Week 9: 薬屋のひとりごと

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薬屋のひとりごと Home Thread

Week 9

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Previous Part: Week 8
Next Part: Week 10

Reading:

Week Start Date Chapter Names Page Count
Week 9 Apr 23rd 「里帰り」「麦稈」「誤解」 29

Discussion Rules

  • Please use spoiler tags for major events in the current chapter(s) and any content in future chapters.
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Proper Noun Readings

Name Reading Notes Proof
猫猫 まおまお Main character furigana
玉葉 ギョクヨウ One of the four (main) wives (title: 貴妃) furigana
梨花 リファ One of the four (main) wives (title: 賢妃) furigana
小蘭 シャオラン furigana
鈴麗 リンリ Daughter of 玉葉; nickname: 小鈴 (シャオリン) furigana
壬氏 ジンシ 天女を思わせる宦官 furigana
紅娘 ホンニャン head of the maids of 玉葉 furigana
芙蓉 フヨウ 中級妃 furigana
高順 ガオシュン aid of 壬氏 furigana
桜花 インファ maid of 玉葉 furigana
貴園 グイエン maid of 玉葉 furigana
愛藍 アイラン maid of 玉葉 furigana
里樹 リーシュ One of the four (main) wives (title: 徳妃) furigana
李白 リハク mid-ranking 武官 furigana
1 Like

I remember that, with that part, my view of 猫猫’s home changed quite a bit.
Also, I like 李白.
Hopefully, this is the week where I can catch up in my reread.
But there are so many other books.

3 Likes

Alrighty. Read the first chapter and surprisingly don’t have any specific questions for it. There were a few rough parts, but nothing that felt like it absolutely stopped me in my tracks/looked interesting to ask about.

In related news, after finishing this chapter I gathered up my collected vocab and made new Anki flashcards. This latest batch pulls me over the 1000 mark for vocab pulled specifically for 薬屋 over 500 of those different ways to say prostitute, 1176 specifically. I couldn’t break down what’s new/what I should know by have forgotten/what’s new but I can understand from context, they’re all mixed in there.

As long as it’s taking me to read chapters due to all the new vocab, I’m pretty pleased that this will be that many more words I’ll know when reading in the future.

5 Likes

(Ch 23, not a spoiler though)

品物の粒は悪くない

Probably the worst way to talk about people I have seen in a while :sweat_smile:

2 Likes

I remember seeing that and it didn’t make much of an impression. :eyes: Maybe I should take another look…

1 Like

Like, people (well, women) are literally 品物. 粒, in this context (a bunch of things, although, now that I check, my dictionary says it also applies to a group of people), means the quality of each individual object.
Dehumanization cranked up to 11.

4 Likes
Ch 23 I actually understood something from rereading!

I remember being very confused when 猫猫 mentioned that the poison was tobacco (even showing the leaves to おやじ) but all her reasoning was about the alcohol… Well, turns out nicotine is a strong poison, which has the symptoms the two had as well. So the top sake was spiked with tobacco leaves, I guess.

TIL that tobacco harvester suffer from a form of nicotine poisoning called Green Tobacco Sickness from just touching wet leaves. :nauseated_face:

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Aah, that’s probably what was getting me. I’m only familiar with the ‘small round object’ definition of 粒, so I didn’t make the connection with 品物. That is pretty harsh!

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I just realized a I have a bunch of friends visiting this weekend, which kind of scraps my plans to do next week’s reading then…

Lots of questions for a long ch. 23

もう齢も齢だし、畑仕事はやめてもらいたいが、おやじはやめようとはしない。
Another grammar question, this time about this もう~も formation. I’m assuming it’s saying that she wants him to stop working in his little field due to his age.

何事も前向きに考えよう、一匹しかいなかったのだ。それでよかったではないか。何匹も入れていたら、共食いを繰り返し蟲毒となっていたかもしれない。
So these sentences come as 猫猫 is looking at her box that has the 「さわるな」sign on it. I’m getting real lost here on what’s going on, though; what are the 匹 being referenced here?

猫猫が周りを観察する癖があるのは、このおやじの癖がうつったといってもいい。
Is the うつった here 移る?

やぶ医者が見た目以上にやぶに見えるのも、おやじという存在をずっと見てきたからかもしれない。
So is this saying that her dad looks like a やぶ, …something something something?

そんな客なら出入り禁止にすればいいものを、と思ったが、入れ込んだのは相手の妓女のほうだという
What is the bolded part saying? They can ban the guest, but things get complicated because of the 妓女 involvement in the poisoning?

やけに娼館側が猫猫たちに感謝している雰囲気だったのは、目ざわりな客とはいえ豪奢の息子を自分の店で死なせずにすんだからかもしれない。
So just to double-check here, the 店 being discussed they’d rather avoid the 客 dying in is the 娼館, correct?

後宮も花街も花園であり鳥かごだ。皆、閉じ込もったその空間のその空気に毒されていく
So she compares both the inner palace and the red-light district to being in a birdcage; is the bolded part saying that the people in both are also poisoned/corrupted by being forced to stay/live in their respective birdcages?

Phew, we’re slowly getting closer and closer to the end. Exciting stuff! I was pretty happy to end on a 壬氏 chapter this week. :3 Even if most of the chapter was at his expense.

(Also, I think you forgot to link this thread in the home thread @Naphthalene.)

3 Likes
Ch 23

The structure is Aは/もA, a way to put emphasis on A, as being what it is.
So もう → at this point
歳も歳だ → his age is what it is (i.e, he is old)

The thing that was being soaked in alcohol. It’s unclear what it is, we only know that it moved fast. The counter 匹 makes me think it’s a snake (and that’s what I would put in alcohol anyway). The mention of 蠱毒 kinda brings up images of centipedes, though.

My dictionary says yes, but I’ve only seen it written in hiragana with the meaning of contagion.

No, she is saying that the reason why やぶ医者 (the guy in the 後宮) looks like a やぶ to her is because she is used to looking at her おやじ (who’s extremely competent).

They can ban the guest, but the 妓女 is the one who brought him in on purpose.

Yes, they’re glad he didn’t die at their place.

Yes.

Gaaaah

3 Likes

Nice; the 匹 and the やぶ sentences were the biggest head-scratchers, so those are nice and clear now. I’m curious as to why 匹 isn’t specified; maybe the author wasn’t entirely sure what would be appropriate for 猫猫 to pickle in the first place?

:scream: As horrifying as that would be, it would ratchet up 猫猫’s badass points quite a bit if that were the case.

3 Likes

Well, according to Wikipedia, snakes are also potential ingredients for 蠱毒, so it doesn’t really mean anything. It’s just that centipedes were always used as an ingredient in 蠱毒 I saw in other series (and it was the main ingredient twice)

2 Likes

Slapping 蠱毒 into Google myself and checking out Wikipedia, it directs to ‘Gu (poison)’; I’m familiar with a similar concept through reading xianxia, and I feel like I typically see insects as Gu representatives myself. Granted, 猫猫 has mentioned earlier in the book that she would capture poisonous snakes to have them bite her, so she definitely has access to them.

…Now I’m just imagining some Junji Ito-level horror of a jar with some indeterminate mass of horrors chewing on each other, haha.

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Good thing we know it’s just 一匹, then. :upside_down_face:

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Shhh, they’re all one now. :eyes: And will eventually become one with 猫猫

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Some confusing stuff in these chapters. Thankfully some of my questions were already asked/answered. (And others I forgot to make note of, so now I get to pretend that I wasn’t confused. :wink:)

Questions

皆、閉じ込もったその空間のその空気に毒されていく。

I was taken aback by the bolded part. Wouldn’t it normally be written as either 閉じこもる or 閉じ籠る (maybe also 閉じ篭る)? Jisho at least still recognizes the way it’s written in the book, but it looks so weird to me, and Goo doesn’t list it as a possible spelling.

なにより、どんな嗜虐趣味サディストマオマオの初売りに出そうか考えているやり手ばばあに背中を押されたこととなる。

I honestly don’t even know where to start with this. I have no idea what it’s saying.

Also, I could not for the life of me figure out who 李白 was. :sweat_smile: I probably should have checked here and searched back before reading all these chapters, but oh well.

1 Like

込もる is a borderline kanji usage, but it’s not wrong per se.

see 心のこもったの「こもった」の漢字「込もった」は正解なの間違いなの教えてくだ... - Yahoo!知恵袋 for example.

About your other question, I don’t remember it at all, but based on content I assume it’s when 猫猫 cannot pay. “ In any case, the fact that the やり手婆 was thinking of which sadist she would sell 猫猫’s first time to was a strong push in the back” (i.e. motivating 猫猫 to do something; find new customers I think?)

1 Like