Not fully understanding all the grammar or words here, I gave it my best shot. The literal translation I got to was “Gossip/rumors that have been asked about will have (inevitably) spread”. More plainly, if one asks to hear about gossip, it is inevitable that said gossip will spread rapidly.
I was a little thrown off because I took 聞く to mean “to ask” instead of “to hear”, but it usually carries を when meaning “to ask”, at least in the example sentences I searched up, whereas here it has は. Another valid translation that works with my translation above is “to give consideration to”.
吹き出す was a bit hard to grasp, the examples I found talk about plants springing forth in Spring, water gushing out of a faucet, people bursting into laughter, or lava bursting from a volcano, so that’s the kind of connotation I went for. google.co.jp pretty much only returned pictures of spit takes, so there’s that as well.
Finally, I interpreted と as the following explanation from BDJG “A subordinate conjunction which marks a condition that brings about an uncontrollable event or state.” I interpreted 聞いている as “has been asked” (perfect tense), and 吹き出される as passive “has burst forth”. Trying to incorporate the correct grammatical ideas was difficult, I hope I at least got close to my interpretation above.
The feeling I get here is something closer to “A rumor, once heard, must burst forth”.
I need @pm215 to weigh in, but I think the correct “causative passive” form would be 吹き出させられる.
It might just be a poetic 音 count thing, though. I’m unsure.
Edit.
I’m still unsure, but I think 吹き出され is simply “bursts out”, so a literal translation would be something like “upon hearing a rumor, (it) bursts out”, but somehow I get a clear sense of inevitability. I don’t actually see anything in the original that explains why I feel that way, though (no words/grammar meaning “must” nor “intevitably”, etc.).
I get the sense that the English meaning is something like if you ask whether something is true, you create a rumor. I.e. the act of asking about something causes a rumor to be created
The は is probably important, but I’m pretty sure it’s a rumor being heard, not created.
Unless I’m missing something, I’m pretty sure it’s something like “As for rumors, upon hearing, (they) burst out”. I’m unclear whether it’s specifically about the author being a gossiper or if it’s meant more as a universal truth, though.
Oh interesting, so you’re saying that [spoiler]the speaker is blurting something out, and the thing that’s being blurted out is that they already had heard a rumor about the person they’re meeting.
or maybe that the speaker can’t help but blurt out a rumor they heard[/spoiler]
Yes, that’s my guess, the writer of the senryuu met someone, that someone said to them お噂は聞いています, so literally just “I’ve heard rumor”, but implied “I’ve heard (bad) rumor (about you)”, and on top of that they burst laughing/chuckling. (吹き出され is a suffering passive)
I think English is doing us a disservice here, because in English we are “bursting out” words, but I think in Japanese 吹き出すis literally bursting out air, as a type of laugh. When looking up google image, it’s like this:
Yeah, that makes sense. I mean it’s literally to blow out (i.e. burst out). But can’t it be words as well as air? Unconsciously saying something out loud?
Typical Japanese ambiguity, but I’m unclear how you’re getting a specific (and bad) rumor about you?
As usual, I’m amazed at how far off base I apparently am, but I’m still not following.
To be clear, I now think the と is literally quoting what the author accidentally said out loud (吹き出された).
What’s funny (to me) is that I initially thought “聞くと” as in 「質問を聞くと返事が直ぐもらう」(“if you ask the question, you’ll get a quick response”, i.e., not the literal quotational usage of と).[1]
But now I think it’s quoting a sentence that just happens to use the verb 聞いています.
That’s my own sentence, so it’s likely poor Japanese! ↩︎
It’s possible…as always, figuring out who really did the damn thing is always a struggle
But I can’t find this meaning of 吹き出す (bursting out as in accidentally saying something loud), either in Japanese Dictionary or in the 研究社 though.It’s always about wind blowing, or liquid gushing/spurting out, or can’t hold back and break out in laugher.
1 〔風が〕 begin to blow; rise.
2 〔息を〕 breathe [blow] out. [＝ふく５ 2]
3 〔失笑する〕 burst out ┏laughing [in laughter]; burst into laughter.
►ぷっと吹き出す let out a suppressed laugh.
►一座の人がどっと吹きだした. Everyone there burst out laughing.
・思わず吹きださずにはいられなかった. I was overcome by an uncontrollable urge to laugh.
4 〔芽を〕 sprout; bud.
►木が芽を吹きだした. Trees are breaking out into buds.
Also is it really common for a speaker to use the passive about stuff they accidentally did? I always hear stuff like つい…てしまった
That’s VERY possibly just a misconception of mine. Researching, but it appears you’re right that it always means simply “blowing out”/“discharging”/“erupting” (usually with laughter/giggles when applied to humans).
Yup, after a perfunctory search, I can’t find a single example of this phrase meaning words bursting out (vs. just air or laughter).
My middle names are “loud”, “confident”, and “wrong” for a reason.
So perhaps the author heard someone else say “I’ve heard a rumor about you” intending the “your reputation precedes you” connotation, but using words that usually imply a negative rumor.
Author: <laughs unintentionally> (“bursts out”/“stifles a laugh”)
They likely intended it in a more positive sense than it sounds in English, like: “I’ve heard much about you”. The humor apparently comes from the ambiguity (good rumors, or bad rumors?) – hence the stifled giggle.
Isn’t this passive?
The 吹き出す being passive makes me quite confident it can’t be the author who is doing the 吹き出す. Suffering passive can be complicated to understand if you think about it in English terms, but it’s actually quite straightforward in this sentence.
In my interpretation, B-san is saying to the author „I’ve heard lots (of rumours) about you“, with the 吹き出す interpreted as „bursting out words“ and not „bursting out laughing“. Because 吹き出す is quite a big laugh? I know the other meaning is not especially mentioned in the dictionary and I’m a bit unclear on that, but 大辞林 does have the example sentence 不満が一気に吹き出す. (<- this part could be very wrong)
I agree, お噂は聞いています is a set phrase, also recognizable by the masu-form which definitely indicates „all this is being said by someone“. Actually masu-form is a nice little device (in real life conversation) to make sure the listener understands „now this is a quote of what someone else said“.
I guess you can say: ます + と is usually quoting, not conditional.
Another grammatically tricky one, so I’m not 100% certain, but I agree with this analysis. I feel like 吹き出され being in the passive makes me lean more towards a word like “sniggered” with its overtones of being laughed at.
