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Read-along Sessions
Come and read from the previous week’s section, join in the chat about this book (also the previous book, possible future books, WK reviews, all things Japan-related, what else you did on the weekend, etc) or just lurk and listen. Readers of all speeds and abilities welcome - we are here to help each other out. Reading sessions will be held every Sunday at 9:30pm JST.
Week 11 session (in your timezone): Sunday, December 22, 2019 12:30 PM TZ
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As usual, the first week of a new text is hard… Here is a first question:
At 77%
When it is mentioned that the younger brother is wearing his deceased girlfriend’s sailor uniform: 双方の親が、そんなことをしてもゆみこさんは喜ばないと、スカート男を泣いて止めた。
In this sentence, I’m losing track in several places:
双方の親が、- both his parents (they are the subject of the sentence)
そんなことをしても - even if (somebody) do those things - who is being referred here? The parents? The brother? Or is this sentence qualifying Yumiko who used to wear this sailor uniform?
ゆみこさんは喜ばないと、- Yumiko would not be happy and without fail
スカート男を泣いて止めた。- would quit a relationship with a skirt-wearing man, with tears in her eyes.
So, my questions are:
how do the parents come into play in this sentence? They are the subject, but then they don’t seem to play a role - or I don’t see it.
who is the somebody that does those things, and what are these things exactly? (Wearing skirts, I guess?)
What does this 泣いて止めた mean (cried and stopped?) and refer to? Is this maybe the action of the parents? Because if it were Yumiko’s action, it would be hypothetical and not in past tense??
Thanks for any help More to come…
Also, these are some names as far as I could identify them (beware, these are real spoilers!):
さつき - our protagonist
等 - とう? - her boyfriend who died in a car accident
柊 - ひいらぎ - 等 's younger brother
ゆみこ - 柊 's girlfriend who also died in that car accident
うらら - the girl our protagonist meets at the bridge
I believe that rather than both his parents, it’s both sides’ parents: his and hers. And they are saying the part between the commas, with the と as a quote marker, so they’re saying, even if (しても) you (the younger brother) do something like that, Yumiko won’t be happy (more naturally, it won’t make her happy). So they say that, crying, and stop him (the skirt-wearing man). (Or try to, considering that he doesn’t stop.)
Thank you so much, you have clarified everything I wondered about
Now, as promised, more questions from my side, with thanks for any help
At 78%
Right after the start of a new paragraph, she says:
「夕食を外にするなら、家に電話するわ。ああ、柊は？家で食べなくていいの？」
Here I don’t understand the logical connection. Wasn’t it him who had suggested to go to this new かきあげ丼 restaurant one or two pages earlier? And now she asks him whether it is ok to eat out? Or is this a totally new situation?
At 79%
This is a flashback where he describes his younger brother to her. He says something along the lines that when she gets to know his brother that she will hate him as well because they are brothers, and then she says:
「じゃあ、弟が変、くらいで愛がゆるがないくらいの年月がたってからなら合わせてくれる？」
There’s a lot of くらい and other things in this sentence where I don’t know exactly how to put them together, but with some liberty I get to something like this:
Well, if your brother is so strange, will you let me meet him at the time when our love does not falter any more?
It’s been a while since I read this book, so I don’t remember about 78%. But 79%, I think you’re so close!
Maybe you interpreted it another way, but I think the connector you’re missing is the で. I would take your sentence and do this: ‘Then, will you let me meet him at the time when our love won’t falter any more due to something like your brother being weird?’ With で working as the ‘due to.’
… Actually, reading it again I would also change the ‘at the time’ to something more concretely referring to the passage of time: 年月がたってから ‘after (such amount of) time has passed.’ How about: ‘Then, if it’s after enough time has passed that our love won’t falter from something like your brother being weird, will you let me meet him (at that point)?’
Finally started reading today and am I ever glad you thought to warn us about that. Even so it took a minute before I remembered that that was probably a name. ^^;
Are you OK on the 78%, btw? Since I just finished reading I’ll give you my interpretation.
78%
I think our protag is saying she’ll phone her parents that they’re going out to eat and don’t need to prepare anything for her - and then she asks him if he’s OK for eating out (or will he also call home or sth inferred), since it’s a spontaneous thing for both of them.
I have the same understanding there, I just don’t understand the flow of the story as right before that it was him who suggested going to that new place, and now she asks him whether it’s ok to eat out? I can’t make the connection. The only reasonable explanation I can come up with is that there is no connection, and this is simply a different situation (I know there’s a break between these two, but that doesn’t tell how much time passed…)
Not if he’s OK with going out - but is he OK with going out in relation to his parents. Like, does he need to tell them? Do they expect him for dinner? To which he then says no, it’s early so they won’t have started when he gets home, it’s just his mom anyway so he’ll bring her takeout.
Maybe I’m not understanding what you mean though. I think there is a relation…? It doesn’t feel all that sudden to me.
I just had to read this book, in English, for an east asian history course. I enjoyed it quite a bit, unfortunately I’m no where near that reading level in Japanese. There were a couple spots in the translation that made me question what the original text was though so I’d like to pick it up in the future. I hope it’s enjoyable for everyone here as well.
More to come…
