ちいさな森のオオカミちゃん 🌳 Week 11 (The Wolf of the Small Forest Book Club)

Japanese Language Book Clubs
1
Week 11 July 22 2023
Pages 107–117
Chapter 5
Last week Week 10
Next week Week 12
Home Thread ちいさな森のオオカミちゃん ・ The Wolf of the Small Forest

Last frame of this week’s part: It’s the end of the chapter, so you’ll know it when you see it!

We’re reading volume 1 of this manga as part of the Absolute Beginner Book Club.

cover
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Vocabulary Sheet

The base for this vocab sheet was prepared using a fair amount of OCR/parsing.

Some notes for using/improving it:

  • Some words might have been recognized or parsed incorrectly, e.g. they are split even though they belong together, or they are simply wrong and aren’t even in the manga. Feel free to correct/remove those if you see them!
  • Words might be missing. Feel free to add them!
  • By default, translations in grey are auto-filled with a list of possible meanings (from a Wiktionary database). If you know the specific meaning in this context, feel free to fill it in! (It’ll turn black then.)

Discussion Guidelines

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Not all pages have page numbers on them, so you may need to find a page with numbers to determine which page you’re on.

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I enjoyed reading this chapter :slight_smile:
I knew all the grammar but got to see a some of vocabulary that I’m trying to learn with jpdb, awesome to see the words in the wild: 休憩 and 揃う (written in kana: そろった).

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What a nice chapter !!
The only word I was unfamiliar with this week was 偵察 - I had to look up what the English equivalent ‘reconnaisance/scouting’ meant as well :sweat_smile:

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Question about an interaction on p. 111

At the beginning of the page, Ookami-chan and Kitsune-san are talking. I can translate the individual parts of the sentences, but I’m not sure I have the context right.

Ookami: We walked a lot, (right?). I’m tiiired…
Kitsune: If that’s the case, it would have been better to quit.
Ookami: But, you seemed to be looking forward to it.
Kitsune: I don’t care!

Kitsune was opposed to going earlier. She only went because Dryad wanted to go really bad, and because she couldn’t say no to Ookami? And now that Ookami starts saying that she’s tired, Kitsune sees another chance to get her to call it off. Or maybe she’s just nagging, but going ‘I told you so’. Then Ookami turns it back around, and says (quite oblivious?) that Kitsune herself seemed to look forward to it? Which triggers a (funny) outburst from Kitsune once again.

Is that what’s happening here? Is Ookami really so oblivious? Or is she teasing Kitsune here?

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p111

Looking forward to is “楽しみ”, “楽しそう” in this context mean “to look like they’re having fun”
So I think they are saying
“But you seemed to be having fun”

And “知らない” can mean “I don’t care”:
https://youtu.be/9X5Toks4kJ4?t=1310

Still not sure myself, what is exactly going on though after those two tho

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I interpreted this as Ookami saying something along the lines of ‘But it looked like you were having fun’ and Kitsune responding ‘Whatever!’ (I find it hard to directly translate 知らない in this context but it’s something dismissive) because she’s kind of a tsundere and doesn’t want to be proven wrong (ie that she does actually enjoy doing things with the group, despite what she says)

While 楽しみ does mean looking forward to, 楽しい means fun, enjoyable etc and 楽しそう means it looks fun

edit: didn’t realise someone already responded oops :sweat_smile:
But good to know I’m on the right track!

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Ok, this weeks translation attemps! Hopefully I’m warmed up from having tackled スーパーの後でやに吸うふたり!

p107

ドライアド：えっ うそ！？
Dryad: Ehhh… You’re lying (note: used way more casually in Japan, more like a “no way”)

オオカミ：あの丸い木もう何回も見たような
Okami: That round tree, how manyt times have we seen it

ドライアド：言われてみれば
Grammar’s a bit tricky here, best guess is that’s it いう inflected to the passive form いわれる and then the conjunctive form from there いわれて joined with みる (in the try sense) inflected into the the conditional form with みれば. So “If you say that and can try”?

きつね：まあ。。。こうなる予感はしてたけど。。。
Kitsune: (Paraphrased what I think it means) Well… this hunch came through

p108

ふくろう：何か困っているみたいでですね
ふくろう：行きましょう
Fukurou: Some sort of trouble seems to be there
Fukurou: Let’s go

ふくろう：こんにちはオオカミちゃん
ふくろう：なにをしているんですか？
「ふくろうの札」：ふくろうさん 森の学者さ
「みみずくの札」：ミミズクさん森の偵察役
Fukurou: Hello, Okami-chan
Fukurou: What are you doing?
Fukurou’s label: Fukurou (owl)-san, the forest’s scholar
Mimizuku’s label Mimizuku(horned owl)-san, the forest’s scout

p109

オオカミ：ふくろうさんとみみずくさん！
オオカミ：じつは。。。
Okami: Fukurou-san and Mimizuku-san!
Okami: The truth is…

オオカミ：それで。。。道に迷っちゃって。。。
Okami: With that, we got lost from the road and…

ふくろう：亀のおじいさん。。。山頂にいいもの
Fukurou: Old Turtle… a good thing on the mountaintop?

ふくろう：ーーああ そうか なるほど
Fukurou: Ahh, is that so. I see

p110

ふくろう：その場所なら僕が案内しますよ
ふくろう：ついてきてください
Fukurou: If it’s that place, I’ll guide you
Fukurou: Follow me please

オオカミ：ほんと？ ありがとう！
Okami: Really? Thank you!

ふくろう：ここで少し休憩しましょう
Fukurou: Let’s take a small break here

p111

オオカミ：はぁ〜よく歩いたね疲れたぁ
オオカミ：だからやめておけば良かったのに
オオカミ：ね〜
Okami: (sfx, not sure what’s it’s supposed to be?) We walked a lot, and became tired
Okami: That said, it’s good we didn’t stop
Okami: Right?

オオカミ：でもきつねさんたのしそうだったよ
Okami: However, Kitsune-san seemed to be enjoying

きつね：知らない！
Kitsune: I don’t think so

ふくろう：。。。そ。。。。か。。。に。。。
Fukurou: (half heard conversation sfx)

ドライアド：ふくろうちゃんなにしてるの？
Dryad: Fukurou-chan, what are you doing?

ふくろう：なんでもありませんよ
Fukurou: It’s nothing

p112

ふくろう：それではあとすこしがんばりましょう
Fukurou: With that, let’s do our best

ふくろう：みなさん着きましたよ
Fukurou: Everyonem we’ve arrived

p113

オオカミ：きれいな星空
Okami: Beauthfil starry sky…

ふくろう：でもこれだけじゃないんです
ふくろう：ここからが本番
Fukurou: However, this isn’t all
Fukurou: From here, the main event

p114

ドライアド？：亀のおじいさんがいってたいいものって
オオカミ?：このことだったんだね
Dryad?: Old turtle did say there would be a good thing…
Okami?: That was the thing, right?

Not 100% clear who’s speaking here. One of the speech bubbles points directly at Okami but her mouth is closed and it could be a continuation of Dryad’s sentence. At the same time, Dryad’s open mouth could just be making noises in awe

p115

かめ：オオカミちゃんたちはちゃんと頂上で花火をみれたかのう
Kane: Okami-chan’s group certainly must be at the top. Probably able to see the firewalks

Again, speaker unclear. The dialogue box points to Kame, but the fact that he seems to reply to it in the next page implies it might be Mimizuka? But then the reply in the next box could just be stereotypical old man musing too.

かめ：そうかそうか
Kame: Is that so, is that so

かめ：ミミズクさんが知らせに来てくれたおかげしゃ。ありがとう
Kame: Mimizuka-san, thanks for noticing and coming to me

p116

かめ：なんではなびを打ち上げれたのかって
Kame: How did we get fireworks?

かめ：なぁに 街に知り合いがいてな
ミミズク：！？
Kame: What? acquaintance in the town?
Mimizuka: Shocked pickachu.jpg

I think Kame is just supposed to be playing coy in that an acquaintance in the town told him there would be fireworks and Mimizuka is surprised since the forest is offically isolationist (but given Okami and Dryad’s activities, pretty bad at carrying that out) and so you wouldn’t expect an elder to be talking with the town.

かめ？：みたらいねんも
かめ？：みんあで見ようかの
Kame?: Let’s watch with everyone again next year

p117

オオカミ：みみずくさんどこに行った？
オオカミ：に花火みたかったよ？
Okami: Mimizuka-san, where did you go?
Okami: (illegible) fireworks where seen

So in some weeks this was a relatively harder week for me actually, for Okami-chan I had a lot of vocab lookups, but in others it was pretty easy, as even without that vocab, the context was clear enough to follow along.

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p107

Xてみる in itself is the “to try to do X”. But this is a set phrase

p111

She’s glad she can finally sit down, so she’s letting out a “Haaaaa…”

I’m pretty sure this is like Ookami, Kitsune and Dryad talking in that order.
Also, the posts above yours are talking about this conversation, check those out.

p114

I think you got it right.

p115

知らせる is “to notify”. And おかげです is better translated as “it’s thanks to…” “It’s thanks to Mimizuka-san coming here to notify me”

p117

That’s 一緒に, and this is 見たい in past tense, so “I wanted to see the fireworks together”

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p. 111

Doh. I actually learned 楽しい way before 楽しみ. It must have been that 楽しみ was used more recently in the book, so that’s where my mind went. With the translation “But you seemed to be having fun”, the interaction makes more sense to me. Kitsune was actually having fun and Ookami rightfully comments on this. Kitsune just doesn’t want to admit it. And answers with something that (from the video, thanks for linking) I’d translate as “Whatever!”

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A little bit late reading this section (compared to my usual saturday morning read through) as I was at a festival all weekend. Anyways, found this section pretty easy but still learned a few new words and kanji.

Glad to see that フクロウ and ミミズク were friendly, from the last panel of last week I thought they were going to be trouble.

New words/kanji:

フクロウ - Owl
ミミズク - Horned Owl
偵察 - Scouting/Reconnaisance
迷う - To get lost
本番 - Real deal / actual event
打ち上げる - To launch / to set off

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Couple more questions that popped up on my re-read, diving a bit deeper into dissecting the text.

p.116

かめ：なんではなびを打ち上げれたのかって
How does this sentence work, exactly? I think I recognize か as the particle that is used to attach a subordinate clause as a question. って seems like a quotation, where the main phrase of the quoting is often omitted. But how does that impact the phrase? Does it imply “How did I [hear/learn] that fireworks were [going to be] set off?”

かめ？：みたらいねんも
かめ？：みんあで見ようかの
I’m unsure how to interpret the sentence ending particles かの here. They are both used to indicate questions, and I’m familiar with the pattern ~ましょうか to soften a suggestion. But that doesn’t seem to be what’s happening here. Especially because か is mostly used in formal sentences as a question marker. And I don’t think you can combine it with の.
My other thought is that maybe it’s a variation on かな, in turtle-speak, to suggest “Maybe let’s watch with everyone again next year.”

Any suggestions here?

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p116

It’s Turtle asking horned owl “Are you wondering about how I managed to set off fireworks?”
Everyhing before the って is in quotes, and the って is a short form for some kind of という.

You have a misread here, it’s “また”, not “みた”. And these are actually a single utterance, but with a stop inbetween.
また来年も
Again next year too…
みんなで見ようかの
let’s watch it together

The か is a sort of “maybe we can”, or “it would be nice if”

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Thanks for the (very!) quick answer. I have no idea how I was supposed to get that much nuance from just a single particle, but that’ll come with time. Hopefully… :smiley:

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The nuance does indeed come over time.

It may help to watch video/audio media (even if English subtitled, although English subtitles might distract from hearing individual sentence-ending particles). This lets you hear how particles sound when spoken in various contexts, giving a strong sense of how they are used differently. It’s something you miss out on if only reading.

If you already consume video/audio media in Japanese, be sure to start listening for some of these things you’re encountering when reading!

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Had this done since Monday. May have started reading some other series in the meantime. And I may or may not keep reading into the second volume of this if I feel like it. Also, this particular section looked especially beautiful with the artwork and those fireworks. :heart_eyes:

Pages 110-112

オオカミ：道に迷っちゃって…
Wolf: We got lost on the road…

フクロウ：亀のおじいさん…山頂にいいもの…
Owl: The old turtle…a good thing on the summit…

フクロウ：その場所なら僕が案内しますよ。
Owl: If it’s that place, I’ll guide you there.

フクロウ：ついてきてください。
Owl: Please follow me.

フクロウ：ここで少し休憩しましょう。
Owl: Let’s rest a little here.

Pages 113-115

オオカミ：よく歩いたね疲れたぁ。
Wolf: We walked a lot. I’m exhausted.

キツネ：だからやめておけば良かったのに。
Fox: That’s why you should have quit while you’re ahead.

オオカミ：でもきつねさん楽しそうだったよ。
Wolf: But Kitsune, it seemed like you were having fun.

フクロウ：何でもありませんよ。
Owl: It’s nothing to worry about.

フクロウ：それではあと少し。頑張りましょう！
Owl: Well then, just a little more. Let’s do our best!

フクロウ：みなさん着きましたよ！
Owl: Everyone, we’ve arrived!

オオカミ：きれいな星空…
Wolf: Pretty, starry sky…

フクロウ：でもこれだけじゃないんです。
Owl: But, it’s not just this.

フクロウ：ここからが本番…
Owl: Now it’s the main event…

Pages 116-118

オオカミ：亀のおじいさん言ってたいいものって。
Wolf: The Old Turtle did say there was a good thing.

オオカミ：このことだったんだね。
Wolf: It was about this.

カメ：オオカミちゃん達はちゃんと頂上で花火を見れたかのう。
Old Turtle: Did they safely see the fireworks on the summit?

カメ：ミミズクさんが知らせに来てくれたおかげじゃ。ありがとう。
Old Turtle: You came to bring me the news. Thank you.

カメ：何で花火を打ち上げられたのかって？
Old Turtle: Why did they launch the fireworks?

カメ：町に知り合いがいてな？
Old Turtle: There’s an acquaintance in the town?

オオカミ？：また来年もみんなで見ようかのー
Wolf?: Let’s watch with everyone again next year…

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I don’t quite understand the end of this chapter.

From p 115, as far as I can tell かめさん and ミミズクさん aren’t with the others. At the end of their conversation (more on that below), they talk about watching the fireworks with everyone next year. And on p 117, オオカミちゃん asks where ミミズクさん was and says she wanted everyone to watch together. So all of this together makes me wonder, where were ミミズクさん and かめさん, and why weren’t they with the others?

Before I saw the translations here, because I was probably trying to find an explanation to the above, I had quite a different interpretation of the conversation on pp 115-116. But I’m really unsure.

So, below I’ve written in my alternative interpretation, and I’d really appreciate if someone could let me know if that makes sense, or if I’ve missed something such that this doesn’t make sense?

p 115

かめ：オオカミちゃんたちはちゃんと頂上で花火をみれたかのう
Kame: Okami-chan’s group are at the top able to see the fireworks
plus imperceptible chatter from ミミズクさん

かめ：そうかそうか
Kame: Is that so, is that so
(perhaps ミミズクさん is saying how happy the group is)

かめ：ミミズクさんが知らせに来てくれたおかげしゃ。ありがとう
Kame: Mimizuka-san, it is thanks to your noticing and coming to me [that they are able to see the fireworks, his first statement above].

In other words, I’m wondering if かめさん is praising ミミズクさん for observing something that led to him being able to figure out that the fireworks were taking place, enabling the others to watch the fireworks. ミミズクさん is the scout after all. The interpretation that he is thanking her for helping the group to the top doesn’t make sense to me because that was the scholar フクロウさん who helped them, not ミミズクさん.

Also, if かめ’s statements are read together:
A: オオカミちゃんたちはちゃんと頂上で花火をみれたかのう
B: ミミズクさんが知らせに来てくれたおかげしゃ。ありがとう
[In English, in B, A order], it would be translated: It’s thanks to ミミズクさん that オオカミちゃん and friends were able to see the fireworks at the summit.

p 116

かめ：なんではなびを打ち上げれたのかって
Kame: How are the fireworks launched? [i.e., where do they come from]

かめ：なぁに 街に知り合いがいてな
ミミズク：！？
Kame: Well, I know an acquaintance in town

So, the interpretation I wonder about is if かめ is saying either he already knows, or he can find out from his acquaintance in town.

かめ：みたらいねんも
かめ：みんなで見ようかの
Kame: Next year, let’s see together [as in, this year they saw the fireworks, and next year they’ll see how the fireworks are launched, i.e., perhaps from a different location together where they can see how the fireworks are being shot into the sky]

This would resolve for me why かめ wasn’t there with the others, maybe he was investigating where the fireworks came from, or perhaps it is both かめ and ミミズク scouting around on the night of the fireworks to get more clues this year that they can use to see even more next year.

Thoughts from anyone else? Is it significant that they weren’t all together, why not, and what does it all mean?

17

Maybe because they were setting off the fireworks?

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nice one, I didn’t even consider that!

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P 115-116

Ok your right! I discussed this with my Japanese friend and she said on p115 kame is thanking the owl for telling him the group is at the top so that he knows when to set off the fireworks. NOW it all makes sense :smile:

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