時をかける少女: Week 4 Discussion (Chapters 4 and 5)

On the first page of chapter 4 (page 26 Tsubasa version), what does 和子は目をとじ意識を失った mean? Is it just saying that she closed her eyes (again?) and passed out? I’m partly confused since I thought her eyes were already closed, so I’m not sure if 目をとじ means something different here.

2 Likes

It’s a bit weird that she would close her eyes so many times, but 目をとじ is definitely the stem of 目をとじる and means she closed her eyes.

Maybe the 目をとじ bit could be interpreted as 和子 being in the state of “having her eyes closed” here, instead of the action of closing her eyes. But that’s just speculation, I have nothing to back it up.

2 Likes

I also found this odd (because they were already closed), but that’s the only way I read it as well.

3 Likes

Another question. On page 27 of the Tsubasa version, it says:
時計を見ると七時半だった。ゆっくりと朝食をして、十分学校に間に合う時間である。

At first I thought this was actually saying that she will eat breakfast and that there’s plenty of time to get to school (kind of as two separate statements). But later on it mentions that she has no appetite and left (implied without eating). So is this just giving a frame of reference for how early it is? As in, she has enough time that she could eat slowly and still make it to school on time?

3 Likes

That’s how I see it. She looks at the clock and hypothesizes that there would be enough time for that, even though she doesn’t actually do it.

3 Likes

Thanks for confirming!


Anyway, I’m finished chapter 4 now. There were a few sentences I had to reread and really dig into, but overall it was a relatively easy chapter. I’ll tackle chapter 5 later in the week.

4 Likes

I’m struggling a bit with some of the abstract stuff at the beginning. So far I understand that Kazuko is thinking she’s going to die and she’s thinking that if she had known she was going to be lying in front of a moving truck she would have slept more.

Page 24 Kadokawa
むろん、そうした思いも瞬時のこと。
Naturally, that thought [ ]
What does 瞬時のこと mean here? I imagine it’s “about that instant” that she was thinking, but I don’t really understand it

I think it’s saying that (naturally) all those thoughts went through her head in an instant.

3 Likes

Just to tackle on to that (thanks for any answers given so far), does that mean that until she gets out of bed (which should be the following paragraph) is it all just speculation?

I understand she checks the clock, as you said, then figures she has enough time, as you said. But then she talks about leaving the house, about what happened with the truck and whether time reversed itself .
So is all that speculation based on the time of day?
Or is she remembering her ‘dream’ ?

I’m just really confused as to what actually happens in that paragraph.
Also sorry if the spoiler tags aren’t necessary, wasn’t sure if they needed it and just put them to be safe xD

1 Like

I think the first spoiler tag is definitely a good inclusion! Not sure the second is needed as I believe you’re referring to something that happened in chapter 3?

<3

As I understand it, the whole thing goes down like this:

She first wakes up and wonders if the whole thing was a dream, then she wonders a bit more and concludes that could not be a dream (あれが夢であるはずがない). Then she checks the clock, speculates that she would have enough time to have breakfast and arrive at school. Then she compares this with her “dream” (さっき目をさましたとき refers to the first time she woke up, in her “dream”), in which she woke up late and had to leave home in a hurry, and because of that she was almost hit by a truck (そのために、トラックにひかれそうになったのではないか!).

With all that in mind, she wonders: was it actually a dream, then? (とすると、やはり夢だったのだろうか?) After asking herself that, she hypothesizes something else: if that wasn’t a dream (あれが夢でないとすると) it would mean that time reversed itself (時間が逆もどりしたことになる). And such a stupid thing can’t be true! (そんなバカなことってあるはずがない!)

Then she finally stops thinking and gets up :slightly_smiling_face:

If you don’t know, Xとすると is used to say “if X were true, then […]”. Basically say something based on the assumption that X is true (wheter it is or not).

以上.

10 Likes

Thank you so much for the detailed explanation. Funnily enough, reading through all of that makes it seem so straight forward xD

The rest of the two chapters I got pretty well so thanks for clearing this but up and taking your time to type all of it out. Much appreciated :relaxed:

2 Likes

Gah, such a busy week D: I haven’t made it very far yet.

Quick question from literally the very first line of chapter 4 though (which I don’t think has been asked).

Page 26 Tsubasa Bunko ed.

目まぐるしいまでに、和子の脳裏にさまざまなことがなだれこみ、通りすぎていった。

So I know that 目まぐるしい means something like ‘bewildering’, and I can infer the meaning of the sentence (as has been discussed in the thread anyway). I’m just not sure what purpose まで(に) is playing here?

Thanks for the explanation, that passage totally threw me, I didn’t catch that she was hypothesizing about having enough time and instead had three versions: first she almost dies but then wakes up in her bed, then she goes to school with enough time, and then suddenly she has breakfast again and leaves the house? wtf

I definitely need to go over the story later with all the comments here and dissect sentences, but for now I’m happy to be catching the general idea.

Strangely enough, until here ch4 reading went more easily for me, it wasn’t as much a struggle as the first chapters. Perhaps one really gets used to the style? (and boy, the author really likes ぼんやり!)

4 Likes

This までに has a different meaning than the one you’re probably thinking. Apparently it can sometimes be used like ほど or くらい would, to say the extent to which something happens. So I believe it means something like (please forgive the unnatural English, I have a hard time translating):

To the extent of being bewildering, many things rushed into Kazuko’s mind […]

5 Likes

I don’t know, it seems pretty similar to the “usual” meaning of まで :thinking: I would translate 目まぐるしい by “dizzy” by the way. So, here, it would be to the point of feeling dizzy.

7 Likes

That’s how I read the sentence. That those thoughts occurred to the point of dizziness.

3 Likes

It ‘feels’ the same way to me, but that could be a result of a lot of exposure. I think it could be reasonable to expect まで to only be used for things like times and places, instead of to express and extent of condition, if you weren’t familiar with it.

4 Likes

That’s what I meant. I had to look it up myself, because I’m not that used to までに appearing like this yet, so it’s a bit hard to make that stretch and get the meaning.

2 Likes

That reminds me, one time I saw a question about a sentence where someone used だけ to express how much they enjoyed their trip to Japan. The question was something like, “Why did they say they only loved the trip?”

Learning that it can be used for upper and lower limits was mind expanding.

4 Likes