You could get some manga raw, 4-koma, a light novel or something.
Source
- a script to create a chuck of text from Aozora Bunko. I don’t know if it can be made a website version…
- NHK Easy News
- Pixiv
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“Finally, the sludge and the fun rain from spring’s snow melt whose’s echo’s fill the whole town is beginning, the lime trees in that row of trees stand out, I think, and the northern country’s spring passionately grows up into a young green within summer’s first ecstasy.” Here’s my best guess.
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I might made it too hard…
“Met my wife along the way; however, I feel unwelcome.”
Is there a reason you plucked one small sentence out of the middle of a big long thing? Something that contains その is obviously referring to some earlier context, but I don’t necessarily want to wade through that wall of text.
Hmm, for random text, how about using NEWS WEB EASY for beginners and more advanced people can just use original articles? News themes can be pretty varied, but they also will be relevant.
Though I guess this limits stuff to formal Japanese.
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I guess too short is bad. The script randomizes 3 sentences. Let me try again…
BTW, this is what it looks like:
I might look into extracting text from an easier article later.
OK, here’s a quest summary from FFXIV, which I’ve just started playing. (The Japanese in it is pretty tough for me, but the motivation helps!)
ガルフリッドから傭兵の仕事を請け負うために、
まずは装備を整えなければならない。
「アイテムレブレ５以上」の防具を
頭、胴、手、脚、足に装備して、
「ガルフリッド」に見せよう。
Here’s my attempt at a translation:
To undertake mercenary work from Galfrid ,
you must first get your gear in order.
Equip at least “item level 5” armor on
head, torso, hands, legs, and feet,
and then see “Galfrid.”
I’m a bit confused as to what 情け is doing in there. (EDIT: that was a transcription error; I had 情け instead of 請け in 請け負う.) Any corrections/suggestions are always appreciated!
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From my understanding 情け is there to make 負う more humble. So I say it’s something like “(humbly) receive”. It most definitely not about work itself been pitiful. You can separate it like this:
ガルフリッドから傭兵の仕事 - を - 情け負うために
So first part is just Galrid’s mercenary work, and after を it’s what you have to do with it.
Also official translation puts it like “To be eligible for tasks from Galfrid…”
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Probably 請け合う not 情け負う. 請け合う is “to undertake”.
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Nuts — I went back and looked at my screen shot again, and it was in fact 請け負う (which also means to contract/undertake). I simply transcribed it wrong last night. (I’ll go edit the post to avoid confusing people from the future who happen upon it.)
OK, here’s my next one. Not to hog all the fun, I’ll post this without translation and see if anybody else wants to take a whack at it.
ここは若い兵が多いだろう？
実際、ろくな準備をせずに森に入って、
命を落とす者が少なくないのだ。
(Also from FFXIV… not a quest summary, but a bit of color dialogue.)
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“There are a lot of young soldiers here, aren’t there?
In reality, instead of entering the forest well prepared,
there are more than a few people tossing away their lives.”
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Interesting! I had a slightly different interpretation of the second sentence:
“There are more than a few people who enter the forest without sufficient preparation, and lose their lives.”
It seems to me せずに (“without doing”) applies ろくな準備 (adequate perparation) to 森に入って (entering the forest). Though I confess I don’t know what を is doing there after 準備 (unless there’s an implied “する” that is simply omitted conversationally).
Of course your translation and mine mean almost the same thing (and yours certainly sounds better!).
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And since I feel like I stole that one, here is an excerpt from もぐら屋化物語二用心棒は婚活中: “お稲たちが、そのことで深く怨みをつのらせていることはわかったので、ひとまず平謝りし、土龍屋に置いてある有り金すべてを渡すことで話し合いがついたというわけだ.”
Yeah, I think yours is more literally accurate. I think せずに is actually a negated する with a に at the end which explains the を being there, if that makes sense. It would be something to the effect of ろくな準備をせず is without doing good preparation and the に makes that clause describe the soldiers in the state of not doing good preparation or something like that.
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http://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/easy/k10011292341000/k10011292341000.html
アザラシは寒い海にいることが多い動物です。１７日の朝、秋田県能代市の山の中の川でアザラシが見つかりました。見つかった場所は海から３０ｋｍもありました。アザラシは、川の中の岩の上で横になって、時々あくびをしたり目を細くしたりしています。
my go at translation
Seals are an animal that is common in cold oceans. On the morning of the 17th, a seal was discovered in a mountain stream in Noshiro City, Akita. The place where it was found was 30 km from the sea! The seal was lying on a rock in the stream, at times yawning and closing its eyes.
- I couldn’t determine from the text whether one or more seals were inland, but the accompanying video showed only one. Also, I’m not really confident that I correctly understand the first sentence.
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http://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/easy/k10011293951000/k10011293951000.html
１８日の朝、福岡市の高速道路の出口の近くで、１匹の猫が道路の端にいるのを、車を運転していた人が見つけました。
道路の安全をチェックする会社の４人がすぐ行って、車の上に「ネコ捕獲中」という文字を出して、猫を捕まえることを知らせました。そして、道路の一部を車が通ることができないようにして、大きな網を持って猫の近くまで行きました。
my go at translation
On the morning of the 18th, drivers discovered a cat on a Fukuoka City expressway. The cat was at the edge of the highway, near an exit.
Four people from a highway safety company soon came and erected a sign over their car, with the words, “Cat-capture in progress”, to alert people. They closed part of the highway, and holding a big net, approached the cat.
This one was a little trickier for me, so if anyone thinks I’ve made a mistake, please tell me.
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Well, I’m reading the articles, so I might as well keep posting translations here…
Here’s a chunk from the end of another one:
電車の中で赤ちゃんが生まれた (Baby Born on Train)
インターネットに出た電車の中の写真を見ると、駅員がシートでお母さんたちを隠していて、周りの人が心配そうに見ています。写真を出した人は「急に赤ちゃんが泣く声が聞こえました。周りにいた女性たちがお母さんを励ましていました。赤ちゃんが元気だといいな」と書いていました。
ＪＲ東日本は「電車の中で赤ちゃんが生まれたということは今まで聞いたことがありません」と話しています。
(bold text added to show parts that I’m unsure about)
My go at translation
Pictures that were posted on the internet from the inside of the train show station staff hiding the mother with a sheet, and bystanders looking concerned. The person who posted the photos wrote, “Suddenly we heard the baby’s cry. The women who were nearby were cheering for the mother. I’m so glad the baby was well.”
JR East Japan said, “This is the first time we’ve heard of a baby being born on a train.”
That’s a very nice translation. Good work.
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Random chunks of japanese, you say? Are academic papers ok?
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