Reading Urashima Tarou has taught us many grammar rules and kanji, not to mention a lot of vocabulary. That means we can do our next Japanese Stories for Language Learners (JSLL) story faster. We won't be revisiting old kanji or grammar rules, and I won't transcribe to romaji anymore (if you haven't mastered hiragana, go study it first).
We'll start off with the title and first three sentences.
雪女
昔々、北国のあるところに、巳之吉と茂作という二人の木こりがいました。巳之吉はまだ若くて、老いた茂作に奉公をしていました。二人はいつも渡し舟にのって川を渡り、はなれた森へ木を切りに行っていました。
In hiragana:
ゆきおんな
むかしむかし、きたぐにのあるところに、みのきちともさくというふたりのきこりがいました。みのきちはまだわかうて、おいたもさくにほうこうをしていました。ふたりはいつもわたしぶねにのってかわをわたり、はなれたもりへきをきりにいっていました。
The title
雪女 consists of two kanji:
雪 on its own means "snow" and the word 女 means "woman." The combination is the name of a spirit in Japanese folklore, and is best translated as "snow woman."
The first sentence
昔々、北国のあるところに、巳之吉と茂作という二人の木こりがいました。
No new grammar here, but several new words and kanji:
北国 means "northern lands, northern regions" and consists of these kanji:
巳之吉 is a proper name, Minokichi, and so is 茂作, Mosaku. The kanji in these names are:
木こり means "lumberjack" and contains the kanji 木 ("tree"), an N5 kanji in 35 common words.
On a side note, the kanji 人 ("person") is used in this sentence as a counter, for people obviously.
You should be able to figure out that the sentence translates to:
Once upon a time, in a place that is of the northern lands, there were two lumberjacks called Minokichi and Mosaku.
The second sentence
巳之吉はまだ若くて、老いた茂作に奉公をしていました。
Grammar: this sentence introduces us to the fact that i-adjectives can behave like verbs in several ways: they can be made negative, they can be given past tense, and they can have a te-form. In this case, the i-adjective 若い ("young") can be made into a te-form by first putting it into the adverbial form 若く and then adding て.
Vocabulary and kanji:
- まだ means "still" or "only"
- 奉公 means "live-in apprenticeship" and has 2 new kanji:
The translation:
Minokichi was still young, and did a live-in apprenticeship with the aged Mosaku.
The third sentence
二人はいつも渡し舟にのって川を渡り、はなれた森へ木を切りに行っていました。
Grammar: The sentence combines 2 clauses using a masu-stam in the middle. The clause on the left also has a te-form inside of it. It also uses a masu-stem of a verb followed by に and a verb of movement: 切りに行っていました. This translates to "go [to some destination] in order to VERB."
Vocabulary and kanji:
- いつも means "always"
- 渡し舟 means "ferry" (we already knew that 舟 is "boat," and we'll learn now that 渡る is "to cross")
- 川 means "river"
- 渡り is the masu-stem of 渡る, "to cross"
- はなれた is the plain past tense of 離れる (はなれる, typically written with a kanji though), "to be separated, to be distant"
- 森 means "forest" (not surprisingly, it consists of three 木 "tree" kanji combined --and in case you were wondering, there's also 林, which is a smaller forest, a copse, grove or thicket).
- 切り is the masu-stem of 切る, "to cut."
Several new kanji here:
As for a translation, that would be:
The two of them would always board the ferry and cross the river, and would go to a distant forest in order to cut trees.
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