We are reading at the pace of one page per day. If a sentence crosses two pages it is read as part of the first page.
Daily reading schedule
Page turns at midnight JST.
Date
Page
Last Line of Page
Feb 4
99
Chapter title page
Feb 5
100
ヨーロッパからは とても 遠い 国でした。
Feb 6
101
でも、コロンブスは ちがいました。
Feb 7
103
ほかの 二そうの 船と ともに、海に 出ました。
Feb 8
104
そんな ある日の こと、船が うごきを 止めました。
Feb 9
105
「航海を やめて、船を 引きかえしてくれ！」
Feb 10
106
「おねがいだ、船を 引きかえしてくれ！」
Feb 11
107
大ほうの 音を とどろかせました。
Feb 12
108
（私の 考えに、おやまりは なかった……。）
Feb 13
109
知らなかった 新しい 大陸に、たどりついたのです。
Feb 14
110
End of chapter
Resources
These spreadsheets are put together by the bookclub to help other readers. Feel free to contribute but do read the vocab sheet guidance on the first page before adding any words.
When asking for help, please mention the page number, and check before posting that your question hasn’t already been asked
If posting a complete translation of a sentence we generally blur / hide this, as seeing the translation may be a spoiler for those who haven’t read that part yet and wanted to translate for themselves. The easiest way to do this is select the text, click on the cog icon, and select “Blur Spoiler”, or you can type it like this: [spoiler]texthere[/spoiler]
今から五百年以上も前にことです。
It was more than 500 years ago.
イタリアに、コロンブスという名の、船乗りがいました。
In Italy there was a seaman named Columbus.
彼には、大きな夢がありました。
He had a big dream.
「目もくらむような黄金があるという、『黄金の国ジパング（日本）』へ行って、黄金を持ち帰るーー」というものです。
His dream is: “I will go to ‘Zipangu (Japan), the land of gold’, where there is dazzling gold, and bring back gold.”
『ジパング』は、アジアの大陸の東の端にあるとされ、ヨーロッパからはとても遠い国でした。
‘Zipangu’, being located at the eastern edge of Asia, was a country very far from Europe.
Am I right to assume that this is いました? (I don’t own the book so I can only speculate )
I guess you’d want 東の端 here (just like you translated)?
I guess I will never wrap my head around how they sometimes use tenses…
Now imagine going there by (sailing) ship… It always blows my mind when I think about how much time those endeavours took back in the day. (and how much risk)
I can see とされる in Jisho meaning “…is considered to…”
and とされている on bunpro meaning “to be considered; to be deemed; be regarded as; be accepted as”
So does it mean - “Zipangu was considered to be located at the eastern edge of the continent of Asia…”
As there are two verbs connected in this sentence (され as a verb stem acting as a continuative) it makes sense that the whole sentence is expressed in the past tense.
I’ve unfortunately neglected to keep up with the reading schedule, so have jumped back in here.
Still hard work, but recognising WK vocab such as 以上 and 国, and the 乗 in 船乗り is actually pretty cool, and makes me realise just how much progress I’m making (even if it doesn’t feel like it sometimes).
ヨーロッパからアジアへ行くには、船乗りは誰もが、アフリカの大陸の端を回って、それから『東』へ進んでいました。
To get from Europe to Asia, every seaman went around the tip of the African continent and then went forward to the ‘East’.
でも、とても遠回りで、なかなかアジアへたどり着くものはいません。
However it is an awful detour, and finally arriving in Asia is not an easy affair.
でも、コロンブスは違いました。
But Columbus was different.
Hmm, I’m reading this as “there are even people who don’t arrive” (based on なかなか - Jisho.org#2 because we have a negative verb here).
But I’m not exactly sure - what do the others think?
I think it’s rather 者 i.e. person? Because of いません which only makes sense for living beings.
Interestingly I don’t have this implication at all For me, saying that something is not easily achieved still means that everybody achieves it (just with more or less hardship). That’s why I wondered
For the full phrase, DeepL gives “But it’s a very long way to go, and not everyone makes it to Asia.”
I needed to use it for help when doing my translation. Surprisingly tricky phrase considering how short it is. Oh, and isn’t machine learning weird? I’m not sure what sort of training they do for DeepL but it’s amazing the translations it can accomplish, and then equally amazing what can make it fall flat on it’s face.
「地球丸い。『西』へ進んでも、アジアへ行き着くはずだ」と、海の地図（海図）や、星の動きなどを勉強したコロンブスは、考えました。
Columbus, who had studied maps of the oceans (sea charts), the movement of the stars and the like, thought: “The Earth is spherical. Even if you go to the ‘West’, you should end up in Asia.”
それは、誰も試そうとは思わないような考えでした。
It was an idea that nobody had ever thought of trying out.
そのころは、西の海に行けば、悪魔がいると信じられていたくらいですから。
The reason was that in those days it was believed that if you went to the western sea, the devil would be there.
一四九二年、コロンブスは、サンタ・マリア号という船に乗り、他のニ艘の船と共に、海に出ました。
In 1492, Columbus boarded a ship called Santa Maria and, along with two other ships, set out to sea.
So perhaps I can break the sentence down like this:
それは、考えでした。
That was an idea.
それは、誰も 思わないような考えでした。
That was an idea that no-one thought.
それは、誰も試そうとは思わないような考えでした。
That was an idea that no-one was thinking that let’s attempt it - or more naturally: that was an idea that no-one thought to attempt.
)
For me, saying that something is not easily achieved still means that everybody achieves it (just with more or less hardship). That’s why I wondered 
