This week was honestly the worst and I had to heavily rely on other’s translations and chatgpt (which I’ve never used but it super helpful in breaking down sentences).
I really need to study grammar, but the book club, reviews, and work are taking all my time at the moment. Genki chapter five will have to wait.
I lost motivation about part way through, but I made it!! At least the last pages were easy!
Now, translations.
Bleh at least that is over and I can do week five.
Like last time, I think you got everything basically right 
just be careful: it’s always “beast of the seal” not “seal of beasts”.
One sentence gave everyone a hard time here : それぞれ好き勝手に行動したが りよる上に、並の物では 歯が立たない
Took me a while myself. Let’s break it down:
それぞれ: each one,
好き: what one like
勝手に: as one pleases, at one’s convenience (the kanji means “winner hand”).
行動: action, doing something
したがりよる: this the verb する (to do), in its したい form which means “to want to do”. Except you can’t use this form to speak about others desire, so したい becomes した+がる which somehow means “to appear to want”. That’s what you use to talk about what others want. Then, this is further modified into したがり (masu stem) + よる, which is Kansai ben for the progressive form.
X上に: and on top of X
並の物: normal / average / regular thing.
では: That the で particle to indicate a mean of action, followed by a は.
歯が立たない : literally “hard/impossible to chew”. Means that something is outside is one’s capacity.
So, what we get at the end : “Each one, as they liked / pleased / on their own accord, would do what they wanted and on top of that, using regular means, they couldn’t be handled, managed” (and so that’s why he had to create that book with a beast of the seal and all).
@araigoshi Hey just a heads up, the forward link to the next week on this thread is missing!
link for week 5
I fell behind because life went on a fast forward mode, but whew this reading was a challenge. A huge thank you to people who put up their translations, they helped so much as I wrestled through this. On to the next week!
Oof I also fell very behind between life and week 4’s reading/grammar being a huge struggle, but in a way I’m glad to see I wasn’t the only one. I was feeling pretty embarrassed and I wanted to quit after realizing I had fallen behind so far, but I also really want to finally finish reading something!! So I am just catching up now. Thank you to everyone who already put some translations and vocab up, I definitely could not have done it without your help!
couple small Qs:
pg 31 uses 創った when referring to the making of the cards. What’s with the kanji here? I initially thought it was another example of an older kanji style being used over the more modern 作る, but then I saw 作る being used on the next page many times so I have no idea anymore hahah
Also, I see the usage of both 魔力 and 魔法. I don’t understand when the choice is made between them. Is 魔力 referring to magic power/MP in the most elemental sense, while 魔法 is more like a singular usage of magic/one spell?
Based on a few comparisons I found via google search (in other words, I hope someone else will chime in to say whether this is correct!), it seems like:
作る is more of a general verb for making something, and is the most common.
造る is more specifically used for building/manufacturing large tangible objects.
創る is more specifically used for creating something new out of nothing.
I picked up this volume the other day out of sheer nostalgia. CCS was one of the first manga I read a very long time ago, but I can elucidate a bit on the subject.
Spoiler:
We’ll find out much later that Clow, like many of Clamp’s characters, is kind of a whimsical jerk. He’s extremely powerful, and the cards were made…well, if I recall correctly, to do random chores like drying laundry.
MORE spoiler:
He also died a really long time ago. He knew he was going to do die, and, before doing so, sealed the cards in preparation for a future successor. Now the seal has been released and the cards are running amuck. Which is kind of what he intended. A wheels within wheels sort of guy, Clow was.
Edit:trying to fix tags.
