Week 9: 小川未明童話集 - Ogawa Mimei’s Collection of Children’s Stories

Japanese Language Reading
#1

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小川未明童話集 - Ogawa Mimei’s Collection of Children’s Stories Home Thread

Week 9

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Start Date: Oct 23rd
Previous Part: Week 8
Next Part: Week 10

Reading:

Week Start Date Chapter Pages 1951ed. Pages 2013ed. Page Count
Week 9 Oct 23rd 14. 飴チョコの天使1 90 10

Vocabulary List

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小川未明童話集 - Ogawa Mimei’s Collection of Children’s Stories (Beginner Book Club)
Week 10: 小川未明童話集 - Ogawa Mimei’s Collection of Children’s Stories
#2

@NicoleRauch now that we’ve reordered the stories a bit, should I reorganize the vocab sheet tabs as well? :slight_smile:

Oh whoops, this should’ve gone to the main thread probably. My bad! :man_facepalming:

Edit: lol my English :joy:

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#3

Hey all, here are some bits and pieces from this week’s challenging grammar:

なんといっても子供らは、箱の中に入っている、飴チョコさえ食べればいいのです。- Relevant grammar points are 【N2】なんといっても/ nanto itte mo and Learn JLPT N3 Grammar: さえ ~ ば (sae ~ ba) – Japanesetest4you.com, I think: By any account, the children were content with just eating the chocolate.

この都会へはこられないばかりか、この景色を見ることもできない - https://jlptsensei.com/learn-japanese-grammar/ばかりか-bakari-ka-meaning/ - Not only being unable to return to that city, but also being unable to see this landscape.

ここに話をしますのは、それらの多くの天使の中の一人であるのはいうまでもありません。- は言うまでもない - Grammar - Kanshudo - It goes without saying that this story is about one of those many angels.

ただ車が石の上をガタガタと踊りながら、なんでものどかな、田舎道を、。。。
「だんだん、のどかになりますだ」
This is a bit hard to parse, I think, so my hint would be 長閑 - Jisho.org.

「お前さんは、どこまでゆかしゃる」- This is an old polite conjugation which you can still see in words like おっしゃる and いらっしゃる. The verb in question is 行く (with the alternative reading ゆく). - “Dear sir, where are you heading to?”

おそらくありますまい。- This is the negative volitional: https://www.imabi.net/thevolitionalii.htm - “perhaps won’t be”

日よりはほかになかったのであります。This does not have the usual meaning of “than” that you might know from ~より~の方が. Instead it is より - Jisho.org #3, “except, other than”, and there is even a complete grammar point for the construction: Japanese よりほかに…ない grammar yorihokani…nai (in our case, は is thrown in for additional contrast). - “Only on that day”

それをば手に持って - Not a typo, but apparently an old form of を: をば - Jisho.org

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#4

天使（てんし）でありますから、たとえ破（やぶ）られても、焼（や）かれても、また轢（ひ）かれても、血（ち）の出（で）るわけではなし、また痛（いた）いということもなかったのです。

Typo in the highlighted part? Shouldn’t it be わけではないし? In Tobira I have the （という）わけ＋じゃない／ではない grammar point (it is not the case that ~)

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#5

It seems that なし would be a classical variant of ないし according to this question and answer.

(EDIT: For the grammar point as such you are of course correct.)

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#6

Here is a construction that appeared in a previous story, in a very similar context, but is not a major grammar point.
いろいろの花（はな）が咲（さ）くには、まだ早（はや）かったけれど、梅（うめ）の花（はな）は、もう香（かお）っていました。

It was still too early for various (most?) flowers to bloom, but plum flowers were already fragrant.

I only ever see には used in reference to nouns, but it looks like one can apply it to sentence clauses for contrast.

That plot twist, though… :joy:

「どちらへ、お送（おく）りになるのですか。」
「東京（とうきょう）の孫（まご）に、もちを送（おく）ってやるついでに、なにかお菓子（かし）を入（い）れてやろうと思（おも）ってな。」と、おばあさんは答（こた）えました。
「しかし、ご隠居（いんきょ）さん、この飴（あめ）チョコは、東京（とうきょう）からきたのです。」

Thoughts

この静（しず）かな黄昏（たそがれ）がた、三人（にん）の天使（てんし）は、青（あお）い空（そら）に上（のぼ）ってゆきました。

For the majority of the story I wasn’t really sure what is it about, because it felt sad (due to the chocolate angel’s poor fate sometimes), but the narrative itself wasn’t exactly sad. Perhaps just slightly nostalgic. Until the sentence above showed up and I realized it’s probably again a reference to Mimei’s children who died early.

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#7

Of course, it’s a grammar point! :joy_cat: https://jlptsensei.com/learn-japanese-grammar/には-ni-wa-meaning/

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#8

Here is one more difficult sentence I’d like to point out (had to check back with my 先輩 on that one because I couldn’t solve the puzzle on my own :grin:):

「なあんだ、飴チョコか」と、子供らは、口ではいったものの喜んで、
At first I read this as で入った物の but this does not make any sense at all (especially not grammar-wise).
Turns out it is では言ったものの with 【口で言う】とはどういう意味ですか？ - 日本語に関する質問 | HiNative and Learn JLPT N2 Grammar: ものの (mono no) – Japanesetest4you.com as the relevant hints.

“Whaat, just chocolate” said the children out loud but were happy nonetheless

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#9
My very short thoughts on the story

So, I guess this was basically a study on the pointlessness of existence?

Mother: Children, how about a bedtime story about chocolate?
Children: Hurray!
Mother: It’s by Ogawa Mimei.
Children: Noooooooooooooo!

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#10

:joy:

I don’t have much to add this week. I thought this week’s story was again a little easier to read (I might have to admit that it does get easier over time :sweat_smile:), but I was a little busy so I didn’t have time yet to dive into the deeper grammar points yet (@NicoleRauch thanks again for the explanations!)

Story-wise, I thought it was a fine fairy tale, but not very exciting. There were some nice descriptions of scenes, but they didn’t grab me as much as in 月夜と眼鏡.

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#11

It was a story about the distribution chain for 飴チョコ.

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