こんな - such
やつ - a fellow
外で - outside
は - topic marker
生きてけない - contraction of 生きて (the form of 生きる to live) and はいけない - meaning “must not live”
だろう - I think/ I wonder
な - sentence ending particle, seeking confirmation/adding emphasis
I’ve gone for: “I think a little fellow like this shouldn’t live outside.”
Same page top panel:
わっ落ちる
I think he’s saying - Argh, he’s falling!
It’s not that obvious from the drawing that he’s nearly dropping the cat, but the katakana in the panel say ズル (ずるずる - (falling) little by little; (slipping) gradually.)
And on the next panel there is a ぱっ - “poof” and a little puff of air suggesting he’s caught the head.
I personally think this breakdown was more helpful than the spreadsheet, so thank you! It’s always hardest to read when the adults are talking to each other.
@marcusp I agree with @Nizate that your break downs really help with understanding. In fact if you hadn’t broken that sentence down I would have needed to ask about it even with the vocab sheet because I couldn’t make the different meanings come together into a sentence.
Just finished the reading. These chapters felt easier. I hope it is because I’m getting used to the manga and they just didn’t happen to be easier. It helped that the vocab sheet was more filled in. Thanks to everyone who fills it up!
I’m also glad Chi isn’t thinking of finding home all the time. That is so sad. Which made chapter 8 kinda sad. Poor little kitty.
I’m glad everyone else is flying through it - I think I got the sense of the story ok, here are some of the phrases in chapter 9 I found more tricky:
Page 67 誰か飼いそうな人心当たりない？
誰か - someone
飼い - to keep (a pet) - in stem form
そう - attaches to previous verb meaning - looking like/seeming
な - this seems to be turning the previous verb into a na adjective?
人 - person
—> a person seeming likely to take the cat
心当たりない - contraction of [心当たりがない)[https://jisho.org/search/心当たりがない] having no idea
? - turns the phrase into question form
—> Can’t you think of anyone to take the cat?
Page 69 困ったなぁチーのおうち見つからなくて
困った - hopeless; or plain past of 困る (to be worried)
なぁ - hey
チー - Chi
の - possessive particle
おうち - home
見つからなくて - 見つかる (to be found) in plain non-past negative form in continuative form (so sentence kind of finishes as “and…”)
—> I’ve been worried, you see, that we are not finding Chi’s home, and…
Page 69 はいはいまだひとりじゃダメですか
はいはい - Yes, yes
まだ - still, until
ひとり - alone, one person
じゃ - perhaps an alternative of だ? (Jisho lists as kansai dialect)
ダメ - terrible
ですか - isn’t it
—>Yes, yes, being on your own is still terrible right?
Page 74 チー…ひとりで生きていけるかなぁ
チー - Chi
ひとりで - on your own
生きて - living (生きる in the form connecting it to next verb)
いける - living (生ける)
かなぁ - I wonder
Lit: Chi, on your own you live and live I wonder —>Chi, It seems you live on your own…
The only thing I can say before going to bed, is that it’s probably 生きていく, meaning to keep on living; in potential form, I think
So, “Can you live on your own, I wonder”
No, the ～そう turns the previous verb into a な-adjective (same way as ～たい turns verbs into い-adjectives).
じゃ-as-copula is Hiroshima dialect, but in this case it’s an abbreviation of では.
No, this is basically “can do” (the opposite of いけない, but Jisho doesn’t seem to list that as a definition). It’s “I wonder if you can live on your own.” Or even “should” (in the sense of “is this the morally correct situation?” rather than “you ought to”).
Basically she’s looking at the classifieds in the newspaper, and exclaiming “there’s nothing but people looking to give cats away” (i.e. instead of people who either want a cat, or are looking for a lost kitten).
She’s looking in the paper, and all she can see are notices asking people to take a cat - whereas we can assume she was hoping to find someone looking for a cat.
ばかり＝only
じゃない？ aren’t there? (using the negative in that particularly Japanese way!)
もらい手はないし
“there’s no one who will take the incontinent moggy…”
名前はついちゃったし
“and unfortunately we’ve already given the smelly urchin a name…”
捨てるのもしのびないし
“and we can’t bring ourselves to kick him back out into the streets where he came from…”
飼うしかないかなぁ
“so I suppose we have no choice but to keep little Pee”
In terms of language, the only thing I don’t really get is the のも in the final phrase. I suspect the の is a nominaliser, and the も is the also topic particle, but if anyone can put me right, that would be great! Thank you!
I’m sensing a certain level of prejudice here. Could it be that the reason you’re skipping over the cat’s dialogue actually has nothing to do with a reluctance to decipher the baby-talk?
Only kidding! Once you get past the peeing everywhere, the indecipherable speech, the wanton destruction of shoe-laces, and the vicious claw attacks (I peeked forward a bit), little Pee is actually very cute! LOL!
Aw just finished chapter 7. That was sweet. Re: p58 決まっちゃった - this is the (somewhat feminine?) chau form, right (like welp it’s decided)? I just watched that Misa-sensei video.
- I think I got the sense of the story ok, here are some of the phrases in chapter 9 I found more tricky:
