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.