and see what happens”; i.e., “try doing something.” In volitional form, suggests an intention to do something rather than the action of doing it.
  • “Guess I’ll try going by Shirokuma’s place.”

Panel 3

  • Panda: なにしてるの?
    • なに: What?
    • して: ~て form of する
    • る: Contracted いる helper
    • の: Light question/explanation-seeking marker (I think he uses this rather than just a rising intonation to emphasize that he’s confused by the weird position Shirokuma is in and wants an explanation?)
  • “What are you doing?”

Panel 4

  • Shirokuma: 朝の日課のパワーヨガ
    • 朝: Morning
    • の: Possessive/attributive
    • 日課: Daily routine
    • の: Possessive/attributive
    • パワーヨガ: Power yoga
  • “My morning power yoga routine.”

Panel 5

  • Panda: へ~~~ (“Eh…?”)

  • Shirokuma: 英雄のポーズ

    • 英雄: Hero
    • の: Possessive/attributive
    • ポーズ: Pose
  • “Warrior pose.” (I’m assuming this is the Japanese term for that; that’s what the art looks like. See here.)

7 Likes

I’m doing the exact same as you. I don’t really translate it exactly down though. I try and go for more of nuance feel. I don’t really look at the grammar much because if I’m speaking Japanese I’m focusing more on speaking casually to friends. I’m like super formal talking to my friends haha so when I see these forms I try and apply it in LINE conversations to friends in Japan.

Also I’m super late this week. I’m glad I’m keeping up with it and I can see familiar names that’s been going along for ride. Thanks everyone for your work on interpreting, translating, and bringing some context to this punny story we’re reading! お疲れ様です!

1 Like

Page 28, bis version

  • Panel 1

    • Panda: いろんなポーズがあるんだ

      • いろんな - Various
      • ポーズ - Pose
      • が - (subject marker)
      • ある - to exist
      • んだ - (explanatory)
    • Panda: There are various poses

    • Shirokuma: うん

    • Shirokuma: Yeah

  • Panel 2

    • Commentary: 太陽礼拝のポーズ
      • 太陽 - Sun
      • 礼拝 - worship
      • の - (modifier particle)
      • ポーズ - pose
    • Commentary: Warrior 1 pose (This seems to be the actual Japanese name for the yoga pose called “Warrior 1” in English, rather than being a pun, unless I’m missing something.)
    • Commentary: Sun salutation pose (Thanks @NLeseul!)
Explanation
  • Panel 3

    • Commentary: 三勝零敗のポーズ

      • 三 - Three
      • 勝 - win, victory
      • 零 - zero
      • 敗 - loss
      • の - (modifier particle)
      • ポーズ - pose
    • Commentary: Three-wins-zero-losses pose (零敗 can also be treated as a word by itself–meaning both ‘undefeated’ but also ‘shut out’, etc. apparently–but I think it’s meant to be treated as quantity + noun, like with 三勝.)

    • Sign: 北白熊

      • 北 - North
      • 白熊 - Polar Bear
    • Sign: North Polar Bear

  • Panel 4

    • Commentary: 駆付三杯のポーズ

      • 駆付 - to rush (stem of 駆け付ける/駆付ける/駆けつける with the okurigana crammed in the kanji, as far as I can tell.)
      • 三杯 - three cups
      • の - (modifier particle)
      • ポーズ - pose
    • Commentary: Three cups of sake pose (This translation comes from the vocab sheet–thanks to whoever added that! According to the vocab sheet, the phrase 駆付三杯 means “Three cups of sake which latecomers to a party are made to drink”. After a bit of searching, I was able to confirm that, as well.)

    • Shirokuma: どーも どーも

      • どーも - Thank you (どうも with ー instead of う)
    • Shirokuma: Thank you, thank you

  • Panel 5

    • Commentary: 疲労困憊のポーズ
      • 疲労困憊 - Total exhaustion
      • の - (modifier particle)
      • ポーズ - pose
    • Commentary: Total exhaustion pose
  • Panel 6

    • Commentary: もう結構のポーズ
      • もう - Already
      • 結構 - fine (as in, “I’m fine”), okay, etc., no thanks
      • の - (modifier particle)
      • ポーズ - pose
    • Commentary: I’m fine pose
    • Commentary: No thanks pose (Changed this because the pose is meant specifically in the “no thanks” way, to tell Shirokuma to cut out all the poses.)
  • Afterword

    • Bear Cupcake: けっこう頑張ったのに・・・。
      • けっこう - quite, reasonably, fairly, etc. (I believe it’s an adverb in this case, so the meaning is a little different than above)
      • 頑張った - persevered, persisted, kept at it, etc. (past form of 頑張る)
      • のに - although, even though, etc.
    • Bear Cupcake: Even though he’s quite persistent… (Can’t quite a make sense of this one. It seems maybe like it’s supposed to be contrasting against Panda in the last panel, but I can’t quite figure out exactly how it’s meant to be taken.)
    • Bear Cupcake: Even though he worked so hard… (Thanks @Kazzeon!)

Despite not having that much text, this was actually pretty tough.

In any case, that’s it for this week’s translation (excepting corrections, of course)!

6 Likes

The phrase suggests “sun salutation” to me, which is a cycle of 12 poses you’re supposed to do in the morning or something. And indeed, searching for 太陽礼拝 does come up with a lot of images of the sun salutation cycle, such as this one.

But, yes, the art is pretty clearly Warrior I from that first link, which doesn’t appear to be part of the sun salutation. So I’m not sure what happened there.

Incidentally, you will also note Shirokuma’s pose from second panel on the previous page is the one numbered “8” in that sun salutation image. It’s called downward-facing dog (or just “downward dog”), and it is my nemesis. Apparently the Japanese name for that one, according to that image, is 下向きの犬のポーズ; that’s straightforward enough.

4 Likes

Ah, that makes sense. I did get images of an entire cycle of poses when I searched, then to figure out the English name, I just searched for lists of yoga poses and compared them to the panel, too. I just assumed it was the name of one of the poses in the cycle.

Not being able to read well enough to understand Japanese websites plus knowing nothing about yoga got me, I guess :wink:

2 Likes

I also thought about “Sun Salutation” when I read it

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Also, I checked with my wife, who’s been studying tai chi, to see if she recognizes the movement the pandas are doing at the beginning of the chapter, and she pretty quickly said “Crane Spreads Wings.” I don’t know anything about tai chi, so I’ll take her word for it.

4 Likes

Isn’t this, “Even though he worked so hard.”?
I imagine referring to the fact that Panda stopped Shirokuma from doing more poses, and he looks a bit sad.

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Ah, that makes sense! Rather than “I’m fine pose”, something more like “No thanks pose” or “That’s enough pose”. At least something of that feeling. He’s basically telling Shirokuma to stop with all the poses, and the cupcake is responding to that.

4 Likes

How about “Pandamonium”? :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:

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Panderful.

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Heads up for everyone who isn’t reading ahead:
The next chapter is 12 pages long and has a ton of tough kanji. Don’t put it off if you wanna stay current.

4 Likes

Oh gosh. I was gonna wait until Wednesday but might just start tomorrow. Thanks for the tip!

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@jaearess @Wiggle It means “all pandas” or “only pandas”
だらけ is like “full of” something. Since パンダ ends with だ and だらけ begins with だ they made a word pun because it was a picture of nothing but pandas.

Next week’s thread is here! \o/ I didn’t forget what are you talking about :joy:

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