なぜ?どうして?Finished!

So are we saying the translation is: Our houses stand on solid ground, don’t they?

I’m still not quite sure about the かたく

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It’s かたい modifying 地面, and in speech you would say かたくて as a way to pile on multple modifiers, but in writing you don’t.

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Wow! Thank you so much @trout for this amazing explanation! Much appreciated!

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Page 144

わたしたちの 家は, かたく, しっかりとした 地面の 上に たっていますね

Oh, I see! かたく here is not 家宅 (noun: domicile; premises), it is 硬い (い-adjective: hard; solid; tough)!

Thank you so much for asking about this @Micki, and thank you so much for explaining it @Leebo!

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I finally got my copy! I’m jumping right into it (leaving out all the previous pages for afterwards).
So I would like to take a stab at p. 115, I hope I’m not too early?

Page 115

南アメリカのペルーと、ボリビアという国にまたがって、チチカカ湖という、大きなみずうみがあります。

There is a big/large lake, called Lake Titicaca, spreading over the South American countries Peru and Bolivia.

I don’t know why the て-form of またがる is being used… Does it serve as kind of an “and” (connecting the part before it to the 大きな… part)?

このみずうみの中には、ウロス島という、人がすむ島があります。

In the middle/center of this lake there is an island, called Uros, where people live.

Page 115 + beginning of Page 116

この島は、全体がトトらという草でできていて、みずうみにうかんでいます。

As for this island, the entirety is made out of grass called totora and [the entirety?] is floating on the lake.

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Welcome! You are not too early at all. We normally start discussing the next page around midnight Japan time. Good to have you here!

Here are my attempts for comparison:

Page 115

南アメリカの ペルーと、ボリビアという国にまたがって、チチカカ湖という、大きなみずうみがあります。

There is a large lake called Lake Titicaca, straddling the countries Peru and Bolivia in South America.

このみずうみの中には、ウロス島という、人がすむ島があります。

In the middle of this lake there are inhabited islands called the Uros Islands.

この島は、全体がトトらという草でできていて、みずうみにうかんでいます。

These islands, are made entirely of a grass called totora, and float on the lake.

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Yes, one of the functions of the て form is joining sentences, but it doesn’t connect directly to the 大きな part, you kind of skipped over a part in between.

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I thought チチカカ湖という is kind of a parenthesis. That’s why I “skipped” it.

That part and 大きな both modify みずうみ, but I suppose it doesn’t really matter much to the point confirming that the て form was a sentence-continuing device.

p.116

トトラを たくさん かさねて つくってあるため、島の 地面は とても ふかふかです。

The grounds of the islands are very soft because they are made piling up lots of totora.

富士山より 高い 場所に あるため、この みずうみの まわりには、ほとんど 木が ありません

There are practically no trees surrounding this lake because they are located in a place higher than Mt. Fuji.

そのため、ウロス島に すむ 人たちは、家や ボートなども、トトラを つかって つくります。

Hence, the people living on the Uros Islands even make houses and boats, etc. using totora.

トトラは、じょうぶな うえに、しんを 食べる ことも できます。

Totora is healthy additionally, they can even eat the core.

Tough sentence. Needed help from a native speaker with じょうぶな うえに、しん so I hope it’s somewhat correct.

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Kinda think it’s “they eat the core of the healthy top part”. Um. Possibly with different word order.

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My friend said the うえに here means “additionally” rather than “top” but maybe it could go either way.
I was also thinking it would have been written as 上 if it meant “top” as we’ve seen elsewhere but I’m just assuming here, I really don’t know.

Edit: When I looked up うえに in DOJG, it can mean “as well”, “in addition”, “besides”, “furthermore”, etc. It’s the same kanji 上 as “top”.

Their example sentence:
この映画は 話の筋が 面白い 上に 配役がいい。
Besides the fact that this movie has an interesting storyline, the cast is good.

So 面白い modifies storyline rather than 上に so I think maybe じょうぶな goes with トトラ rather than modifying うえに.

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Thanks for your translations and for picking the brain of a native for the tricky last sentence!

I’d also thought that うえ couldn’t be 上 because we’ve seen 上 used as a kanji so many times in this book. I’d wondered about 飢え (hunger) but I wouldn’t have got to “additionally” as that’s not in Jisho.

According to this reference it’s the lower part that’s eaten not the upper part!

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I visited these islands about 18 years ago and stayed overnight with one of the families. It was an amazing experience.

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You’re pretty fortunate to go visit and stay overnight. I never even heard of such a place before reading about it in this book. :open_mouth:

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Thinking about it I’m not convinced the island we stayed on was one of the islands made of totora. But we did get to visit the totora islands. The whole place was fascinating, there were lots of tourist trips heading out to the islands from Puno.

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Page 116

Thank you so much @trout for your amazing work.

But I have a question about the first sentence:

トトラを たくさん かさねて つくってあるため、島の 地面は とても ふかふかです。

トトラを - totora (grass) + を
たくさん - many
かさねて - 重ねて, repeatedly
つくって - 作る, to make, in て-form
ある - to be
ため、- definition 3: consequence
島の 地面は - island’s land
とても - very
ふかふか - soft
です - polite ending

totora grass many repeatedly made there are consequently island’s land very soft is

Which then turns into your translation of

But I know I’m getting something wrong somewhere. Any ideas?

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Does it make more sense if you look at the definition of the unconjugated verb かさねる?

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It certainly does! Thank you so much! Nice one! :+1:

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Yes, I translated かさねて as “to pile up” which you may have read from @Saruko’s link.
I also translated ため as “because” which Jisho doesn’t list as a translation as other sources do, and 地面 as “ground”.

Also something interesting here is つくってある which I think is used here instead of つくっている. Maybe ~てある is used here to denote a resultant state.

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