の at the end is the explanatory の (which is often tricky to translate and doesn’t necessarily correspond to anything specific in English).
ね is something like “isn’t it”.
I’m not sure about the context (don’t have the book with me), but something like “The person just now came in here, didn’t he.” maybe (so いま = now does seem likely).
いったい here is an expletive. If this is Hanae talking it probably makes most sense to translate it as “Oh my” or something like that.
この家で inside this house
なにが what
あった past tense of ある
の explanatory の again
かしら I wonder
“Oh my! What was in here, I wonder!”
(maybe “happened in here”? again not sure about context)
My reading was “I wonder what the heck happened here?” because the translation for いったい, 一体, in WK (level 7) is “the heck” and so I wanted it to fit.
But now I wonder… @aiju, may I ask you, does it make a big difference the fact that いったい is there at the start of the sentence in front of a comma? If so, then of course “Oh my!..” (followed by the rest of the sentence) will be much more accurate!
I didn’t read the second story, but I’m caught up in this story. I’m also in the situation of understanding the gist of things but not getting a lot of the grammar. The posts here are super useful in checking my understanding. Maybe I can stay caught up and post some!
I updated the vocabulary list to include the third story!
I’ve not been updating the vocab list much (just a few words here and there) but I’ve just done it for page 95 and found it a very useful exercise! Anyway…
「病気の発作だ。うごけない。むかいの家の男たちを よんできて、みんなで 病院に はこんでくれ。」
-「 - quotation mark, this is the old fella on the floor speaking
病気の発作だ。- 病気, illness, 発作, fit, attack, seizure.
But… is he saying “I’ve had a seizure” or is he saying “I’ve had an attack of my [previously existing] illness”?
-うごけない - the negative potential form of 動く, “[I] can’t move”
-むかいの家の男たちを - 向かいの家の男たちを - the men on the other side of the house + を
-よんできて、- 呼んで来て - call here
-みんなで - everyone
病院に - to the hospital
はこんでくれ。」- 運んでくれ - carry [me], with the same ~くれ imperative form as when he was calling for help.
“[I’ve] had a seizure. I can’t move. Call over the men on the other side of the house, and everyone carry me to the hospital”.
I think “seizure” in English implies a rather specific condition.
Weblio lists a definition for 発作
病気の症状が突発的に起こること
which I think translates as “a sudden outbreak of the symptoms of a disease” and there are compounds that translates as “heart attack”, “fit of coughing”, “Asthma attack”, etc., so it really does seem to be quite a vague term.
I’m not really sure if there even is a sufficiently vague English word here.
As a clinical term “paroxysmal attack” fits but it’s not really appropriate here.
I kind of do suspect that 病気 is a previous illness here but I’m not at all sure.
If it wasn’t previous, mentioning it seems a bit redundant since 発作 already implies an illness of some sort.
Maybe “I’ve had an attack of my illness” works? Not sure.
Always be careful about the order of nouns in a AのB phrase.
“The men of the house of the other side”
i.e. “The men from the house on the other side [of the street]”
皆で, literally “being everyone”, seems to imply “as a group” or “together”.
I think your translation “everyone carry me to the hospital” is fine, though.
I would maybe translate it as
“Get the men from the house on the other side [of the street] and (have everyone) carry me to the hospital together.”
After the man talked, Hanae says
「わかりました。まっててくださね。」
わかりました = I understand,
まって = te-form of まつ (to wait)
て = ?
くださ = please (do for me)
ね = emphasis
→ Please wait.
What is the て doing here?
The full form is まっていて (from まっている) but い often gets dropped in these forms.
I’m not sure if there is a meaning difference compared to just まってくださね here.
Maybe literally more something like “Please continue to wait”, although I would just translate it as “Please wait” anyway.
I usually look at the picture first, then read any words in the picture, and then finally I read the text, slowly, one sentence at a time! Anyway, the picture on page 97…
大日本ピカイチ美術
大日本 - big Japan
ピカイチ - I have no idea! My best guess would be a portmanteau of ピカソ and 一番
美術 - art; fine arts
美術品 - びじゅつひん - artworks
売ります - sell
ie, works of art sold here
おどろきの - this must be 驚き, surprise; astonishment; wonder; amazement, plus の
高さ - height
ie - you’ll be surprised at the height!
This must be a joke on the three fellas outside the shop, but where has the joke come in? How would the poster also apply to artworks? “You’ll be surprised at the prices” perhaps?
Anyway, busy day today, I’ll try to catch up with the reading later tonight. Thank you everyone!
Oh my goodness Rowena! You must be right! Thank you! Now, why on earth couldn’t I find that in Jisho? I certainly tried. Oh well, my Picasso ichiban theory was nice while it lasted! lol! Thank you!
黒ずくめのこわそうな男が三人でてきた。
黒 = black
ずくめ = completely
こわ = frightening; terrifying
そうな = really?
男 = man
三人 = three persons
でてきた = came out
What does そうな mean?
I would translate this as something like “three completely black, really terrifying man came out” ?
あたしはいそいでわけをはなした。
あたし = I
いそいで = to hurry (does the で belong to the word or is it a particle?)
わけ = ?
はなした = to talk
I have no idea what this is supposed to mean
「いそをつけ！ […] へんだなあ。」
いそをつけ = ?
へん = strange
だ = is
なあ = ?
“It is strange” accompanied by emphasis?
I find it very interesting how one word can change the whole story! Don’t want to spoiler, but I was really surprised by the statement of one the men.
p. 97
ピカイチ - jisho knows this as the mentioned “something that stands above the rest”.
So on the one hand they’re advertising how beautiful the art is, but on the other hand say that it is really expensive? Why would one do this?
そう attaches to an adjective stem to form a na-adjective meaning “… seeming/appearing”
こわい → こわそう “scary seeming”
こわそうな男 → “men that seem scary”
“Three man, dressed in black, who appeared to be scary, came out”
(Notable exception to this: かわいい (cute) → かわいそう (pitiful))
わけ = Conclusion, explanation, situation
I don’t know the context but something like “Quickly, I explained the situation”.
Did you mistype the first bit maybe? Is it maybe うそ and not いそ?
うそをつけ could be a variant of うそつけ (liar).
(Keep in mind that while English “lie”/“lier” is a very strong accusation, in Japanese it’s often used much more casually and just as a statement of disbelief, something like “It’s not true!”/“You’re kidding!”/…)
へんだ it’s strange
な(あ) = variant of ね, “isn’t it”, with the final vowel stretched
something like “Hmm, it’s strange, isn’t it”
I’m not sure but I think it’s because the “business” is just a Yakuza front.
It might also just be a joke and not intended to make sense in context.
Don’t want to spoiler, but I was really surprised by the statement of one the men.