わかりやすいだけでなく、花や葉、茎などの美しさや、命の不思議さ、富太郎の植物を愛する気持ちまで、よく伝わってきます。
Not only easy to understand, it (the book) has introduced the beauty of flowers, leaves, stems etc, the miracle of life, and Tomotarou’s admiration of plants.
そして富太郎は、二十六歳の時、新しく見つけた植物に、「ヤマトグサ」の名前を自分で付けました。
And then, at the age of 26, Tomitarou himself named the newly discovered plant as “yamatogusa”.
その後富太郎は、一生のうち、千五百種類を超える名前を付けました。
After that, during his life, Tomitarou assigned names to more than 1500 plants.
又、日本での呼び名も、多く付けました。
Hi also assigned a lot of popular Japanese names.
中には、「ワルナスビ」。。。野菜のナスの花に似ているが、ナスではなく雑草。
Among them was “warunasubi” (Solanum carolinense), a plant that resembles eggplant but is a weed instead.
I have a question about this sentence:
その後富太郎は、一生のうち、千五百種類を超える名前を付けました。
I translated is as “more than” so it applies to the count (1500), however it is placed next to 名前, which makes me uncertain.
Well, to be honest, that was a long page, and I started working on it too late in the evening, so I replied on deepl much more than I do usually. I’ll try to do better tonight.
種類 does not only mean species, it is actually also a counter for species (see Jisho.org: Japanese Dictionary - 2nd definition). So here it is “1500 ‘counter for species’ を超える” which is “exceeding 1500”.
Wow, of course the moment I recognized 種類 as “type” from wanikani, I stopped thinking further on how it will fit into the whole sentence.I think it might be very typical novice mistake, falling for “I know this word” and ignoring that it does not work in the sentence.
Oh noo! I really like that our book club has become so active recently but when I show up too late the party is already over, all questions answered, all plant pictures posted …
「ノボロギク」……野原に生えているぼろぼろに見える菊など、特徴や姿がずばりと分かる、面白いものがあります。
“ノボロギク (common groundsel - shabby chrysanthemum)” … a shabby looking chrysanthemum growing in the field - those are interesting things [here names] that are easy to understand through the characteristics and shape [of the plants].
富太郎は、研究を続けながら、本をたくさん書きました。
While continuing his research, Tomitaro wrote many books.
そして、ついに七十八歳で、『牧野日本植物図鑑』を作り上げました。
Finally, at the age of 78, he completed “Makino’s Illustrated Guide to Japanese Plants” (Illustrated Flora of Japan).
Today’s first sentence was difficult, until I realized that it is the sequel of yesterday’s last sentence, giving examples for the popular names that Tomitaro chose to reflect the resemblance of those plants to others.
「ノボロギク」…野原に生えているぼろぼろに見えるキクなど、特徴や姿がずばりと分かる、面白いものがあります。
“Noborogiku” (common groundsel)…grows in fields and looks like a ragged chrysanthemum or something, its features and shape are boldly understood(?), and is an interesting one.
富太郎は、研究を続けながら、本をたくさん書きました。
Tomitarou wrote many books while he continued his research.
そして、ついに七十八歳で、『牧野日本植物図鑑』を作り上げました。
And finally, at age 78 he created Makino’s Illustrated Flora of Japan. (went with the official translation of the title)
I knew that first sentence was related to yesterday’s sentence, but I still got confused about the structure lol
「ノボロギク」。。。野原に生えているぼろぼろに見えるキクなど、特徴やすがたがずばりとわかる、面白い物があります。
“Common groundsel”…chrysanthemum etc that one can see scattered in the fields, their traits and shape discovered precisely, interesting things.
富太郎は、研究を続けながら、本をたくさん書きました。
While continuing his research, Tomitarou wrote many books.
そして、ついに七十八歳で、「牧野日本植物図鑑」を作り上げました。
And then finally, at the age of 78, he completed “Makino’s Illustrated Flora of Japan”. (Book’s name taken from wikipedia)
Indeed, the first sentence is far too complicated for me (I was happy that the rest of the page was straight forward.
「ノボロギク」。。。野原に生えているぼろぼろに見えるキクなど、特徴やすがたがずばりとわかる、面白い物があります。
Just to clarify, no one thought that the ending ものがあります can be this meaning ?
The example sentences on jisho.org for ものがあります don’t seem to take that meaning very literally. There’s actually a grammar point on bunpro.jp for ものがある saying it’s “used to express strong subjective (hard to specify) feeling that something is/should be the case” but I don’t think that fits here.
「ノボロギク」。。。野原に生えているぼろぼろに見えるキクなど、特徴やすがたがずばりとわかる、面白い 物があります。
my translation: There are interesting “noborogiku”, chrysanthemum that look shabby and grow in fields, with exactly known traits and forms.
deepl: There are some interesting chrysanthemums, such as the ragged-looking ones that grow in the fields.
I don’t think that the plants are interesting here (at least not in the grammatical sense), but the names he gave them. The structure is the following (over 3 sentences):
He gave the plants popular names:
‘bad eggplant’
‘shabby chrysanthemum’
など (etc.) (this terminates the enumeration)
Those names are easy to understand and interesting because they describe the characteristics and shapes of the plants.
THIS is the part that I was missing - that the text is talking about the name and not the plant itself. Ending the enumeration in the middle of the sentence is still confusing, but it all makes a lot more sense now. Thanks!
It seems a bit funny that the sentence would be talking about the names themselves but not make that more explicit in the sentence itself. I know subject is often implied but this series of books has tons of sentences where という or 名前 feel overused. I guess the ellipsis in this sentence are putting in some work.
The link between the name のボロギク and the characteristics of the plant are easier to see if you look at the kanji. It’s 野襤褸菊 - field, rags, chrysanthemum.
これは、十年間もかけて作った、富太郎の代表作です。
This was Tomitaro’s most important work, which took him as much as ten years to create.
日本の植物図鑑の元となる一冊で今でも使われています。
This single volume, which became the base of Japanese botanical pictorial books, is still used today.
牧野富太郎（一八六二〜一九五七年）
Tomitaro Makino (1862-1957)
おしゃれな植物博士
The stylish plants doctor
富太郎が、出に植物を取りに行くときは、いつもスーツに蝶ネクタイをしていたそうです。
It seems that Tomitaro always wore a suit and a bow tie when he went out to collect plants.
山歩きをするのに、どうしてそれなきれいな格好をしていくのでしょう。
Why would he dress so nicely to go hiking in the mountains?
富太郎にとっては、好きな人に合うためにおしゃれをするのと同じことでした。
For Tomitaro, it was like dressing up to meet a person you like.
大好きな植物に合う礼儀として、おしゃれをしていたのです。
Dressing up was a courtesy to suit his beloved plants.
)
