That would certainly make sense in context, though I don’t know enough to say it for certain! Good catch.
Week 5: Chap 8, Pt 1
We’ve made it to the third chapter of volume two! Check out the home post for details on the week’s reading.
Happy discussing!
Participation Poll:
- I’m reading along
- I’ve already read this part
- I’m still reading but I haven’t reached this section yet
- I’m reading this after the book club has finished
0
voters
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Oh boy, there’s a lot of kanji in this one! Time for a new incantation!
That section looks difficult due to how many kanji are there, but in terms of grammar, you could say it’s very simple! Instead of trying to translate directly, consider why it’s structured why it is, and all will be well. If you’d like some guidance, check out this post.
Also, I’ve been meaning to ask:
I’ve been filling in the vocabulary lists as I read each week’s chapters, so I’m not sure how helpful it’s been, particularly since I rarely see any notes besides my own.
Have any of you been using the vocabulary list?
- I use the vocab list once it’s filled (with or without other resources)
- I didn’t know the vocab list got filled during the week’s reading, but now that I know, I’ll use it
- I would only use the vocab list if it was filled before the week’s reading
- I use Manga Kotoba, so I’m not interested in using the vocab list
- I’m not interested in using Manga Kotoba or the vocab list
0
voters
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Decided I wanted to get back to a full blown translation this week. I sort of flop back and forth between more literal translations and inserting what would be natural for an english translation - but still happy to receive any feedback or corrections if anyone sees! Sorry if my page numbers are off, based on my version
Page 71
- Good morning!
- Good morning
- Good morning, Tomoyo
- You’ve got that look on your face like you’re in thought (Is there something on your mind?)
Page 72
- You can tell? I’m worried about a birthday present
- Tsukishiro’s birthday is on Dec 25th, right?
- You’re worried about what to get him?
- [Nod]
- I don’t know what kinds of things he likes, and I’ve been saving my allowance, but… I can’t buy anything expensive
- [What in the world would be good to get as a present?]
Page 73
- How about asking Rika for advice?
- Of course, Rika’s dating an older person, right?
- [I can’t quite make out the kanji here—if anyone knows, let me know]
- Rika!
- Good morning! (You and Tomoyo are early)
- We were hoping to consult you a little
- (Took a big liberty with this translation because it sounds so dumb in English)
Page 74
- A birthday present?
- How old is he?
- Uhh, a second year in high school
- What kind of person is he?
- Wha… What kind?
- Ummm, well, his face is nice, and he’s smart too, and he’s athletic too, and he eats a lot of food…
Page 75
- That’s just perfect, I was just thinking I needed to buy a Christmas present, by the way.
- When we go home, why don’t we go together?
- Really?
- Yep!
- That’s wonderful!
- Yeah!
- (Hey) homeroom is starting (Terada-sensei! Good morning!)
Page 76
- Okay, there’s obviously no text here, but WTF is going on.
- This manga is getting more and more sus by the chapter.
- Today we’re introducing a transfer student.
- Woah, a transfer is really rare this time of year.
- I wonder what kind of kid they are.
Page 77
- Okay, come in.
- Huh?
Page 78
- This is Ri Shouran, he came from Hong Kong.
- Sakura… are you seeing this? (Lit. “Can you not see this?”)
- Uh… ye… Yea…
- Everyone be friendly.
- For your seat…
- Right behind Kinomoto (it’s open).
Page 79
- Huh?
- [Stare]
Page 80
- Your seat is here! You can put your coat and hat in the locker behind you.
- W… Why??
Page 81
- Kanji are assembled from multiple parts.
- If we take “Column” and “Oil” and put them on the left and right side…
- (I really don’t know exactly what she’s trying to say here, she’s teaching about kanji and radicals, but if someone knows where this sentence is going before it trails off, I’d love to hear it.)
- Why… why? This girl and I just met for the first time today… Why…
- Well, I guess that’s it for today.
- Wait.
Page 82
- Um… what…
- [Someone braver than me can parse the incantations here. She’s mumbling about the elements, though.]
Page 83
- The Clow Cards.
- You have them.
- You can use this compass for the sake of searching for Clow Cards, so…
- Hand ’em over!
Page 84
- What do you want me to give you?
- The Clow Cards.
- No, I made a promise with Kero I’d gather them all.
- Kero? Keroberos? The Sealed Beast?
- You know him?
- If Kerberos is here, then why is he having a kid like this hold the cards?
Page 85
- Kero doesn’t have enough magic power right now, so he can’t get big.
- Kero’s symbol is the great sun, it overlooks fire and land.
- You don’t have either card?
- When did you start searching?
- In April of this year.
- You’ve been searching for nine months and haven’t gathered them all?!
Page 86
- How do you know about the Clow Cards anyway?
- It doesn’t concern you.
- I’ll search for the remaining cards, here.
- No!
- Sakura!
Page 87
- What are you doing with my sister?!
- Big brother!
- Sakura, are you okay?
- It’s nothing.
Page 88
- No text, but damn, who knew Sakura’s brother had fighting moves? Jeez.
Page 89
- You… [Derogatory]
- There were pork buns!!!
- Er, um, there was a guy selling pork buns. And pizza buns. And curry buns.
- (Luckily, they were still available at the stall.)
Page 90
- Huh?
- Would everyone like to try?
- Here.
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Fell behind again and just caught up on the last two weeks in time to start this week, so no line by line translation for the last two weeks from me. I think I just need to accept this is my pace moving forward; my work schedule is kind of heavy every alternate week in exchange for an extra day off on the other week, so on my “on” weeks I just don’t have the time/energy to read as much Japanese as I’d like to 
Last week thoughts: so much love in this chapter! Appreciate all the discussion of the nuances above. Really makes me realize how much was cut from the anime. I’m excited to read how all these relationships start to play out over the next several books.
Finally get to shelf the first volume of the AE book! I’m so happy to have gotten through a whole volume of manga!! Admittedly some weeks I skimmed more than others, and I still feel like I rely heavily on outside resources, but I did at least read and decipher those pages with my eyes!!!
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Nice work with translating, @jablekanji. Here are a couple thoughts:
Page 73
The kanji ought to be 知, so we get だれかは知らないけど (“but we don’t know who it is”). There seems to be an extra squiggle, though. I can’t find any kanji with 知 and something on that side.
Page 81
I think the teacher is saying 柱 and 油 have a left part and a right part. (I don’t think there are any kanji with those parts side-by-side.)
And I think the “Why… why” part is Sakura thinking about Ri, so “This boy and I just met…” (Literally “this child”, but that sounds weird in English.)
Page 82
This is Li doing an incantation in Chinese. When I figure out the kanji and put them into Google Translate as Japanese, it tells me it’s really simplified Chinese. In the first one he might be saying something to do with the Jade Emperor and the four directions. The second has the five elements and then something about thunder and lightning. But I don’t think these are expected to be understood in any detail. Like we might have a Latin spell in English.
Page 89
I just go with “There were pork buns” again after “Er, um”.
Ahh, Zeggpold, you beat me to it!
Still, I think I might be able to add some insights about page 89 (page 86 in RE).
I haven’t translated this section myself, but I’ve put a transcript of the kanji-heavy section on this page below with both the kanji and furigana.
Below I’ve got some questions that may help folks consider how best to understand this section.
Transcript
玉 ぎょく
帝 てい
有 ゆう
勅 ちょく
神 しん
研 けん
四 し
方 ほう
金 きん
木 もく
水 すい
火 か
火 ど
雷 らい
風 ふう
雷 らい
電 でん
神 しん
勅 ちょく
軽 けい
魔 ま
霹 へき
靂 れさ
電 でん
光 こう
転 てん
急 きゅう
々 きゅう
如 によ
律 りつ
令 りよう
Questions To Consider
What do these kanji all have in common?
They all use the on’yomi readings.
What is grammatically unusual about this section?
It consists solely of kanji – there are no verbs, particles, or anything else in hiragana or katakana.
Considering the above two points, what could explain the high amount of kanji in this section?
HINT 1
Consider where on’yomi comes from.
HINT 2
Consider where Li Syaoran is from.
ANSWER
Li Syaoran’s incantation doesn’t resemble a typical Japanese statement, because it’s not meant to be one. Sakura’s incantation is in archaic Japanese. Li Syaoran’s incantation is meant to resemble the language that on’yomi comes from, which doesn’t have hiragana or katakana – Chinese!
Now, I say the incantation is “meant to resemble” Chinese rather than literally being Chinese for a number of reasons. First, on’yomi is based on historic Chinese readings, and don’t line up one-to-one with any current Chinese dialect.
Also, the transcript contains a noma repeater character, which sticks out as a sore thumb. These are very common in Japanese and basically never used in Chinese.
Unfortunately, my Chinese isn’t strong enough for me to be able to say confidently if the incantation is grammatically correct in Chinese (ignoring the noma repeater).
But based on the above points, I feel comfortable saying that the incantation is CLAMP’s approximation of a Chinese statement using Japanese kanji.
Also, the kanji used here resemble Traditional Chinese much more than Simplified Chinese, and on’yomi is based on historic Chinese readings, so I feel like it would be reasonable to say the incantation is meant to be in archaic Chinese, just like Sakura’s incantation is in archaic Japanese.
For those who still want to know what the incantation says, I’ve linked a translation from a Chinese fan wiki here, but I can’t vouch for accuracy.
Re @Zeggpold:
Page 73
The extra squiggle is just the furigana: し
Page 81
Indeed, this appears to be a discussion about the component parts of kanji (often called radicals in WaniKani). I imagine the sentence would go onto explain that 柱 is composed of the components 木 and 主, and that 油 is composed of the components 氵and 由.
In Chinese, the left part of a hanzi typically has something to do with the meaning of a word (氵means water/liquid), and the right part typically has to do with the sound (由 is yóu in Mandarin – compare the Japanese on’yomi, ゆ). So maybe the teacher would have discussed that as well.
Re: @jablekanji, just a quick FYI: According to the manga, the English transliteration of the name of the character on page 78 is Li Syaoran, as per pg 57 in the RE.
Page 73
Ah, of course! Thanks.
@zucchi @Zeggpold Whoops I literally just forgot to replace the pronoun on 81, didn’t realize he was a boy at first and had to update my translation - guess I missed a spot!
And the incantation being intentionally opaque and in Chinese makes so much sense. No idea how I didn’t pick that up with the Hong Kong mention haha
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And there’s the reading!
There’s a tough section in the middle of the reading, but after powering through that, things got much simpler!
Cute to see Touya and Yukito come to save the day in very different ways! I love Yukito listing all the buns he got. Also, we’ve accumulated yet another two children crushing on people much older than them, lol. (Including a teacher who seems to reciprocate?! Dang.)
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Oof, I hope this teacher thing is not developed to much.
Very nice to Touya playing his big bro role for once.
Also, is Yukito somehow involved in the whole clow card thing ? He already reacted to something Sakura said while shoveling the flower petals, and now Lee (who had no problem landing a badass kick to Touya) somehow loses his shit when seeing him.
The questionable relationships just keep accumulating huh 
I do wonder if Yukito is involved with the clow cards (at the very least, I don’t think he’s as clueless as he acts) – but when it comes to Li’s actions, he goes bright red when he sees Yukito, so it might just be love at first sight lol
It looks like the vocabulary list sees a little bit of use, and that the folks who do use it don’t mind it being filled during the week’s reading, so I’ll keep doing what I’ve been doing with it!
2 Likes
Thanks for doing this. I’m not using them anymore, but the vocab list helped me a ton when we first started volume one and will likely be a great resource for people in the club now as well as anyone who might read through later!
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Week 6: Chap 8, Pt 2
It’s another new week, folks! It’s also the last week of the ひとりぼっちの○○生活 club, for those of us in the BBC. As for this club, we’re exactly one month away from our last week of volume 2. How exciting!
Check out the home post for details on the week’s reading.
Happy discussing!
Participation Poll:
- I’m reading along
- I’ve already read this part
- I’m still reading but I haven’t reached this section yet
- I’m reading this after the book club has finished
0
voters
1 Like
Just finished week 5’s section, will post my own translation and compare it to others’ tomorrow.
Curious to see if anyone else was able to figure out all of the hanzi. I was able to get most of them through recognition or onyomi lookups, but some of them I could not find easily when I was finishing the chapter tonight. Got the gist of it though! I love how cool the compass looks, and I’m excited to presumably see some lightning magic coming up. I also thought it was soooo funny how Li was dissing Sakura for taking her sweet time collecting the cards.
While I didn’t do a full translation, please feel free to refer to my transcript here, which should make lookups significantly easier. As a side note, 々 is not hanzi, so just insert 急 again.
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omg how is it 4:15pm already
my translation for week 5
page numbers are AE moving forward, it is simply too confusing for me otherwise sorry
I noticed this week that I am feeling much more comfortable casually translating into English, rather than literally translating every word and phrase. I feel like it sounds more natural!
pg 5
- Morning!
- Good morning! (Good morning Sakura!)
- Morning Tomoyo
- It looks like you are a bit worried about something.
pg 6
- You can tell? I’m worried about a birthday present
- I’m sure Tsukishiro’s birthday is December 25th. Are you worried about what to give him?
- I don’t know what Yuki likes…I saved up money but I can’t buy anything expensive so…What the heck kind of present would be worth it?!
pg 7
- Have you gotten advice from Rika?
- Oh right, Rika hangs out with a lot of older people.
- Rika!
- Good morning!
- Let’s have a quick chat!
pg 8
- Birthday present? How old are they?
- Let’s see…second year high school.
- What kind of person are they?
- What kind…uh…he’s always smiling and he’s smart and good at sports and eats a lot.
pg 9
- I think I know a place where can get a Christmas present, would you like to come home after school with me?
- Is it ok?
- Yep!
- You should go if you want to!
- Alright!
- Homeroom is starting
pg 10
- Today we are introducing a transfer student
- It’s rare to get a transfer student at this time of year.
- I wonder what kind of person they are?
pg 11
- Ok, come in.
- Uhh?
pg 12
- Li Syaoran is here from Hong Kong
- Sakura … we haven’t seen him before right?
- Yeah…
- Everyone get along! Now, your seat…behind Sakura is good.
pg 13
- Eh?
- (staring)
pg 14
- Your seat is here
- Wh…what is going on?!
pg 15
- Kanji are composed of a few parts. Similar to 柱 油, the left side portion and the right side portion…
- How can it be…I’ve only met this boy for the first time today…why…why…
- Alright, we’ll end it here today!
- Just a minute.
pg 16
- Uhm…what…
- [A Cantonese(? not sure) incantation. Appears to be calling elements and elemental gods, asking for their power possibly? At one point names the 5 Chinese elements and makes multiple references to thunder/lighting, wind and god]
pg 17
- You hold the clow cards.
- What the…
- This compass was created to find clow cards. So, hand them over!
pg 18
- What?
- Clow cards.
- I can’t. I made a promise with Kero-chan to collect them all.
- Kero-chan…the seal guardian Keroberos
- You know him?
- If Keroberos exists, for what reason would he let this child carry the cards?
pg 19
- Because Kero doesn’t have enough magic; he shrank.
- Keroberos’ symbol is the sun. He rules things like fire and earth. You don’t have either of those cards. How long have you been looking?
- Since April this year…
- You’ve been looking 9 months and you still don’t have them all together!
pg 20
- Why do you know about clow cards?
- It’s none of your concern. I will search for the remaining cards. Hand them over.
- No!!
- Sakura!
pg 21
- What the hell are you doing with my little sister?!
- Brother!
- Are you ok Sakura?
pg 22
(fighting noises)
pg 23
-You little…
- I have pork buns!!! Uhm…I have pork buns and pizza buns and curry buns too.
pg 24
-Ah? Would you guys like to eat? Here, have a pork bun!
pg 25
- Kyaaaaaaaaa
- Whaaaaaaaaat
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Read through page 103 today. (And did the vocab list too.)
Lots of exposition coming up afterwards! Who’s ready to learn more about magic?
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