JSLL #49 - Yuki Onna, part 14

 Let's see where Minokichi ends up.

Sentence 1:

巳之吉は気の毒に思い、女をうちに泊めてあげました。

みのきちはきをどくにおもい、おんなをうちにとめてあげました。

Vocabulary

• 気の毒に思う means "to feel sorry, to take pity, to sympathize"
• 泊める means "to give shelter to, to lodge, to put, to accommodate"

Kanji

毒 is an N2 kanji occurring in 9 common words. As a standalone word, 毒 means "poison; harm, evil influence" --an interesting choice because of its connotations.

泊 is an N2 kanji occurring in 8 common words, all related to lodging

Grammar

The verb 泊める is put in the て-form and appended with a form of the verb あげる (to give). The てあげる ending means that an action is done as a favor to someone of lower social standing "be so kind as to..." makes for a decent translation.

Translation

Minokichi felt sorry for the woman, and kindly gave her shelter in his house.

Sentence 2:

女はお雪という名前でした。

おんなはおゆきというなまえでした。

Vocabulary

名前 means "name"

Kanji

名 is an N5 kanji found in 84 common words.

Grammar

We've seen the という construction before. It's often used to mean "called" or "named" as in, for example, 田中という人, "a person called Tanaka." Here, the construction is お雪という名前, "a name called Oyuki." In English, we don't need a word like "called" --we just say "the name 'Oyuki.'"

The overall grammar of the sentence is also a bit odd. Normally, the construction XはYでした translates as "X was Y." But here, it's not clear what the subject is. "The woman was a name called Oyuki" makes not much sense.

The woman's name, お雪, is a polite form of 雪, "snow."

Translation

The woman's name was Oyuki.

Sentence 3:

やがて、巳之吉とお雪は夫婦になりました。

やがて、みのきちとおゆきはふうふになりました。

Vocabulary

• やがて means "soon, before long"
• 夫婦 means "married couple, husband and wife"

Kanji

• 夫 is an N3 kanji found in 12 common words. The most popular of these words is 大丈夫 (だいじょうぶ), which means "OK, alright" in the sense of how someone is doing.
• 婦 is an N3 kanji in 20 common words.

Translation

Before long, Minokichi and Oyuki got married.

Sentence 4:

お雪は巳之吉の母親をひどく大事にしてあげました。

おゆきはみのきちのははおやをひどくだいじにしてあげました。

Vocabulary

• 母親 means "mother"
• ひどく is the adverb form of ひどい and means "terribly, awfully, intensely, extremely"  --again an interesting choice because of its mostly negative connotations.
• 大事にする means "to take care of" (大事 means "important, serious, crucial")

Translation

Oyuki took extremely good care of Minokichi's mother.

Sentence 5:

そして、次々に十人の子供を産みました。

そして、つぎつぎにじゅうにんのこどもをうみました。

Vocabulary

• 次々に means "one by one, one after the other, in succession"
• 産む means "to give birth to, to bear"

Kanji

産 is an N3 kanji that is found in 63 common words.

Grammar

The sentence contains a number, 十 "ten" followed by a counter 人 for people, and then の and the things being counted, in this case 子供, "children." This order is new, but it works out the same as "things + particle + number + counter." In other words, the sentence could also have been そして、次々に子供を十人産みました。There's a subtle difference between the two constructions. Putting the number and counter after the particle draws more attention to the number, roughly like saying "children - ten of them." Putting the number and counter before the noun (with の in between) reads more like "ten children."

Translation

After that, she gave birth to ten children in a row.

JSLL #48 - Yuki Onna, part 13

So what happens after one of our heroes' tragic demise?

For each sentence, we'll have up to four headings: Vocabulary, Kanji, Grammar and Translation, but if there's nothing new in one of more of these sections, we'll just omit them completely.

Sentence 1:

それから一年ほど経ちました。

それからいちねんほどたちますた。

Translation

After that, about one year passed.

Sentence 2:

ある日、巳之吉が森からの帰りに渡し舟に乗ると、そこにきれいな色の白い若い女がいました。

あるひ、みのきちがもりからのかえりにわたしぶねにのると、そこにきれいなおりのしろいわかいおんながいました。

Grammar

The first clause contains the two particles から and の in succession. から is normally a particle that precedes a verb or clause. But in this case, the next word is a noun. To make it work, we insert the の.

Translation

One day, when Minokichi was riding his boat during his return from the forest, there was a young woman with a beautiful color of white there.

Sentence 3:

巳之吉は舟を降りると、その女に話しかけました。

Vocabulary

• 降りる "to disembark"
• 話しかける "to start a conversation"

Kanji

降 is an N3 kanji occurring in 24 common words.

Translation

When Minokichi got off the boat, he struck up a conversation with that woman.

Sentence 4:

女は両親をなくし困ってしまい、仕事と住むところを探しに都に行くところだと言いました。

おんなはりょうしんをなくしこまってしまい、しごととすむところをさがしにみやこにいくところだといいました。

Vocabulary

• 両親 "parents"
• なくす "to lose" --the verb typically written without kanji is 無くす, which just means "to lose" as in "to misplace." The sense probably meant here is 亡くす, which means "to lose (through death)." It might be that the word is written in hiragana to leave ambiguous which meaning is meant.
• 探す "to search for, to look for, to seek"
• 都 "the capital, especially Kyoto, the old capital of Japan"

Kanji

Kanji	N-level	Occurs in how many common words?
両	N3	24
親	N4	36
探	N3	11
都	N3	29

Grammar

探しに都に行く is a masu-stem 探し followed by に行く (you can disregard the 都に in between). This indicates a purpose of the movement; the に after 探し translates to "in order to."

Second, apart from the first instance of ところ in this sentence (where it has its literal meaning of "place"), you also have the construction 行くところだ. Verb＋ところ + a form of です translates to "be about to Verb" or, a bit more literally, "be on the point of Verbing."

Translation

The woman said that, having lost her parents, she had unfortunately hit on hard times, and was about to go to Kyoto to search for a job and a place to live.

女は両親をなくし困ってしまい、仕事と住むところを探しに都に行くところだと言いました。

JSLL #47 - Yuki Onna, part 12

 Here's what happens after the snow woman has spoken.

Sentence 1:

巳之吉はすぐに茂作の方へ行って起こそうとしました。

みのきちはすぐにもさくのほうへいっておこそうとしました。

Vocabulary

• すぐに "immediately, at once, right away"
• 起こす "to raise, to raise up, to set up, to pick up; to wake, to wake up, to awaken; ..."

Kanji

起 is an N4 kanji found in 35 common words.

Grammar

Nothing new.

Translation

Minokichi immediately went toward Mosaku and tried to wake him up.

Sentence 2:

しかし、茂作は氷のように冷たく固くなっていました。

Vocabulary

• 氷 means "ice."
• 冷たく means "cold (to the touch); (emotionally) cold, coldhearted" (the く ending means it's an adverb).
• 固い means "hard, solid, tough." When this particular kanji is used, the meaning is more specifically "stiff, not flexible; stubborn, unyielding" (the く ending followed by なる means "become stiff").

Kanji

• 氷 is an N2 kanji that occurs in 6 common words. Note how much this kanji resembles 水 (みず, "cold water") and the first kanji of 泳ぐ (およぐ, "to swim").
• 冷 is an N3 kanji that occurs in 28 common words.
• 固 is an N4 kanji found in 20 common words.

Grammar

Nothing new here.

Translation

However, Mosaku had become stiff in a way that was cold as ice.

Sentence 3:

巳之吉はその場で気を失ってしまいました。

きのみちはそのばできをうしなってしまいました。

Vocabulary

• 場 means "place"
• 気を失う is an idiomatic expression that means "to lose consciousness, to faint, to black out." Literally it means "to lose energy."

Kanji

• 場 is an N4 kanji that occurs in 80 common words. It's often the last kanji in a compound noun referring to some kind of location.
• 失 is an N3 kanji found in 31 common words.

Grammar

Nothing new here.

Translation

Minokichi eventually lost consciousness in that spot.

Sentence 4:

次の日の朝、巳之吉が目を覚ますと、茂作は死んでいました。

つぎのひのあさ、みのきちがめをさますと、もさくはしんでいました。

Vocabulary

• 次 means "next."
• 朝 means "morning"
• 死ぬ means "to die"

Kanji

• 次 is an N3 kanji occurring in 36 common words
• 朝 is an N4 kanji found in 22 common words
• 死 is an N4 kanji that occurs in 38 common words

Grammar

Nothing new here.

Translation

The next morning, when Minokichi woke up, Mosaku had died.

JSLL #46 - Yuki Onna, part 11

The next bit in the story is a long quote. We'll take her entire monologue in one go, along with its attribution. I'll also explain vocabulary before grammar.

「お前さんは助けてやろう。でも、今夜のことだれにも話しちゃいけないよ。もし話したら、お前さんの命はないよ。わかったね、忘れちゃいけないよ。」女はそう言って小屋を出て吹雪の中へ姿を消しました。

Sentence 1:

お前さんは助けてやろう。

おまえさんはたすけてやろう。

Vocabulary

The new word in this sentence is お前さん. The word お前 used to be a respectful way of addressing someone, but now it means the exact opposite: you consider the addressee a baby. In the form found here, with the polite ～さん suffix (meaning "Mr/Ms"), it's polite.

Kanji

There are no new kanji in this sentence.

Grammar

The verb is a ~てやる form, which as we know from earlier, indicates that the subject of the verb does a favor to someone of a lower social standing. But who is helping who?

We've seen in the past that, if there's no noun phrase marked with the subject particle が , then the topic, marked with the particle は, is also the subject. In this sentence, there's no が, and the topic of the sentence is "you," so you might think that the sentence translates to "You will save me." 

However, in this sentence, the verb is in the volitional form やろう, which translates to either "let's" or "let me." The implied subject is "I," therefore お前さん must be the recipient of the help.

Translation

I will save you.

Sentence 2:

でも、今夜のことだれにも話しちゃいけないよ。

でも、こんやのことだれにもはなしちゃいけないよ。

Vocabulary

• でも means "however." 
• 今夜 means "tonight"
• だれ means "who" on its own, but something different here--see Grammar.
• よ at the end of a sentence is an emphatic particle, often best translated as an exclamation mark.

Kanji

The only new kanji here is 夜, which is an N4 kanji occurring in 26 common words.

Grammar

今夜のこと literally means "the things of tonight." A better translation should be "what happens tonight" or "tonight's events."

だれ ("who") combines with にも. だれも means "anyone, everyone," but combined with a negative verb, it means "nobody, no one." The に in between is because the verb is 話す ("to talk, to tell"), so "nobody, no one" is whom you shouldn't tell.

The verb form 話しちゃいけない is one of several verb endings that mean "shouldn't, must not." 

Translation

However, you must not speak to anyone about tonight's events!

Sentence 3:

もし話したら、お前さんの命はないよ。

もしはなしたら、おまえさんのいのちはないよ。

Vocabulary

• もし means "if"
• 命 means "life"
• ない means "not"

Kanji

命 is an N3 kanji that occurs in 29 common words.

Grammar

This sentence introduces another conditional form: the ～たら ending after a masu-stem. (話す has the masu-form 話します, and we replace ます with たら. (Note how the presence of the word もし "if" doesn't eliminate the need for a conditional form. The differences between the ～ば conditional we learned earlier and the ～たら conditional used here are subtle and outside the scope of this post.

The ending 命はない basically means "there's no life" but (especially combined with the お前さん before it) it more means "you will die."

Translation

If you tell anyone, you'll die!

Sentence 4:

わかったね、忘れちゃいけないよ。

わかったね、わすれちゃいけないよ。

Vocabulary

忘れる means "to forget."

Kanji

忘 is an N3 kanji that occurs in only 4 common words.

Grammar

わかった is the plain form of 分かりました, which means "Understood." This is often said in response to someone telling you what to do, but here, it's "It's understood, no?"

Translation

You understand, don't you? You mustn't forget!

Sentence 5:

女はそう言って小屋を出て吹雪の中へ姿を消しました。

おんなはそういってこやをでてふぶきのなかへすがたをけしました。

Vocabulary

姿を消す is an idiomatic expression that means "to vanish, to disappear." Literally, it means "to delete one's appearance, to erase one's form"

Kanji

姿 is an N1 kanji that occurs in 4 common words.

消 is an N3 kanji that occurs in 34 common words.

Translation

Thus spoke the woman, and she left the hut and vanished into the blizzard.

JSLL #45 - Yuki Onna, part 10

Let's continue the encounter between the two lumberjacks and the mysterious white woman.

Sentence 1:

巳之吉は逃げようとしましたが、体も動かなければ声も出ませんした。

みのきちはにげようとしましたが、からだもうごかなければこえもでませんでした。

Grammar

This sentence introduces one of several ways in which you can create a conditional verb. Unlike English, which has a separate word "if" to make a clause conditional, Japanese has an ~eba ending for verbs, adjectives and nouns. The rules are:

• For a normal verb, take the plain form of the verb, change its -u ending into an -e ending, and add ば. For example, 食べる becomes 食べれば (if one eats), 話す becomes 話せれば (if one talks), and so on.
• For a negative verb, take the plain form the negative verb, which always ends in ない, and change the ない ending into a なければ ending. For example, 食べない becomes 食べなければ (if one doesn't eat). 
• For an i-adjective, take the -い ending and replace it  with ければ. For example, 赤い becomes 赤ければ (if red)
• For a noun or na-adjective, add であれば. 犬であれば (if a dog), きれいあれば (if pretty).

In this sentence, the conditional 動かなければ is negative created by taking the verb 動く (move), making it negative: 動かない (not move), and then making that negative conditional: 動かなければ (if not move).

What's more, the conditional is used here in a somewhat unusual way:

体も動かなければ声も出ませんした

This construction has the form NOUN1も+[conditional VERB1]+NOUN2も+[normal VERB2]. This construction translates to "Both NOUN1 VERB1 and NOUN2 VERB2" or, if the verbs are both negative as in this sentence, "Neither NOUN1 VERB1 nor NOUN2 VERB2."

Vocabulary

• 逃げる means "to run away, to flee."
• 体 means "body."
• 動くmeans "to move"

Kanji

Each new word introduces a new kanji:

Kanji	N-level	Occurs in how many common words?
逃	N3	12
体	N4	89
動	N4	88

Translation

Minokichi tried to flee, but he neither moved nor uttered a sound.

Sentence 2:

女はその時巳之吉の顔をしげしげ見つめました。

おんなはそのときみのきちのかおをしげしげみつめました。

Grammar

The phrase その時, literally "that time," translates to "At the moment, ... " or "That's when..."

Vocabulary

The new words are the onomatopeia しげしげ ("frequently, often; (staring) fixedly, narrowly, closely, steadily") and the verb 見つめる "to stare at, to gaze at."

Kanji

No new kanji in this sentence.

Translation

That's when the woman stared fixedly at Minokocihi's face.

Sentence 3:

巳之吉は田舎には珍しい美しい顔をもつ若者だったのです。

みのきちはいなかにはめずらしいうつくしいかおをもつわかものだったのです。

Grammar

Somewhat unusually, the sentence has two topics in a row (巳之吉 and 田舎に), and two い-adjectives (珍しい and 美しい). Check the translation for how this translates.

Note also how 持つ is written as もつ, without a kanji. I'm not quite sure why.

Vocabulary

New words in this sentence:

• 田舎 means "the countryside"
• 珍しい means "rare, uncommon, unusual, curious"

Kanji

Kanji	N-level	Occurs in how many common words?
田	N4	18 - this kanji is present in some of Japan's most common surnames, like 田中 (Tanaka), 吉田 (Yoshida), 山田 (Yamada) and 池田 (Ikeda)
舎	N1	8
珍	N2	3

Translation

Minokichi was a young man with a face that was beautiful in a way that was unusual in the countryside, you see.

JSLL #44 - Yuki Onna, part 9

Just one sentence today.

女の顔は美しかったですが、肌は異常に白く目は稲妻のように鋭かったです。

おんなのかおはうつくしかったですが、はだはいじょうにしろくめはいなずまのようにするどかったです。

Grammar

We've seen in the past that i-adjectives can have a -te-form. For example, 赤い (赤い, "red") has a te-form 赤くて (あかくて, "is/was red and..."). In this sentence, we see that i-adjectives have a past form as well. The i-adjective 美しい (うつくしい) is written in its past tense 美しかった(うつくしかった), and similarly 鋭い (するどい)  gets a past tense 鋭かった (するどかった). To speakers of Indo-European languages, the idea that an adjective can have past tense is unheard of, but in Japanese it's perfectly normal.

Another new thing is the use of 白く, where in the previous story, we would expect 白くて to be used. 白く is a more formal version of 白くて.

Vocabulary

Plenty of new words in this sentence:

• 肌 means "skin"
• 異常 means "abnormal, unusual, uncommon"
• 稲妻 means "lightning, flash of lightning, bolt of lightning"
• 鋭い means "sharp, pointed"

Kanji

Every new word contains one or more new kanji:

Kanji	N-level	Occurs in how many common words?
肌	N2	3 (“skin”, “underwear” 肌着 and “flesh color”　肌色)
異	N1	27
常	N3	34
稲	N1	5
妻	N3	8
鋭	N2	5

Translation

The woman's face was beautiful, but her skin was unusually white and her eyes were sharp like lightning bolts.

JSLL #43 - Yuki Onna, part 8

The woman in the white kimono left us in suspence. What will she do?

Sentence 1:

その女が茂作の顔へ白い息を吹きかけると、茂作の顔も手もどんどん白くなっていきました。

そのおんながもさくのかおへしろいいきをふきかけると、もさくのかおもてもどんどんしろくなっていきました。

Grammar

The new construction in this sentence is at the end: a ～く adverb followed by なっていく. We learned before that ～ていく after a verb referring to movement refers to the movement going away from the speaker, or just away in general. But if the verb is なる like here, it translates to "growing ever more X" where X is the adverb that ends in く.

Vocabulary

There are four new words in this sentence:

• The noun 顔 (かお), which means "face."
• The noun 息 (いき), which means "breath."
• The verb 吹きかける (ふきかける), which means "to blow (on), to breathe (on), to spray (on)."
• The adverb どんどん, an onomatopeia which means "rapidly, quickly, steadily."

Kanji

Kanji	N-level	Occurs in how many common words?
顔	N3	22
息	N3	21

Translation

When that woman breathed a white breath into Mosaku's face, both Mosaku's face and his hands quickly turned whiter and whiter.

Sentence 2:

巳之吉は驚いて声を出そうとしました。

みのきちはおどろいてこえをだそうとしました。

Grammar

This sentence ends in a volitional 出そう followed by と and then a form of する. We've seen previously that a volitional + と translates to "in an attempt to X." But when the verb after と is する, then the whole thing means "to attempt to X," "to try to X."

We've previously learned that a te-form followed by みる also means "to try to X." But the meaning of these two constructions is different. 食べてみる, for example, means that a person eats something in order to see what it's like. It's like "try" in the English sentence: "Try the pizza, you're gonna love it." It means "try" in the sense of "try out" or "try and see." By contrast, 食べようとする means that you make an attempt to eat (say, if you're sick and have no appetite). You may not succeed in your attempt.

Vocabulary

驚く(おどろく), of which 驚いて is the te-form, means "to be surprised, shocked, amazed."

声を出す is an idiom meaning "to speak, to say, to vocalize." The verb 出す on its own means things like "to get out, to take out, to reveal, to show," whereas 声, the object of the verb, means "voice."

Kanji

Kanji	N-level	Occurs in how many common words?
声	N3	22
驚	N1	7

Translation

Minokichi was amazed and tried to speak.

Sentence 3:

すると、女は今度は巳之吉の方へ来ました。

すると、おんなはこんどはみのきちのほうへきました。

Grammar

The only unusual thing about this sentence is that it has two items in succession that both have the は topic marker, first 女 and then 今度.

Vocabulary

今度 means "this time, now, next time."

Kanji

Both kanji in the new word are new:

Kanji	N-level	Occurs in how many common words?
今	N5	36
度	N4	73

The word 今 is pronounced いま and means "now." 度 is frequently used as a suffix meaning "time(s)" in the sense of "once," "twice," "three times." One of the first phrases to memorize when learning Japanese in a class setting is もう一度ください, which is Japanese for "one more time please." Essential if you want to understand what your sensei is saying.

Translation

And then, the woman came toward Minokichi next.