キノの旅 Week 12 Discussion

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Chapter 6 (1/2)

Start Date: May 25
Previous Chapter: Week 11
Next Chapter: Week 13

Week 12 Reading: Chapter 6 (1/2)
Until end of chapter: p.219 ([…]ホヴィーが動き出すとすぐに消えた。)

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1 Like

From page 204: エルメスと呼ばれたモトラドは[…]訳知り顔で話し始めた。

Wait what? エルメス has a face??

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。。。∑(゚Д゚)

Now this is interesting. I always thought his voice magically came out of nowhere or telepathy or hallucinations or something. Maybe Kino’s hallucinations are progressing and gaining a visual component now?!

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What is it with all the violence in this book?
I had been enjoying this chapter right up until the point where the new war commenced. :anguished:

Heads back to the Beginner book club to read more about magical お菓子 instead.

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Theoretically I should not have looked at that spoiler, considering I’m only up to the point where they see the next city walls.

But, it’s not like I’m surprised, so. :woman_shrugging:

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Not at all I believe, it’s just an expression. He’s talking as if he knows everything in the world. It’s just a set phrase that happens to contain 顔.

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Ah, I see. Thanks!

Considering that Hermes is a talking motorcycle… Well. I would have accepted a face as well. :woman_shrugging:

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Hello!

I have no idea what this is trying to describe:

Summary

道の両脇を埋め尽くすように転がっているものを見た。
I got that she saw something falling or tumbling, but the description of its movement is a mystery to me.

:motorcycle:

I thought that maybe it was describing the state of what was there - as if it had fallen there in a bit of a mess, rather than having been laid out neatly. I’m not convinced Kino is seeing anything actually moving. :woman_shrugging:

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Yes, that word has multiple meanings.

転がる【ころ・がる】
①回転しながら移動する。
②倒れる。ころぶ。「つまずいて~」
③横になる。「~・ってテレビを見る」

@StarLi you are thinking of meaning 1, but here it’s 3 that applies.

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A translation would be: “Kino saw corpses lying down completely covering both sides of the road.”

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@Kyasurin @Naphthalene @mrahhal

Cool thanks~

A bit of an aside, I’ve been trying to use JP-JP dictionaries for a while but I’m torn between a lot of them. Any recommendation to make something my primary go-to resource? Your example looks short and comprehensive. None of the resources I tried gave out this. And maybe a mobile app too? (Searching gives too many results, but most of which I tried are not really of good quality)

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I use own the Daijirin dictionary, as iPhone app. Here is some information about the dictionary (which you can also buy as a huge printed book):

It comes with a price tag, though (I think the iPhone app is around 30 US-$).

If you want to see what the definitions are like, just give me some example words, and I can post some screenshots.

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I’m using the kotobank app, with their free online dictionary. Other (offline) dictionaries are also available as in-app purchases, but I never really needed anything else.

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IMO you should definitely read http://www.gally.net/translation/kokugo.htm for a review of many monolingual dictionaries available out there. The page is 20-year old but dictionaries don’t update all that fast…

Another thing you should know is that nowadays, enough of these are available online for free, so unless you want them for offline reference, there is no need to spend money if you don’t want to. The big names out there are IMHO:

  • Daijirin / Daijisen (very similar contents). Comprehensive, and geared towards modern usage; Daijirin supposedly has more literary examples.
  • Kôjien. Supposedly more comprehensive than Daijirin / Daijisen, but more historically inclined (definitions in etymological order).
  • Nihon Kokugo Daijiten. Huge, very comprehensive, but dated, both in contents and presentation. Only available in an abridged electronic edition in most places, unless you want to dive into the actual multiple physical volumes.

Kôjien is not available for free anywhere, as far as I know, but you can find Daijirin / Daijisen on various websites, including weblio.jp and kotobank.jp, to name only the two I use most often. I prefer the UI of weblio.jp (it shows the definitions all on one page when you search, instead of having an intermediate step where you need to select which entry you want) but kotobank.jp has more contents. They make available both Daijirin and Daijisen, but most importantly, they recently added the Nihon Kokugo Daijiten (abridged)… which is great if you’re into that kind of things, though you rarely need it, in reality.

If you absolutely want it, you could get your hands on a copy of Kôjien (easiest way is probably to buy a denshi jisho), but from my little experience perusing it, I didn’t get much out of it; the etymology was lacking where I wanted it the most, and the rest was, well, not really better than Daijirin / Daijisen IMHO, for any practical purpose. And also, if you’re looking for old words and usages, weblio.jp also has a classical (kobun) dictionary already.

As far as apps go, I can’t help much, but others will certainly chime in with their recommendations.

P.S.: Note that unlike more proficient people around here, I’m not a regular monolingual-dictionary user. My vocab is pretty limited, and I rely mostly on bilingual ones for a quick gloss, usually. When I do search the monolingual volumes, it’s because I’m looking for something specific (particular usage, etymology, classical orthography, etc.)… so you might have other priorities.

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“We’re a safe country. You won’t need those.”

Yeahhh. Suuure.

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You need to have more faith in fictitious characters! What could prossibly go wrong?

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I can’t believe Kino brings Hermes into the museum. How does she not realize that that’s weird?

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Weird compared to what? :joy:

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