Forgive me for the format! I’m not too good at quoting and all that!
Question: does anybody know precisely how こと works in the last line? I know it means “thing”, but it seems to function like a particle or something…?
ある日のこと is kind of just a set phrase, it doesn’t really mean anything, but it sort of implies ‘one day’ a set of events happened.
そこへ
What is へ doing here? へ would indicate movement, whereas I would’ve expected で for a position.
Normally you’d be right, but へ implies ‘movement’ and in this situation 顔を出した means something like “dropped by”. So it would be similar to if it said そこへ行った.
ないかと
Is this ない (plain negative of ある) plus か plus と? I have not idea how to translate this.
This one’s a little harder to explain, but it’s essentially “(The little devil), wondering if there was anything interesting, was wondering aimlessly around the forest”. An easier way to think about it would be 何か おもしろい ことは ないか と あくまは思っていて、森のあちこちを うるついていたのです。The あくまはおもっていて part is implied. A more literal translation would be “Is there anything interesting?” (thought the little devil as he) wandered around the forest.
As for your actual question about ないかと it is indeed ない＋か＋と. the と is a quotation marker, so it’s a little separate. It’s like と思う and と言う. ないか is negative form of ある plus か, which is essentially a rhetorical question marker. Another example would be いい人いないか？ Are there no good people? (Nuance is: Are there any good people?? Doesn’t seem like it!)
Hopefully that makes sense! If any part of it is still confusing just let me know!
This page was a bit easier. Lots of repeat vocab, no serious grammar. I have only one question:
もんです (second sentence) – Can’t tell if it’s も + んです (emphatic sentence ending) or もん + です.
It is indeed もん＋です and what it means here is もの so “どんなものです”
こい
I’m taking this to be the imperative of 来る.
That’s exactly right!
早くお帰り
This seems to mean ‘return quickly’, but I don’t think お帰り is a verb (like an imperative). I do think the lumberjack is telling the little devil to run along now.
That’s exactly right. お帰り is just another form of the verb 帰る and it can be used as an imperative. You can use it for other verbs too, usually in the sense of お食べください、お飲みください etc
If you do me a favour by returning the bread to me
While this would be a literal translation for くれる, I think it’s easier to think about it as “If you return the bread to me” or in the case of a verb like 行ってくれたら translating it as “If you go for me”.
くれ
Imperative of くれる. I imagine it’s the lumberjack talking to the devil.
Another easier way to think of くれ is just as an informal, more masculine way of saying ください. So it wouldn’t be “do me a favour and come with me” it would just be more plainly “come with me”.
Kind of confused here. 地主 means landowner, だんな means ‘master’, so 地主のだんな seems a bit over the top.
As I had said a bit before, I assume that the 地主 is a female and that だんな here is being used to refer to her husband. That’s a common way of using だんな.
Hopefully this helps!!!
Changed it in my post to avoid confusion for anyone else. Thanks for explaining the double て form, it makes a lot more sense now that I know they’re both used for different reasons!
