I agree with @zucchi. Progress is progress. Plus, you’re probably learning more than you realize. Like I’d been getting frustrated recently with my inability to understand more complicated sentences and to understand things contextually (like when I asked what Kero meant by 「これ」the other day). But then I remembered how desperately I wanted to be able to understand native material at all before and how impossible it felt anytime I tried to read anything, even things recommended to beginners. I just kept trying to start things and giving up and then one day I picked something up and realized I could handle it, even though I had no idea when that had happened. There just isn’t always a clear cut benchmark and I think it makes it easy to feel like you’re spinning your wheels.
Things are getting slightly trickier this week !
Sakura’s monologue was simple enough, the main difficulty is in the dialog between Kero and Yue
page 99
わいと対で生まれたもう一人のクロウカードを見護る者「ユエ」中国で月のことや
Didn’t know this 護 kanji, initially thought it was a 譲.
That would be “the other person already watching over clown cards, born alongside me, Yue (which is Chinese for Moon)”. Not sure about the もう here. It would imply she was born before him, but the 対 says otherwise.
So basically, she is just like Kero, but for the moon instead of the sun ?
There were a couple of difficult sentences, but I found this week a little easier since I spent way less time looking up vocabulary. Maybe I need to read more fantasy.
I felt so bad for Sakura, though. The loneliness of her tiny figure in the pitch black got me a little bit. :')
Lol why did Clow make so many cards that are almost identical in their purpose. Shadow and dark???
Imagine if Sakura didn’t pay attention in english classes.
Another slightly tricky dialogue:
page 101-102
なんでこの友枝町にきてん？why did you come to that Tomoeda town ?
ここでちょっと大変そうなことが起こるから Because something that looked serious is happening here
。。。全部知っとるんか Do you know everything ?
全部じゃないわ not everything… (ok I initially read this as 知らないわ and struggled to make sense of the dialog. Now it’s all clear. 
)
。。。。「最後」はどうなるかわからないから …since, how [The last thing (i.e. this darkness event)] happened, I don’t know
さくらになんかゆうたか Will you say something to Sakura ?
いいえ、木之本さんならきっと気づくから No, because if this is Miss Kinomoto, she realize it (I’m using a conditional here to translate the なら but to me this sounds more like a “stronger” は particle with a more contrastive meaning. She trusts Sakura will understand herself, while someone else might not.
わいはさくらやったらなんとかできるって信じとる I am confident that Sakura will be able to do something (again that conditional here)
Page 101-102
なんでこの友枝町にきてん？
I’m nitpicking, but it should be “this,” not “that.”
ここでちょっと大変そうなことが起こるから
I think she’s technically say it will happen. I’m pretty sure she’s talking about the impending disaster and not the current Clow Card.
「最後」はどうなるかわからないから
I interpreted 最後 here to mean “the end,” because どうなる would seem to mean something like “how it will become.”
So I think she’s actually saying, “Because I don’t know how it will end.”
Page 101-102 (RE: 105-106)
Yep, these two verbs are in present/future tense:
ここでちょっと大変そうなことが起こるから
“Because something that seems serious will happen here”
「最後」はどうなるかわからないから
Lit: “Because I don’t know how the “end” will become”
Maybe more natural: “Because I don’t know what will happen in the end”
Also:
In “さくらになんかゆうたか”
Here, ゆうた (kansai-ben for いいた) is in the past-tense, so this would be:
“Did you say something to Sakura?”
Re:
いいえ、木之本さんならきっと気づくから:
Looks like this なら is the one listed by tofugu as “Verb なら for Referring to Someone or Something.”
So you got the right vibes from it @simboubou! Your explanation is almost identical to the one the Tofugu writer uses in the example about “Mami.”
Although it’s less literal, to make the sentence sound stronger in English, instead of “if” I might translate the なら as “since,” as follows:
“No, since it’s Miss Kinomoto, she’ll definitely notice on her own.” (きっと is “definitely.” “on her own” isn’t in the original, I just added it based on context.)
Right, I got the tenses all wrong ! It’s clearer now.
Week 6: Chap 21, Pt 2
Sakura has a breakthrough! How will this all end? We’ll find out soon!
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
This lore dump here is the most difficult part of the book imo. Especially with text bubbles that don’t indicate who’s talking !
Summary
So basically, Sakura realized she was emitting light, then through force of will (refusing to lose hope when the dark started to consume her), managed to summon the Light card that was was locked in her hearth since she freed the cards.
Light is acually able to remove the darkness and let the Dark card manifest. Dark is like “I’m glad you found light, I thought you were never gonna break my seal !”. And then “Don’t be mad light, it’s part of the test !”
Next part of the test will come for Yue apparently.
RE: 134-135
Let’s take a closer look at Dark’s statement on page 134:
Dark: 「光」にきづいてくれてよかったわ
“It’s good you were able to notice “Light.”
あなたならわたしを封印できるとおもっていたけれど
“Although, since it’s you, I thought you would be able to seal me.”
けれど does mean “although/however,” but there are no negative forms in this sentence.
So the vibes here aren’t: “I’m glad you noticed Light, I didn’t think you would be able to seal me.”
They’re more like: “I’m glad you noticed Light – though I’m not surprised, as I thought you would be able to seal me.
On Page 135:
闇のこと嫌いにならないでやってね
“Please don’t hate Dark, okay?”
(This is more literally something like “Please don’t become hating of Dark, okay?” but nobody says that in English.)
これもあなたがクロウカードの持ち主にふさわしいかどうかのテストから
This part is hard.
If we take out the whole middle section, it becomes this:
これもテストから
“Because this is also a test.”
But that whole section これも and の is describing what kind of test this is.
So, what does it say?
あなたがクロウカードの持ち主にふさわしいかどうか
あなたが “you are”
クロウカードの持ち主 “holder of the Clow Cards,”
ふさわしい “suitable/worthy”
かどうか “whether or not” (please note this is not a word meaning “whether or not,” it is a grammar point consisting of か+どう+か. See かどうか (JLPT N4) | Bunpro )
So what kind of test is this?
A test of “whether or not you are worthy of being a user of the Clow Cards.”
The whole statement is, roughly:
“Please don’t hate Dark, okay?”
“Because this too was a test of whether or not you are worthy of being a user of the Clow Cards.”
A couple of things to note here:
- The speaker here appears to be Light. It’s not impossible that Dark is talking about herself in the third person, but that would be a bit odd.
- Light is addressing Sakura, not Dark, as becomes obvious in the second sentence.
- The fact Light says “this too” implies that Sakura has been tested multiple times for her worthiness, and that the Clow Cards (or at least Light and Dark) are aware of this.
Returning after a 3 week hiatus due to life stuff - thankful I can just sit down and catch up in one go these days. What a great couple weeks of reading too! Really enjoyed this
I again failed to correctly guess who was talking (seriously, can’t mangas speech bubble point to characters ? )
Week 7: Chap 22, Pt 1
We’ve made it to the last chapter of vol 5! You’re doing great!
?
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
Woooo!! Last chapter! I always get so excited near the end of a volume. Crazy we’re almost (not really but I’m excited) half way through the series!! Enjoyed this weeks reading, but I was super confused as to how
Midzuki and Sakura ended up alone at a table???
Page 162
To understand why Kaho is suddenly alone with Sakura, we need to look at what Kaho says to Sakura on page 162.
ごめんなさいね
せっかくお話ししてたのに
ちょっとふたりでおはなししたかったの
The first part is just “Sorry,” but after that it gets pretty hard, lol.
Let’s break this down:
“せっかくお話ししてたのに”
せっかく
- this means something like “long awaited,” “at great pains,” etc. It’s used to express something rare/which takes effort to achieve.
お話ししてた
- in a more standard form:
話しをしっていました
The dictionary form is 話しをする. This is very similar to 話す, literally “to have a conversation” rather than “to talk to.” Seems to be slightly more formal and slightly more serious than the latter.
So this is “(someone) was/were having a conversation”
のに
This also has several meanings. In this case, I believe it means “although/but,” as per the “connecting sentences” section by tofugu.
I would literally translate this as:
“Although (someone) had the rare occasion to have a conversation (with someone)”
This is… not very useful. Since there’s no subject or object in this sentence, it makes it hard to tell what Kaho is saying exactly. But if we look at the scene, who was having a conversation before Kaho came along? Sakura, Li, Tomoyo and Yukito. And why would Kaho apologize for that?
Well, I believe what Kaho intends here is to apologize for interrupting Sakura’s hangout, especially considering Yukito was there and she has a huge crush on him. But I think Kaho would be too polite to point out Yukito specifically, so I think this statement could be interpreted something like this:
“Although you had the rare occasion to have a conversation with your friends…”
I’m open to hearing other interpretations here! I’m not confident on this one.
Next let’s look at:
“ちょっとふたりでおはなししたかったの”
- ちょっと – a bit
- ふたりで – just the two of us
- はなし – conversation
- したかった – wanted (as in, the past tense of “したい”)
- の – feminine sentence ender which softens a statement
So this could be, “but I wanted to talk a little bit just the two of us.”
-–
In full, I might translate this statement as:
“I’m sorry, I know you were enjoying a hangout with your friends, but I wanted to have a little conversation just with you.”
(This is not the most literal translation. I feel like saying “you had the rare occasion to talk to your friends” is rude in English, so I interpreted that part pretty freely. I hope this still captures the general meaning!)
In other words, the reason Sakura and Kaho are speaking alone is that Kaho pulled her aside for a private conversation.
This also explains why Tomoyo glances over and Li glares at them – they’re curious and suspicious as to why Kaho’s doing this.
This is an awesome breakdown ! I guess I understood ~why~ they were there, but less the how. Idk the jump cut just seemed startling. felt like I missed a convo haha
Yeah it’s an interesting narrative choice. I imagine CLAMP thought it was unnecessary to show the actual convo that led to this because it’s explained immediately afterwards.
Or maybe they actually wanted to make it a bit jarring because of Kaho being so mysterious all the time, she’s appeared without warning in other chapters too!
I mean no offense, but Sakura should have all the cards (ah !) now to realize that “ユエ” is her math teacher I mean come on.