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。