ルリドラゴン ・ Ruri Dragon 🐲 Week 5

Japanese Language Book Clubs
15

ikrrr, I relate so much to this hsjhsjh

Thanks for the link btw, I know yomichan but never really checked it out because I was already overwhelmed with how many websites/apps I was using. This is going to be super helpful though, thank you!

Yeah me to tbh. This week I played the youtube voice-over video along with reading the manga. The furigana was much easier to read in the video, so I watched it on mute once, read the page, and then played the video.

Yes, I’ll definitely try doing that. Thank you so much for answering my questions!

I did use the spoiler tag for the panel though? or do you mean you would spoil it because it’s so incredibly cute? Sorry I got confused :joy:

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16

Oh lol, I see now, it was just I had some autounspoiling script on, sorry for that :joy:

Yep, that’s what happens when you are the publisher and you have all the raws ready to use.

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17

Reading with Mokito from this week on, thanks to the thread describing how to set it up made by @ChristopherFritz , and wow it’s good, it even got parsed the handwritten kanjis from the texts :joy: (though not correctly oops)

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18

Honestly, deadpan humour and cute story aside, Ruri’s expressions are pretty much the best thing about the manga IMO :smile:

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19

Thanks everyone for the explanations this week, really helpful. I just have two more things I’m confused about.

Pg. 58

何って言われても
…何だろ

The first part of this seems to be saying something like “even if I said what”, but the second part confuses me. Since she follows this up by essentially saying they can talk later, it makes me think this means something along the lines of “how should I say…”, but I don’t know how the grammar works here.

Pg. 59

ノド焼けてんのに刺激物か

The word 「刺激物」is what’s getting me here. The vocab list/jisho suggests it means “stimulant” or “something exciting”, but that’s hard to fit into the sentence. My best guess is that this whole thing means something like “even though your throat is burned, [you want] somthing spicy?” (implying it might hurt to eat).

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20
Page 58

You mixed up a ら with a わ:
何って言われても
…何だろう

言われても is passive (probably indirect passive) + ても “even if”.

So, literally translated this is “Even if “What (is a dragon)?” is said at me. […] I wonder what it is.”

I think the first and second parts are separate sentences, and the first part has something omitted afterwards.

In my opinion, it’s probably (again a bit literally): “Even if you ask me what a dragon is, I have trouble answering. Huh…”

So, essentially she’s saying that she can’t explain it properly or easily.

言われても always trips me up a little. If anybody has a better (or more accurate) explanation, please correct me.

Page 59: I agree with your translation.

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21
pg 58 and 59 answer

Basically she is quoting what Ruri asked previously. So something like “Even if you ask me ‘what’ (is a dragon)”. then she goes on to say something like “What is it, I wonder…?”

Yeah you’re basically right, her throat is already kind of burnt so a stimulant would probably just irritate it.

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22
p. 58

言われる is passive, and って is quoting 何

Basically “even if “what” is said”. Your more natural interpretation checks out, but the grammar is a bit different - it’s not about being told what a dragon is, it’s literally about 何 being a thing that’s said (i.e. Ruri asking her what a dragon is, exactly).

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23
Pg. 59

I believe 刺激物 can also be translated as ‘irritant’, which I think is a better translation in this context.

Edit: I don’t see it translated that way on Jisho, so I might be incorrect. I’m mostly basing that on the combination of 刺’s possible meanings of thorn, pierce, stab, prick, sting and 激’s meanings of violent, get excited, enraged, chafe, incite

As to whether that is a valid translation or not, someone else would know better than I.

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Page 58

Yeah, I know that it’s passive. I think it’s (and I might be completely wrong here) the “indirect passive”, so if I want to be really literal, it would be “Even if ‘What is a dragon?’ is said at me, …” (which I made a tiny bit more natural by translating it as “being told”, but I have now corrected).

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25
p. 58

I think you’re right about the indirect passive, but I don’t think it matters much tbh, as long as you understand she’s talking about what Ruri said. Either way it’s one of those wordings that’s gonna sound really stunted in English if you translate it literally.

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26

By the way, if any of you want to “level up” after this book club - the Beginner Book Club is currently (only 18h left!) voting on their next manga/book!

Sadly the start date is a bit inconvient since our last week here starts on May 6th, which is also when this BBC pick will start. But apart from that, the difference between ABBC and BBC is not that big, so if you feel like you’re doing well with Ruri Dragon, this might be a great next step!

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27

Real nouns VS words battle: 1-1
I was proud to recognize that 吉岡 was someone’s name, and then right after that I tripped on 宮下 and couldn’t figure out why they were suddenly involving a shrine :crazy_face: (even though the ちゃん should have been a pretty huge indication :disappointed_relieved:)

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28

I’m a bit behind, still missing two pages for the last week, but I’m still hanging there!! I’m a bit shy on questions as everybody clearly are faster than me, but thanks you all for answering and asking in such an organize way that make my life so much easier :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:

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29

After falling completely behind at the very start of the book club (due to a lot of sad and extremely stressful life events) I’m finally caught up with to this week. Today I’ll probably go through this weeks pages in one go. Thanks to everyone who is continually asking questions about each page every week. I’ve read a decent bit of manga now, but I still like getting extra clarification on sentences and grammar. :sweat_smile:

Now I just need to catch up to the BBC too. :cold_sweat:

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30

I am currently trying to translate this week and just for the heck of it I asked ChatGPT for help and damn…if you put sentences in there, the AI actually explains every part of that sentence and what everything means. Works better than ichi.moe in parts.

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31

Be very careful with it. It tends to make up grammar points if it has no idea. You might easily learn something from it that doesn’t even exist, at least double check first.

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32

Thanks for the tip. I’ll make sure I will.
Here is an example if anyone is interested for the first sentence on page 56.

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33

As an example of a time when ChatGPT gets it wrong (unless I’m the one who’s mistaken here, which is possible :sweat_smile:), here’s how it handled a sentence from Pg. 64 (small spoilers from next week’s section):

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It seems to have decided to translate ある simultaneously as “to be” and “walk”, despite the fact that it shouldn’t be able to mean both things at the same time (as far as I know).

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34

Ok, so this week I tried something different. I tried to translate everything myself without looking at the forum first (which is what I did the first month). I don’t think I will do it again because it takes me ages. Like 45 minutes for each page. Because I also have to first transcribe the Japanese :see_no_evil:
But anyway here is my bad attempt until page 56 with questions.

Page 50

教室大丈夫だった?
Was the classroom ok?

“Classroom” or “students in the classroom”?

前の奴の後頭部ちょっと焼いた
The back of the head of the guy in front of me got a little bit burned.

マジか
Seriously?

も。。。毛根までやいてないなヨシ
Also…if the hair roots are not burned, it’s ok.

ヨシじゃない
It’s not ok.

ねえ 何でも何も教えてくれないの?
So…why didnt you inform me of anything?

This is not quite clear to me. I assume it’s 教えてくれる in doing something for me. Why is くれる necessary?

Page 51

火吐くなんて知らなかったしさ
I did not even know I breath fire.

なんて is a suffix of the verb to emphasis it? Like “even” in this case?

What does しさ mean?

父親が龍ってこともなんで今まで隠してたの
The fact that my father is a dragon, why were you hiding it until now?

Is the も the shortened もん again?

そうだねごめん 隠してたつもりはないんだけど
You’re right, sorry. I did not intend to hide it but…

わざわざ言う必要ないと思ってたの
I did not think telling you was necessary.

I assume 思ってた is again shortened past progressive. It’s a bit hard for me to understand why this is necessary to use. I guess it’s because “thinking it” was a continues state for a longer time?

Also to what part exactly is わざわざ referring to?

何それ
Why is that?

だって。。。こうなるの私も知らなかったんだもん
After all, the reason is that I also did not know why you became this way?

I don’t quite understand the こうなるの part. Could someone explain please?

ええ
yes…

今まで人の姿で育ったらこれからもそうだと思うじゃん。。。
Since until now you grew up in your human form, from now on XXXX, don’t you think?

No idea about the XXXX part.

なのに今朝見たら角生えてるじゃん
And yet this morning when I saw your horns have grown, right?

I feel the “right?” does not make much sense here.

Page 52

正直ビビったわ
Honestly, I was startled

そうだったのか
Were you?

So I assume the の is to ask for an explanation. Would the sentence without it just mean, “Were you really?” and with it, it means more like “Why were you?”

人と龍の子が全く人の姿のまま生まれてくるのも
A child from a human and a Dragon is born as is with a completely human form

The のも confuses me. Can someone explain?

おかしな話だけどね
But this is a ridiculous speech, isn’t it.

つくづく奇妙な生物だわ
You are an utterly bizarre life form.

Wow that sounds a bit harsh.

。。。でもビシクリしたよね

???

ごめんね
Sorry.

ドラゴンが父親なんて
Your father was something like a dragon.

なかなか言いづらくて
It’s very difficult to talk about.

Page 53

もう私は別に誰が父親でも気にしないよ
I however especially don’t care that he is my father.

What is the もう doing here?

This sentence could also mean that her father did not care about her. I’m not sure.

そうじゃなくて
Not like that.

I’m not sure how to interpret this one.

ずっと一緒にいる母親が ずっと何か隠してるのは なんかさみしい
Ok, I have no clue.

うんそうだね ありがと
Yes, that’s how it is, thank you.

大人になったね
You have grown up.

はよ車だせ
Get out of the car!

What is that はよ?

Page 54

今日ねお父さんに合ってきたんだ
Today we will meet with your father.

I have no idea about the きたんだ.

合ったの!? ドラゴンに!?
Meet? With a dragon?

What is the grammar here?

Page 55

え…仕事は？
Huh, what about your job?

休んだよ
I took vacation / I took a break / I just left

Which one is it and why?

ルリのことで大慌てだったし
Your/this matter needs to be resolved fast.

Something like this? As in “we need to rush to solve this matter”

アイツ山奥いるから
Because he lives deep inside a mountain.

What is アイツ?

なるほど 靴はそれでか
I see. My shoes are …

Are what?

お父さんにルリのこと話したらさ喜んでたよ
When we talk with your father about this, he will be pleased.

What is that さ?

What is the grammar でたよ?

俺の子だとかなんとか言ってさこっちの気もしらないで
You are my child and …

No idea.

龍でも子の成長は嬉しいもんかね
As in being a dragon however, a childs growth is the reason that makes me happy.

I know this is a quite literal translation, but is this basically the meaning?

Page 56

お父さんか
Father?

私龍のことなら何でも知ってるし
When it comes to dragons, I know everything.

今日は色々調べてきたから
Since I researched various things…

I assume the きた is the ~くる grammar. Is it common to put it behind 調べる? I’m really having difficulty with this grammar point, are there easy rules when to use it?

から is since in this case and connects to the next sentence?

これから龍のこと教えるよ
From now on I can teach you about dragons.

もっと早く教えてくれればこんな騒ぎにならなかった
If you would have tought me earlier, a commotion like this would not have happened.

How do I know if こんな騒ぎ is “a commotion like this” or “commotions like this”.

なる usually means “to become”, right? Why is it used here?

以後気をつけます
From now on I will be careful.

What is the difference between 以後 and これから?

まあ 知ってても避けようがないよな
Well…even if you know, there is no way to avoid it.

Something like that? I have no clue.

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