Please make sure to mark the page number on top of your post. For the sake of clarity, let’s follow the numbering in the new edition. (If you have the old edition, subtract 8 to get the corresponding page number in the old edition.)
Don’t be afraid of asking questions, even if they seem embarrassing at first. All of us are here to learn and someone else will probably be grateful you asked!
To you lurkers out there: join the conversation, it’s fun!
Vocabulary sheet
Kindly created by @frayderike.
Participants
I am reading along
I am still reading but I haven’t reached this part yet
Section 2 thread created! Reading starts tomorrow (midnight on March 3rd Japanese time). I’ve added a daily reading schedule so it’s easier to keep track of where we are up to. If you spot any mistakes please let me know!
Thanks for the new thread! It’s super helpful to have both the daily schedule and the last lines for ebooks in the intro post.
I struggled a lot with the pacing on the previous chapter so just read the whole thing and didn’t know when I could discuss what
Do you think we could move the last lines right under the daily schedule to make it even easier to follow?
You often see cats thoroughly licking their stomach and paws, doing things such as licking the front of the paw and shaping down the figure of the head, right?
ネコが 一日に 何度も、このように 毛づくろいを するめには、 いくつか わけが あります。
The reason is that cats will often groom themselves in this manner several times in one day.
If you got a notification from me, Micki, I was just updating the category to be in the “Reading” subcategory, which is where the other threads are hosted (and indeed all the book clubs).
Here’s my attempt. I felt like I was sometimes doing the thing where I used existing knowledge to try and piece the sentences together once I got close enough.
Just a heads up @IgorTheGreat that you have a small typo in your third sentence. するめ→するの
Cats + object subject sentence
One’s belly and paws + 先 + object marker (hind legs maybe?)
licking with care + to do
with front legs and face
to smooth their appearance nicely
happen to notice, right?
Have you noticed cats carefully licking their front paws and using them to comb down their belly and hind legs?
ネコが 一日に 何度も、このように 毛づくろいを するのには、 いくつか わけが あります。
For cats, to groom themselves like this many times in a day is one of the few reasons they do this.
What a horrible sentence to start this section! In that first sentence I think we see again something we’ve seen a few times now - an onomatopoeic word (in this case ペロペロ) followed by と, being used as an adverb. In this case I think it translates something like “with a licking sound”.
I read the あしの先 as “the ends of the legs” and した as the past of する (not 下). EDIT - we finally worked out it was 舌 - tongue.
I think this breaks down something like this (not sure if I have the のには bit right):
ネコが - speaking of cats
一日に 何度も - many times each day
このように - in this way
毛づくろいを する - doing personal grooming
の - turning previous phrase into a noun
には - in regard to
いくつか わけが あります - there are several reasons
There are several reasons why cats groom themselves in this way many times a day.
先 really killed me in this one. Until now I thought it was only used in regards to time. I saw on ichi.moe it can mean location so that’s the meaning I used
Thanks for all your help so far @Micki, I’d be fine doing this with no one reading or second checking and just cross checking others translations with mine but your comments have helped me learn a lot.
Am I way off on this sentence? Feels like one of the first times I understand every component of the sentence (except if I understand あとのお, behind/tail or is お just a prefix?) and it’s a short sentence on top of that but having trouble understanding the meaning still.
まず、 食べ物を 食べた あとの お手入れです。
Firstly, eaten food groomed from the behind.
ひげや からだの 毛に ついた よごれを とりのぞいて、 毛なみを きれいに ととのえます。
To remove dirt attached to whiskers and fur, and tidy wavy fur and keep it pretty.
Could だに mean mite/tick here? Seems likely with some of the other sentences. Not sure how it works with から. I usually think of it as “from” but does it mean husk here?
毛なみを ととのえておくと、ものが ちょっとでも からだに さわると、すぐ わかるのです。
The expectation is that to tidy wavy fur in advance, cats feel even a little something and discover it immediately.
それで よそ見を していても ものに さわらないで 歩く ことが できます。
And, they are able to do this while walking, without irritating and not looking.
また、からだに ついた ノミなどの 虫を なめて とる ことも あります。
And, fleas or similar insects attached to their body are lapped up and harvested too.
I actually was asking about the following sentence, which begs the question why I knew it was fur on the body but got confused on the next section with でも体に触る… I guess since it was talking about little things I thought it might be dropping mites/fleas in there.
Cats, carefully licking their own belly as well as the tips of their feet, licking with the tongue, as well as combing down the face with their forefeet, they take good notice of their condition, don’t they?
ネコが 一日に 何度も、このように 毛づくるいを するのには、いくつか わけが あります。
Cats, grooming in this way, many times in one day, there are several reasons for this.
Edit: just had a look at the other translations, just wondering what others think of したで as “with the tongue”, or think probably past of する, as Micki suggested?
Page 51 Some difficult sentences again. @2000kanji translations look right to me. Some thoughts:
あと is after and relates to the 食べた before it meaning “after eating”. Grammar link
The の is a possessive particle.
The お is an honorific prefix of 手入れ (care).
So it’s: [After eating food] care - (which @2000kanji expressed much better as “First, care after eating their food.”
No it’s 体に.
毛なみを - coat (of fur) + object marker
ととのえておく - ととのえる (to tidy up) in て-form plus おく. The て-おく construction means “to do something in advance/in preparation”
と - if/when
ものが - things plus が particle
ちょっと でも - even though little
からだに - to the body
さわる - touching
と - if/when
すぐ - straight away
わかる - feeling
のです - explanatory particle plus です
By tidying up the fur in advance, when things touch the body, no matter how small, it is felt.
Verb in て-form followed by も means: even if. So this is: Even if looking aside, the cat is able to walk without touching things (presumably means without bumping into things).
It helps me learn writing them so it’s a win/win! Cheers!
