JSLL #3 - Urashima Tarо̄ - Second sentence

 The second sentence of this story is long:

浦島太郎は心のやさしい若者で、毎日海へ出かけて魚をつって年老いたお父さんとお母さんを養っていました。

Grammatically, it's a sequence of -te forms followed by a main sentence:

• The first one ends in で, the -te form of です.
• The second one ends in 出かけて, the -te form of でかける
• The third one ends in つって, the -te form of つる.
• The main sentence ends in the main verb, 養っていました.

Because the main verb is in the past tense, the three clauses before it also need to be translated in the past tense. 

Let's look at each clause in turn:

First clause

浦島太郎は心のやさしい若者で、

In kana: うらしまたろうはこころのやさしいわかもので、

In romaji: urashima tarou ha kokoro no yasashii wakamono de,

The first four kanji form Urashima Tarou's name, as discussed in previous post. Following it is the topic particle は (ha, pronounced wa), indicating that everything that follows concerns Tarou.

This first part says who Tarou was: 若者 (わかもの, wakamono), "a young person." The kanji are:

• 若 N3 kanji that occurs in 21 common words and means either "young" or "perhaps, possibly."
• 者 N4 kanji that occurs in 118 common words. It's almost never pronounced もの (mono) but rather しゃ (sha) or じゃ (ja). It usually acts as a suffix meaning "person who..." or "-er" like in 芸者 (geisha, literally "one who performs") and 忍者 (ninja, literally "one who spies").

Qualifying this "youngster" noun is 心のやさしい which breaks down into 心の (こころの, kokoro no, "of heart") and やさしい (yasashii). So the whole thing means "kind of heart."

The kanji 心  is an N4 kanji that occurs in 77 common words, most of which have something to do with a mental state or emotion. It's also used as a metaphor, such as the "heart of the city."

やさしい, an i-adjective, is written in kana, which is important: the meaning is different depending on the kanji used:

• 優しい means tender, kind, gentle
• 易しい means easy, plain, simple

By avoiding the kanji, the writer implies both meanings, although "kind" is the more logical choice.

So this part means: Urashima Tarou was a youngster with a kind heart.

Second part

毎日海へ出かけて

In kana: まいにちうみへでかけて

In romaji: mainichi umi e dekakete

毎日 (まいにち, mainichi) means "every day." 

毎 is an N5 kanji which means "every" in almost all of the 11 common words in which it occurs.

日 is an N5 kanji which occurs in 184 common words. It's probably the most frequently occurring kanji in Japanese. It means "day" or "sun." It occurs twice in the word 日曜日 (にちようび, nichiyoubi, "Sunday") and is pronounced differently both times. It's also the first kanji of 日本  (にほん, nihon, "Japan").

We've already talked about 海 ("sea") in a previous post. Here, it's followed by the particle へ (he or e), which means "to" or "toward."

出かけて (でかけて, dekakete) is the te-form of 出かける, "to go out."

出 is an N5 kanji that occurs in 173 common words. Most of the words have a connotation of departure or going outward.

So this part means: [Tarou] went out to sea every day.

Third part

魚をつって

In kana: さかなをつって

In romaji: sakana wo tsutte

We briefly mentioned the kanji 魚 (fish) before when we discussed the first kanji of 漁師 (fisherman). The kanji 魚 is N4 and occurs in 12 common words, all of which are related to fish. Here, it's followed by the object particle を (wo or o).

つって is the -te form of つる, "to fish, to catch." The verb is not commonly written with a kana, and I'm not sure why a kanji wasn't used.

So this part means: [Tarou] caught fish.

Combined with the previous part, it makes sense to translate the two parts as: [Tarou] went out to sea every day in order to catch fish.

Fourth part

年老いたお父さんとお母さんを養っていました。

In kana: としおいたおとうさんとおかあさんをやしなっていました。

In romaji: toshioita otousan to okaasan wo yashinatteimashita.

The verb at the end is the ～ている past tense of 養う, whose first meaning (applicable here) is "to support, to maintain, to provide for." I'm not sure why the ～ている form is being used here.

The kanji 養 is N1 and occurs in 25 common words.

So who is being supported? It's a complex object consisting of two nouns joined by と, to ("and" as a noun connector), and qualified by a past participle 年老いた (としおいた, toshioita).

The two nouns are お父さん (おとうさん, otousan) and お母さん (おかあさん, okaasan), meaning "father" and "mother," respectively. Both are being referred to in a respectful way, preceded by the exalted prefix お (o-) and followed by the "Mr/Ms" suffix さん (-san, also used when referring to people: 浦島さん is roughly equivalent to "Mr Urashima").

The kanji 父 is an N5 kanji that occurs in 17 words. It always refers to a male family member (father, grandfather, uncle).

The kanji 母 is an N5 kanji that occurs in 27 words. It always refers to a female family member (mother, grandmother, aunt), mostly a mother, including in compounds like motherland and mother tongue.

The qualifier 年老いた (としおいた, toshioita) is the past participle of 年老いる, to grow old. So it means "grown old" or "aged."

The kanji 年, an N5 kanji, occurs in 117 common words. On its own, it means "year." It mostly means "year" or "age" when combined with other kanji.

The kanji 老 is an N3 kanji that occurs in 28 common words. It refers to old age/elderly.

So this part means: [Tarou] supported his aged father and mother.

The whole sentence

The -te form can indicate all kinds of connections between clauses. The most basic connection is simply "and," which could be used to string all the clauses in this sentence together. It's even possible to translate this one Japanese sentence as up to four English ones. But it's also easy to see causal connections between the clauses. So I think a good translation would be:

Tarou was a kind-hearted young man, who went out to sea every day to catch fish, to support his elderly father and mother.

Note the theme of filial piety, the love and respect for one's parents, which is highly valued in Confucianism, Buddhism and Daoism, and by extension in Japanese culture.