大きなかに Questions

I like to add that this isn’t the “try to” like when we say “I will try to get it done by tomorrow” or “I tried to pass the exam”. Or maybe it can also be that, but that’s not how I interpret it. When we say “I tried to pass the exam”, I interpret it as that it is an open question if I succeeded or not. But that’s not what going on with the ojii-san in this sentence. Unless he for other reasons is hindered from getting out, we should expect that he is getting out. What the sentence is saying is that ojii-san was in the very beginning stage of performing that action. So it’s closer to “about to get out”. Disclaimer: I don’t study grammar, so I’m not so confident in this as I might sound and I’m prepared to change my mind at any time.
I found this

(「…うとする」「…ようとする」の形で)もう少しである作用・状態が起こりそうになる。また、今にもある行為をしそうになる。「日が沈もうとしている」「飛びかかろうとする」「時が過ぎようとする」

In the デジタル大辞泉 in the entry for 為る. I think it might be applicable here.

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「おじいさん、いつ帰ってくるの?」と、太郎は、そのとき聞きました。
すっかり仕度をして、これから出てゆこうとしたおじいさんは、にっこり笑って、太郎の方を振り向きながら、
「じきに帰ってくるぞ。晩までには帰ってくる……。」といいました。

This provides more context. It’s not that Grandfather was so loaded down with provisions that he couldn’t get out the door. It’s because Tarou stops him with his question that we get 出てゆこうとした.

Translation: “Grandfather, when will you come home?” asked Tarou. Grandfather who was prepared to tackle the journey and on his way out the door was halted by Tarou’s question. Smiling broadly, he turned to Tarou and said, “I’ll be home in a flash–just before dinner.”

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Ah thank you, that makes a lot more sense now.

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「おじいさんは、どうなさったのだろう? きつねにでもつれられて、どこへかゆきなされたのではないかしらん?」
What does this mean? Especially the second sentence. (I added the first part for context).

「きっと、おじいさんは、帰ってきなさる。それまで 自分は起きて待っているのだ。」と、心にきめて、暗くなってしまってからも、その夜にかぎって、 太郎は、床の中へ入って 眠ろうとはせずに、いつまでも、ランプの下にすわって起きていたのでした。
What do the bolded words mean?

I’ve actually found a thread where this exact phrase is discussed on these forums, so I’ll linked it directly:

As for these words,
かぎって is just the てform of かぎる、which means “to be restricted, to be limited”, so この夜にかぎって would mean “only for tonight”, or something.

はせず: ok so the は here is the particle wa and it contrasts the 眠ろうとせずに with the next sentence. せず here is the ず conjugation of する. せずに means the same as しないで in modern Japanese. 眠ろうとする is the “volitional + to suru” conjugation which means “to try to …” so in the end 眠ろうとはせずに would mean something like “without trying to sleep, instead(this is from the contrasting は)…”

いつまでも means “forever, for good, eternally, as long as one likes, indefinitely, no matter what”

So, as a whole, “眠ろうと はせず に、 いつまでも 、ランプの下にすわって起きていたのでした。” would mean
"Without trying to sleep, instead (he) always sat awake at the top of the ramp(lamp maybe?).

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太郎は、小 便に起きました。そして、戸を開けて外を見ますと、いつのまにか、空はよく晴れていました。月はなかったけれど、星影が降るように、きらきらと光っていました。
I don’t get why there is the か here. I understand いつのまに to mean something like “at the time”(?) and I’m confused about what the か is doing?

太郎は、きつねの嫁入りのはなしを聞いていました。いまあちらの野原で、その宴会が開かれているのでないかと 思いました。
I’m trying to get a grasp of this part… here’s my confused translation:
“Tarou had heard the story of the fox wedding. Now, in the fields out there, that wasn’t happening, was it? He thought.”
Is this a reference to a folk tale or something?
For context, in the previous passage, he saw a lot of candles being lit in the distance (not completely sure though).

いつの間にか basically means “before I knew it”

It’s just the question か. It’s like “when the heck?” (not literally)

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Just a message that sometimes your jisho links don’t work. :eyes:

Wouldn’t that just be “jisho links” as opposed to “mine”? I’m not doing anything special. Just copying and pasting the page that I was looking at myself. But perhaps doing it inline will make it cooperate. いつの間にか

EDIT: Yeah, that one works and the other one doesn’t, even though they’re the same. So it’s just Discourse’s “blockquote link” thing I guess.

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I say “your jisho links” because I think it’s the second time I’ve seen it happen to you, but I (and other people) post them all the time (even in blockquotes: Let's talk 日本語 (beginner +) - #15 by Kazzeon), and I’ve never seen it be a problem. :sweat_smile:

Edit: Well, you are correct, that “atsui” was specifically to get the two types of hot, but yeah, if you have kanji it seems to go a little crazy.

test no. 2

Well, I notice you have “atsui” and not あつい. Is that how you searched it up on Jisho? The blockquote thing probably deals with romaji better than Japanese characters, but I search in hiragana or kanji by habit.

In any case, now I know not to post the blockquotes with Japanese characters, so thanks for pointing it out.

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The links are working for me though :man_shrugging::woman_shrugging:

おじいさんのしょってきたかにを、 家のもののいる前に持ってこられました。
What does しょってきた mean?

みんなは、まだ起きるのには早いからといって、 床の中に入りました。太郎は、夜が明けてから、かにを食べるのを楽しみにして、そのぶつぶつといぼのさる甲らや、太いはさみなどに気をひかれながら床の中に入りました。
What does いぼのさる mean?

みんなが 堅い皮を破って、 肉を食べようとしますと、そのかには、まったく見かけによらず、中には肉もなにも入っていずに、からっぽになっているやせたかにでありました。
What is the いず doing to the sentence? Like how does it change the meaning?

Are you familiar with the ず form of negation? It’s a classical grammar form. いずに is the same as いないで.

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Ah right, I thought it was something like that. Thank you

I’d say 背負う + aux. くる, he was carrying it on his back? Would have to be some massive crab…

I think I would read it as [その / ぶつぶつ / と / いぼ] / の / [さる / 甲ら]. いぼ is “wart”, I think, which goes with ぶつぶつ “lumpy surface”. The さる “such” then goes with 甲ら.

(I’m thinking of the さる from さ ある, meaning “such, like that”, similar to かかる, from かく ある, meaning “such, like this”. さ and かく are old demonstratives that would correspond roughly to そう and こう.)

But I’m not quite sure because there are two issues with my parse.

  1. ぶつぶつと looks furiously like an adverb+と yet there is no surface verb to attach it to. We could either interpret it as a noun “pimples” (I think most probable) or assume some kind of ellipsis, either after と or replaced by の.
  2. The presence of その was throwing me off… I would expect either さる or その but not both… but if we take ぶつぶつ as a noun, then we could group it as above, with その attaching to ぶつぶつといぼ. Not sure though. :woman_shrugging:

In case I’m wrong, I have no better idea, though. :man_shrugging:

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