Wrapped up my reading of the two chapters, and since I was there, I added a bunch of vocab. Some of it is totally unnecessary, I’m sure (common words and the like), but I figure without furigana, better to over-add words than under-add.
Interesting. Am I to take it that this means some of the “soot” is alive? First hint of something quite strange that I’ve seen (well, aside from the whole concept of shadow people and living dolls and such). Curious to see where this goes! I was sort of on the fence about joining initially, but I am definitely intrigued and wanting to continue now!
Although I was planning on participating from the start, I’m definitely pleasantly surprised at how much I’m enjoying this, it’s very fun. I actually reached chapter 8 without realising it XD so I’m going back through to double down on all the vocab and grammar.
I’m having trouble making out the meaning of the first panel.
すす取りの間を挟んで
すす - Soot
取り - Removal
の
間 - Room (according to the vocab sheet); period of time
を
挟んで - To come across (て-form)
“come across the soot removal room”
It’s probably an incomplete sentence, connected with the next panels, which make sense to me as “If you go down the stairway…” “…there is my room.”
Story comments
Hmm… very curious. Maybe even something ケイト isn’t telling エミリこ?
It’s definitely a strange house, making me think there’s something larger that hasn’t been revealed. I almost missed that the doorway to ケイト’s bedroom is a secret rotating wall door:
I could be wrong, but I read it as her room essentially tucked away inside of the soot-collecting room.
But this is me using an English wording “tucked inside” similar to how putting a piece of paper into a folder can be 挟む in Japanese and “tucked inside” in English.
That doesn’t necessarily mean that’s what’s going on in the Japanese here, so I look forward to anyone able to confirm or otherwise!
“Across from the soot removal room, if you go down the stairs, my room is there.”
Or, reworded to more natural English:
“If you go down the stairs across from the soot removal room, you’ll come to my room.”
Edit: Oh, and reading @msbrown’s question more closely, I think some of the confusion is the definition used for 挟む. It’s not “to come across,” but “to be across”.
Really enjoying this so far! I like the characters and I like the “slice of life with an ominous mystery in the backdrop” sort of vibe. Certainly exceeding expectations (not that they were low, just didn’t really know what to expect).
I originally read page 33 すす取りの間を挟んで as “In between times that I’m cleaning soot [I go down this staircase and to my room].” Is that possible? Was there a soot cleaning room in a previous chapter that I forgot about already?
When I first read it, that’s what I thought too. But I think 挟む probably describes more physical states rather than temporal ones, and the pictures seem to fit with that.
I was torn there too. I do think 挟む is more for physical states (I’ve seen 合間 or 合間合間 used for “between times” ), so that was reasoning number 1 behind reading it as a room and not an interval of time. . The second being the pictures seeming to indicate passing through or by a room as she speaks, the 3rd being the timing. It just seemed weird to me that when she was going to bed, she would specify that it was between the times of cleaning soot, instead of it saying when she goes to sleep. This could be easily explained by her somewhat odd point of reference for life, being a shut-in living doll, though, so it’s the weakest reasoning. And my final reasoning was the particle used: You don’t usually use を with time words. I would expect に if 間 were to mean time (ala 間に合う).
I very well could be wrong, though, and I’m curious how a native would read it, so I’ll send this bit to my tutor and see what she thinks. When she gets back to me, I’ll post her thoughts here!
So, she seems to think it’s a room, and rather than the stairs necessarily being across from the soot removal room, it seems like the idea is more that the soot removal room is between two places. In this case, Kate’s room is the most likely candidate for one of those places, and the stairs are the other. So, you pass through the soot removal room from Kate’s room to get to the stairs, and then down the stairs is エミリコ’s room. (Though, from this description, the stairs would still be across from the soot room, if you are crossing through it to get to them, I would think, so not too far off base with that description).
Well, these last two chapters (especially chapter three) were rather chilling…!Emiriko’s room has no windows to let light in, she basically eats a lump of bread for dinner (and breakfast), and then sleeps in a box with breathing holes, and her only joy in life is cleaning for Keito … But at the same time her upbeat, sunny attitude makes it all kind of seem like no big deal. It’s a very uneasy feeling … which I’m very much enjoying.
@anon99047008 Thanks! I understood 挟む to mean “sandwich between”, so your tutor’s response makes sense to me.
I could be mistaken, but I’ve just been reading it as け. いえ doesn’t work because that would be the building, I doubt if it’s か because it’s not really an occupation, and if they were going with the unorthodox ハウス, it would typically have the furigana to indicate that.
