Really enjoying this chapter. Next question: p. 64 (red book), line 5, Kiki says:
「そうおっしゃっていただくと、あたしも気がらくだわ」
I guess this is something like: “Because you speak that way [for me], I too am comforted”? Maybe in more natural English, “I’m relieved to hear you say that”?
I fell behind during the holidays so even though I’m not posting I’m still reading.
I must say however that I’ve reduced my expectations from ‘understand every single word and nuance’ to ‘get a general idea of what is happening’. And that’s okay. My Japanese level isn’t quite there yet but I’m hoping it will get better as we advance through the book.
I’m enjoying reading the chapter so for me that means my understanding is good enough.
This is basically what I do too. I understand just enough to enjoy it, if I were to look up what I don’t understand I’d still be on the first chapter, throwing in the towel and feeling gloom =P
I managed to read the entire big chapter in just two sittings O_o
So I am now caught up! But as far as understanding goes, I probably would have been lost if I hadn’t read the chapter in Swedish first. But knowing what I’m looking for I am able to catch a lot more than if I hadn’t, recognize where we are and what is going on. And having read it in Swedish I don’t miss out on any plot points. There are times where I get the great sensation and joy of feeling I understood it all! But there are times I only catch words but loose the connection so the paragraph don’t become a coherent meaning. But I notice how I catch more and more. There are even kanji I don’t recall the reading of, but don’t stop to look it up (keep the flow). 5 minutes later I see the same kanji but this time it comes to me. It happened to at least two kanjis today. And I find I skip very few kanjis in general, though some I feel less sure of.
Like when I spent an hour analyzing a single sentence? On the plus side, I got a lot of joy out of actually understanding 100% of a complex sentence. But if I did that for everything I didn’t understand I’d also still be on the first chapter.
I’m still reading really slowly though. I can’t read more than 4-5 pages at a time, and that takes 2-3 hours. But it’s better than it was when I was over-analyzing everything and I’d read half a page an hour.
Yes, that’s exactly it.
Can someone summarize Kiki’s conversation with the townspeople? I got most of it, but there’s a few key parts that I’m unsure of. This is from the middle of page 47 to the beginning of page 49 in the blue book.
Kiki: Introduces herself as a witch.
Old Lady: It’s rare these days to see a witch.
Kiki: If that’s the case i guess there’s no witches in this town. That’s good. I’m the witch Kiki and this is the black cat Jiji.
It’s really hard to translate really polite stuff (「お邪魔させていただきます」). More or less saying “Would you let me move into this town” (going based on the typical usage of お邪魔します when someone goes to another person’s house).
Also, she gave a particularly polite bow which is kind of adorable
Man: Let you live here? In this town Koriko?
Woman: Who decided that? I wonder if it was that new mayor.
Then everyone started looking around and started chatting
Person: Is it good if a witch is here? (Could also be “would something good happen if a witch were here?” perhaps)
Person: Don’t you think it’s weird these days for someone to fly?
Confusing Sentence
「町にひとりぐらいはいるもんだって、むかしからいいますけどねえ。」
I could translate the first part in various ways.
Maybe the second half is just “They’ve been saying this since long ago”, though I’m not sure about that either.
Confusing Sentence
After that:
「今までいなくっても、どうってことありませんでしたねえ。」
I’m not sure on this either. Maybe something like “Even though until now you (or any Witch?) haven’t been here, it doesn’t matter”.
Kiki (maybe?): My mom’s a witch and uses magic. It seems interesting.
The reason I’m not sure about if this is Kiki is because the dialog says おもしろそう. I mean, wouldn’t Kiki know if her mom’s magic is interesting? But also it would be a weird coincidence for someone’s mom to happen to be a witch.
Person: No way, she’ll do scary things!
Person (Not Kiki I think): 「まさか、何か悪いこと、たくらんでるんじゃないでしょうな」
Something like “No way, she’ll scheme / play bad tricks, right?”
This could be Kiki refuting the previous person because of the じゃない, but it feels like one of those usages of じゃない where the speaker isn’t actually negating what they said. Plus there’s the な at the end of the sentence. I don’t recall seeing Kiki use な before and it seems to indicate that the speaker is male.
Kiki: 「キキは次々とんでくる、あまりやさしいとはいえないことばをきいているうちに、胸がきゅっといたくなってきました。それでも、笑い顔、笑い顔と自分をはげましながら、何かいわなくてはと思っていました」
So this is a lot… Let’s break it into pieces.
「キキは次々とんでくる」Can 飛ぶ be used for non-physical jumping/flying? Like, is this saying that the people’s comments keep flying? Or is Kiki herself still flying?
「あまりやさしいとはいえないことばをきいているうちに」Something about not many kind words being heard. Is the whole thing modifying うち, with this うち being the “I” sometimes used in some dialects? Like “The me who is hearing not many kind words…”
「胸がきゅっといたくなってきました」Kiki’s chest is started to get tight. This could support my translation for the previous part.
「それでも、笑い顔、笑い顔と自分をはげましながら」Nevertheless, while smiling and cheering herself up
「何かいわなくてはと思っていました」Kiki thought that she should say something. Is that right? I have trouble with all of the must/should do constructs, but this seems to be the なくてはいけない grammar, just with the いけない left out.
Kiki: I’d like you to let me live in this town. It’s pretty and the clock tower is also lovely.
Confusing Sentence
Person: 「気に入っていただいたのはけっこうですけどねえ」
I don’t really know what this means. けっこう is really confusing sometimes since it can be used in opposite ways.
Kiki: Still, I’m sorry for being a bother.
Based on this I’d say the previous person reluctantly said she could stay, but I’m still not sure.
Person: Well, do as you like.
Everyone talked and felt satisfied, then dispersed and left from the middle of town.
This took me over an hour to write up, so hopefully some of my questions get answered, and hopefully some of this helps out someone else as well.
P.S. To @Abstormal, @Sylph, and @Kyasurin who liked my comment earlier about me not over-analyzing stuff as much: I never said I didn’t do it at all anymore. Sometimes I can’t help myself. 
Ha, I think we were on the same page last night (or the equivalent as I’m not sure what time zone you are in!)
I’ve always thought of おじゃまします as more like “I’m sorry to bother you”, although it’s not used exactly the same way in English. So I guess お邪魔させていただきます is kind of like “Thank you for having me (even though it’s a bit of an inconvenience)”
I also found this part confusing, but I understood this person to be saying “They always say there’s one in (every) town. 今までいなくっても、どうってことありませんでしたねえ。Even though we’ve not had one, it hasn’t really bothered us.” (Not 100% sure though!)
No, I think a child is saying to her mother "Mum, a witch will use magic. That will be interesting.
I agree, not Kiki.
「キキは次々とんでくる、あまりやさしいとはいえないことばをきいているうちに、胸がきゅっといたくなってきました。それでも、笑い顔、笑い顔と自分をはげましながら、何かいわなくてはと思っていました」
Let’s break this up slightly differently.
次々とんでくる、あまりやさしいとはいえないことば → words which could not be described as kind, flying one after the other toward her
をきいているうちに → while listening to
キキは… 胸がきゅっといたくなってきました。–> Kiki’s chest tightened painfully.
それでも、笑い顔、笑い顔と自分をはげましながら、何かいわなくてはと思っていました
I thought so too. My translation: Even so, I must say something, she thought while encouraging herself to maintain a smiling face. (I thought of Dorey from Finding Nemo, except Kiki is saying “Just keep smiling, just keep smiling…” )
I spent ages looking at this sentence yesterday! Does it mean “Well I’m glad that you like it” or “Well, if you like it then it’s OK (that you stay)”? I’m not sure either.
Also the following 「でも、めんどうはごめんですよ」which I am sure is a townsperson (Kiki is speaking very politely at the moment). Is the speaker excusing themselves from helping Kiki? (This supposes めんどう meaning care rather than bother). Or maybe suggesting that if having Kiki in town turns troublesome, they don’t really care any more? This is the sort of sentence I usually skip over! 
Hope that helps a little! (And that some kind 先輩 can help both of us!)
I agree with your translation of お邪魔します. But it was actually お邪魔させていただきます in this case. させる is the causative of する and いただく can mean “to receive”. So I think she’s humbly asking if they will let her stay (literally: Can I receive your letting me be a bother/inconvenience).
EDIT: Or maybe it is a statement and causative + humble いただく just makes it super polite. So literally “I receive your letting me be a bother/inconvenience”.
That makes perfect sense. Also reinforced by Kiki later thinking she should say something, implying she hasn’t really said anything in response to these comments.
Makes sense.
I saw that meaning for うち being “while”, but I didn’t put it together.
I’m used to thinking of ごめん as short for ごめんなさい, but apparently it can also mean “your pardon; declining (something); dismissal; permission”.
So maybe it means something like “you’re pardoned for being trouble.”? Or you have permission to be a bother, meaning she can stay?
Yeah, and this is the kind of sentence (really the whole dialog) that I get annoyed about not fully understanding. It can really change the mood and impact of later sections of the book by not fully understanding how the townspeople felt when she first arrived.
Of course, it’s made clear right afterwards that after she heard there wasn’t a witch in town and that it was rare that she thought she’d be welcomed with open arms (and was disappointed that that wasn’t the case). So the specific dialog isn’t really necessary to get the same effect later on if (presumably when) they warm up to her.
I’m in the northeast part of the United States. It’s almost 10:40pm right now for me.
Maybe this has been covered by now, but in the first part there that’s the particle は (topic marker) and いる is to live/exist. So, something like: “it’s a thing that there’s (just) one in a town” (with the second part just as you had it).
You got it. いなくっても is the -ても (even if/though) form of いない, which here again is the live/exist verb.
I’m uncertain on this figure of speech, but I’m pretty sure Kiki is not flying at this point.
No, うちに here means “while” or “upon…” So I read this whole part as “upon hearing not-very-kind words…”
Agreed.
I think that’s basically right. I think the nuance on the first part is that she’s trying to cheer herself up — sort of “while smiling, smiling to keep her spirits up.”
Yes, that omission is very common.
気に入っていただいた = doing what you want/suiting yourself
のはけっこうです = is fine
けどねえ = though, I suppose.
All together, I take it as: I guess you can do what you want.
I think it wasn’t so much reluctant agreement, as mostly apathy. The townspeople are initially suspicious and not very kind, but in the end, really don’t care. They come to the conclusion that Kiki just doesn’t matter much.
Poor Kiki! I actually got a bit misty-eyed at this point (big softy that I am). She was expecting people to be excited and friendly and welcoming, like the townspeople in her hometown. Instead she got a big-city attitude of hostility and indifference.
Trying to respond to too many things at once, so sorry if this gets jumbled!
「町にひとりぐらいはいるもんだって、むかしからいいますけどねえ。」
I believe this いる is actually 要る, to be needed/wanted. “People used to say every town should have one.”
Your first interpretation is exactly right: The comments keep flying. Note also that this is 飛んで来る: the comments are flying at her.
「今までいなくっても、どうってことありませんでしたねえ。」
どうってことはない - Nothing special, no big deal. You wouldn’t even say どう about it. So, yes, this is, “We haven’t had one so far and it wasn’t any big deal.”
Yes, but go with the “while” meaning–she’s trying to deal with the situation while the unkind words keep coming.
邪魔 is bother/trouble, and you say お邪魔します because you’re being troublesome by intruding on someone’s home. お邪魔させていただきます is amping up the politeness level–literally something like, “I receive you allowing me to be trouble (by staying).”
For anyone who hasn’t studied the causative form yet, させる is a conjugation of する meaning “to cause/permit to do”; させて is the te-form of that conjugation.
「それでも、笑い顔、笑い顔と自分をはげましながら、何かいわなくてはと思っていました」
ピンポン
Remember that her mother told her that it’s important to smile when arriving in a new town. She’d kind of blown off all of mom’s advice, but now she’s desperately trying to follow it.
「気に入っていただいたのはけっこうですけどねえ」
“I guess it’s nice that you like the town, but…” 気に入って (to like) いただいた (receiving, as in the town is accepting her gift of liking it), のはけっこうです (this is where it gets fun: けっこうis a weak sauce positive word like “okay”, so this is downgrading the value of her appreciation big time) けど (“but”, which downgrades it through the floor) ねえ (giving an actual definition for what this is doing here exceeds my abilities, but trust me that it downgrades everything even further, making the whole sentence as unwelcoming as you can get without actually telling someone to get lost).
So I just noticed this thread last night.
I’ve had a copy of this for a while but never bothered to put much effort into reading it.
I spent about an hour last night and now I’m most of the way to chapter three, so looking forward to contributing once I catch up.
Interesting discussion guys! That dialogue was one of the things in the chapter I struggled most with. Quite heartbreaking too, poor Kiki.
Just wanted to add that I’m pretty sure that “めんどうはごめんですよ” is a phrase that means “we don’t want any trouble”. ごめん in this case doesn’t mean sorry, it denotes something you want to avoid (reject).
Thanks everyone! I’ll have to reread this dialog again with all these explanations in mind. 
Wow, @damienneil, thank you for all those clarifications/corrections — I thought I understood this dialog pretty well, but I see I was off on several points. Great stuff!
@damienneil is our savior! 
Right, ごめん here is almost exactly like the “no thanks” in, “Move to Alaska and pack herring all day long for $4/hour? No thanks.” It’s a polite word, but this usage is a bit sarcastic.
面倒 can be “bother/trouble”, but it can also be “care/attention” as in 面倒を見る (take care of). I think this sentence is saying “I don’t want to babysit you” rather than “I don’t want any trouble”, since this usage of ごめん is often used to decline an unwanted opportunity (or “opportunity”, like taking care of some brat on a broomstick). But I’m not certain; your interpretation might be more accurate.
Either way, it’s definitely not welcoming to poor Kiki!
It’s interesting reading this; I’ve seen the movie a number of times, and I’m surprised how closely it tracks the book. This scene is pretty much identical in the film.
Page 66 (red book) has a few bits I don’t understand. Kiki is returning from her errand, and talking with Jiji about finding somewhere to eat the bento her mom made for her.
「でも 少し にして おこう ね。
Is this おこう the presumptive of 置く? That can mean put, leave… so maybe “But let’s leave only a little”? That doesn’t make much sense with the story though.
Continuing:
だいじに 食べない と ね。
Important[ly], not-eat? What? And what usage of と is this?
And the very next sentence, still confused:
お月さま が あんなに 大きく って、やっぱり 助かる わ ねえ」
I guess this is the quoting って, so maybe the first part is something like “They say the moon [is] big like that”? And then the second part… “as expected, [we] are saved, huh?” None of which makes any sense.
Was cruising along feeling pretty good about things, and then ran into this passage, and now feel like a complete バカ. Thanks for any help!
The animated movie? I just rewatched it a few months ago and I don’t remember that scene. But my memory’s not great with that kind of thing.
I believe this is “do (eat) a little”, and “put aside (the rest)”. She’s saying that they should conserve the food her mother sent with them, because they don’t know where their next meal is coming from.
大事に is to do something with care/attention/appreciation; this is again her saying that they need to conserve the food and not squander it. See also お大事に, which is “take care of yourself” with the object (yourself) and verb (する) implied.
The と is the cause/effect conjunctive particle that I mentioned earlier. The cause is “we don’t conserve the food” while the effect is left unstated, making this something like, “If we aren’t careful with the food…”
Similar:
そうしないとダメです - If (you) don’t do this, it will be bad.
そうしないと - If (you) don’t do this… (…it will be bad)
そうしないと死ぬ - If (you) don’t do this (you) will die.
Quoting って, but not literally quoting someone–this is marking the first clause as what’s being acted on by the remainder of the sentence. 助かる is “(we’re) saved”, but can refer to any benefit. I’d translate this as something like, “we’re lucky that the moon is so full”.
Changing topics from food to the moon in mid-paragraph is definitely shifting without a clutch, however. I believe the takeaway you’re meant to have here is that it’s gotten dark while she was delivering the pacifier and they’re lucky they have the full moon to navigate by.
