JSLL #62 - The Spider's Thread, part 10

Sentence 1:

 そうしてそれだけの善い事をした報いには、出来るなら、この男を地獄から救い出してやろうと御考えになりました。

そうしてそれだけのよいことをしたむくいにはできるなら、このおとこをじごくからすくいだしてやろうとおかんがえになりました。

Vocabulary

• そうして means "and, like that." (Not to be confused with そして, meaning "and, and then.")
• 報い means "reward, recompense, return"
• 出来る means "can, to be able to"
• なら is a particle that can be placed after a clause to mean "if." There are multiple ways to say "if" in Japanese; previously, we learned that both the -ば ending and the -たら ending of a verb can also mean "if." Again, this is a bit too tricky to go into the differences at this point. Suffice to say, なら also means "if."
• 救い出す means "to rescue, to save."

Kanji

Kanji	N-level	Occurs in how many common words?
報	N3	41
救	N1	14

Translation

And he thought that, in return for having done only that good deed, if he could, he should rescue this man from hell.

Sentence 2:

幸い、側を見ますと、翡翠のような色をした蓮の葉の上に、極楽の蜘蛛が一匹、美しい銀色の糸をかけて居ります。

さいわい、そばをみますと、ひすいのようないろをしたはすのはのうえに、ごくらくのくもがいっぴき、うつくしいぎんいろのいとをかけております。

Vocabulary

• 幸い means "luckly, fortunately"
• 側 means "near, close, vicinity"
• 翡翠 means "jade" (it also means "kingfisher" but in that case, the kanji is typically pronounced differently).
• 銀色 means "silver" (the color, not the material)
• 糸 means "thread, yarn, string"
• かける is a verb with an impressive 25 (!) different meanings. The first one is "to hang." It's unclear which meaning fits best in this sentence; the book translates it as "to spin."

Kanji

Kanji	N-level	Occurs in how many common words?
幸	N3	7
側	N3	21
翡	None, not even a jouyou kanji	0
翠	N1	2
銀	N4	18
糸	N2	5

Translation

Fortunately, when he looked around him, on top of a lotus leaf that gave off a jade-like color, one spider of paradise was spinning a beautiful silver thread.