We are reading at the pace of one page per day. If a sentence crosses two pages it is read as part of the first page.
Daily reading schedule
Page turns at midnight JST.
Date
Page
Last Line of Page
Jan 8
71
Chapter title page
Jan 9
72
そこは、 自然ゆたかな 森が 広がる 土地でした。
Jan 10
73
思いがけない 体けんを、たくさん したのです。
Jan 11
74
シートンが 心配を した、そのときです。
Jan 12
75
きずつきながらも、ついに おいはらったのです。
Jan 13
76
ますます どうぶつの かんさつが、楽しい ものに なりました。
Jan 14
77
ゆう気や あいじょう、ちえには、ずっと かんどうさせられました。
Jan 15
78
「わかりました。やってみまそう。」
Jan 16
79
あざわらうかのように、わなの 上に フンを していきました。
Jan 17
80
ひっしに さがしまわる あまり、いつもなら
Jan 18
81
シートンは 思いました……。
Jan 19
82
どんどん へっていったからです。オオカミが
Jan 20
83
『シートン動物記』の 名前で、親しまれています。
Jan 21
84
End of chapter
Resources
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Hehe, same here Now I’m wondering whether there are any other Germans (or maybe even Europeans) in this thread who knew the name and the person already?
I must say I’m quite glad that we will finally learn about a person I’ve never heard about before…
I feel like I’d probably heard of him before but forgotten about it. I’m just basing this on having been in Boy Scouts though, and I do remember Baden-Powell so maybe I never learned about Seton. There’s a nice E.T. Seton Park in Toronto that I’ll have to visit next time I’m nearby visiting family.
アーネスト・トンプソン・シートンは、イギリスの港町に生まれました。
Ernest Thompson Seton was born in an English port town.
赤ん坊のころから、呆れるほどの動物好き。
Since infancy he was an amazing animal lover.
どんなに大泣きしても、ヒヨコを見せれば泣き止んで、ご機嫌になってしまうほどでした。
No matter how much he cried, when he was shown a chick, he stopped crying and got in a good mood.
シートンが六歳のころ、一家はカナダへ引っ越すことになりました。
When he was six, his family moved to Canada.
そこは、自然豊かな森が広がる土地でした。
There, it was a wide-stretching land with abundant natural forests.
Maybe it would make sense to translate this like „When he was six, it came about that the family moved to Canada.“? This is at least the way I interpreted ことになりました.
There was a land where woods full of nature spread out.
I think the woods are the subject of 広がる and therefore stretching out. 自然 on the other hand seems to be directly connected with 豊かな, which is here used as a suffix.
When Seton was around the age of six, his family decided to move to Canada.
そこは、自然豊かな森が広がる土地でした。
There, abundant natural forests were spread across the land.
DeepL actually has it as “It was a land of lush forests” which I appreciate the simplicity of. I also actually had to read up on ことになる. It’s one of those grammar points I’m sure I’ve come across before but haven’t internalized.
I’m not sure if this is correct but I had the impression that ころ/ごろ only means „around“ or „about“ when it’s combined with a time expression that gives a specific point in time. Otherwise it’s closer to 時 (とき) and for example here just means „when he was six“ or „at the age of six“.
I thought ことになる is used to avoid expressing volition, so I’m not sure „decided“ here is the best option if you want to stick close to the tone of the Japanese text.
The examples on bunpro seem to have both (“When I was a child…” but also “Around the time I was an elementary student…”). Either way, I screwed up and ended up using both. Using “when” does sound a lot more natural, even for that bunpro example (“when I was in elementary school” is less verbose and sounds like more natural English).
Having just looked it up for the first time today… not sure why I went with decided. A lot of the example sentences I saw use “ended up” which probably would fit the tone better. Like, When Seton was six, his family ended up moving to Canada.. Since it’s 引っ越す and not 引っ越している I was trying to not translate as “moving”, getting too caught up in translating literally.
Maybe equating the plain form with „to VERB“, and the ている form with „VERB-ing“ is not that helpful. Sometimes it works but often it does not. I think the grammatical concepts are quite different.
I can’t say much about Bunpro or the quality of their example sentences. But I checked the Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar and asked two Japanese native speakers. They said 6歳のころ means „at the the age of six“, „when he was six“ etc. If you wanted to express that he was around the age of six you would say something like 6歳くらいだった時.
「きっと、知らない生き物がたくさんいるんだろうな。」そう思うて、わくわくしてきました。
“Surely, aren’t there many living things I don’t know?” At this thought, he was getting excited.
大自然での暮らしで、シートンは、たくさんの動物たちに出会いました。
Living in the wilderness, Seton encountered many animals.
そして、思いがけない体験を、たくさんしたのです。
And he had many unexpected experiences.
Hmm, but maybe you are mixing different meanings of だろう here. I think together with probability adverbs it expresses things like „quite sure“, „almost certain“ etc. Of course, with a rising intonation だろう is used to ask for agreement. But there is no hearer here, it’s just the boy’s inner monologue. Feel free to correct me, だろう confuses me again and again.
Now I’m wondering whether there are any other Germans (or maybe even Europeans) in this thread who knew the name and the person already?
