JSLL #18 - Urashima Tarou - Eighteenth sentence

Sentence 18 contains a quote with 3 sentences in it, but we'll treat it as one.

竜宮城の中には美しい乙姫様がいて、「ようこそ竜宮城へいらっしゃいました。先日は亀を助けてくださってありがとうございました。 どうぞゆっくり遊んでいってください。」と、やさしい声で言いました。

In kana: りゅうぐうじょうのなかにはうつくしいおとひめさまがいて、「ようこそりゅうぐうじょうへいらっしゃいました。せんじつはかめをたすけてくださってありがとうございました。どうぞゆっくりあそんでいってください。」と、やさしいこえでいいました。

In romaji: Ryuuguujou no naka ni ha utsukushii otohimesama ga ite, "youkoso ryuuguujou he irasshaimashita. Senjitsu ha kame wo tasukete kudasatte arigatou gozaimashita. Douzo yukkuri asonde itte kudasai." to, yasashii koe de iimashita.

Let's tackle the "outer" sentence first 竜宮城の中には美しい乙姫様がいて、「...」と、やさしい声で言いました。

The first part is a te-form いて of the verb いる, "to be." This is the third verb that means "to be," in addition to です and ある. The difference between all three forms is explained in a separate blog post. The subject of "to be" is 美しい乙姫様 (followed by the subject particle が). The first word of this noun phrase is the i-adjective 美しい (うつくしい, utsukushii), which means "beautiful." (Compare this to the na-adjective きれい, kirei, which translates to "pretty.") Next is 乙姫様 (おとひめさま, otohime-sama), which JSLL simply translates as "princess." The reality is a little trickier. First, the さま ending is the  something like "The Honorable" or "The Venerable," a more respectful version of さん (which is roughly equivalent to Mr/Ms). Second, 乙姫 means "Younger princess," but the "princess" at the end is also a title, like in the movie title "Mononoke-hime" = "Princess Mononoke." So it can mean Princess Oto, the Younger Princess, or Oto Hime. And in this context, さま is probably best translated as "Her Majesty."

The kanji in this subject are:

• 美 is an N3 kanji that occurs in 24 common words. Most are related to beauty or art, but it's also the first kanji of 美味しい (おいしい, oishii, "delicious").
• 乙 is a rare N1 kanji: it occurs only in 5 common words, and 3 of those 5 are normally written with a different kanji.
• 姫 is an N1 kanji which occurs in just 1 common word, "princess" or any young woman of noble birth.
• 様 is N3 and occurs in 45 common words.

That's the subject of the outer sentence. The topic is 竜宮城に, "in the Palace of the Dragon King." This is the first time that we see the topic being something other than a noun phrase. Normally, the topic particle は is not translated at all, or with the clunky "As for..." In this case, we can choose: not to translate it at all; to "translate" it by fronting the phrase ("In the Palace of the Dragon King, ...") or by using "It was... that..."  

So the part before the quotation marks is "It was inside the Palace of the Dragon King that there was Her Majesty Princess Oto, and..."

The part after the quotation marks is と、やさしい声で言いました。We already know that と、言いました。translates to [She] said, "..." The new part is やさしい声で. The particle で can mean "in" or "at," but it can also mean "using" or "with." That's the sense used: "with a kind voice." We learned early on in this story that やさしい is both "simple" and "kind," with the kana use hiding the specific meaning that the kanji would reveal. And, like back then, we choose "kind." 声, voice, is an N3 kanji occurring in 22 words.

So the enclosing sentence around the quotes reads, "It was inside the Palace of the Dragon King that there was Her Majesty Princess Oto, and she said in a kind voice, '...'"

The quotation itself comes in three sentences, all in respectful and/or humble language, like the turtle's quotes:

1. ようこそ竜宮城へいらっしゃいました。
2. 先日は亀を助けてくださってありがとうございました。
3. どうぞゆっくり遊んでいってください。

Quote 1 uses the verb いらっしゃる in the past polite tense. This verb is the respectful form of "to come," "to go" or "to be." Before the verb are ようこそ which means "welcome" and 竜宮城へ, "to the Palace of the Dragon King." Even though the verb is in the past tense, the correct translation would be "You are welcome in the Palace of the Dragon King."

Quote 2 ends in a te-form followed by the phrase ありがとうございました. This is the past tense of ありがとうございます, which is a polite way of saying thank you. The past tense indicates, not that the thanking is done in the past ("thanked you" or something), but rather that the thanks is given for something done in the past. That act is 先日は亀を助けてくださって. 先日 means "the other day, a few days ago." In this context, the first meaning is the logical one. The new kanji here is 先, an N5 kanji that occurs in 71 common words. It's the first kanji of 先生, "sensei" ("teacher").

What follows is 亀を助けて, the te-form of "help the turtle." It's followed by くださって, which comes from くださる, the respectful form of くれる, "to give." You undoubtedly already know a form of this verb ください ("please," or, more literally, "respectfully, give me"), After a te-form, it conveys gratitude for the verb that comes before it. "Be kind enough to" or "Be so kind as to" are good translations. So quote 2 reads, "Thank you very much for having been so kind as to help the turtle the other day."

Finally, quote 3 uses て + ください, and the verb before it is 遊んでいって. This is the te-form of 遊ぶ (あそぶ, asobu, "to play, to enjoy oneself, to have a good time") followed by the te-form of いく (行く, to go), which we've seen used in this kana way before. It translated roughly as "start to" or, in this imperative context, "go ahead and." That is also expressed in the first word of the sentence: どうぞ, which also means "Go ahead, by all means, feel free" etc. In between is the adverb ゆっくり, which means "slowly, unhurriedly, at one's leisure." So quote 3 reads, "By all means, please go ahead and enjoy yourself at your leisure."

Now let's put the whole thing together:

It was inside the Palace of the Dragon King that there was Her Majesty Princess Oto, and she said in a kind voice, "You are welcome in the Palace of the Dragon King. Thank you very much for having been so kind as to help the turtle the other day. By all means, please go ahead and enjoy yourself at your leisure."