JSLL #67 - The Spider's Thread, part 15

 Sentence 1:

ですからさすが大泥棒の犍陀多もやはり血の池の血に咽びながら、まるで死にかかった蛙のように、ただもがいてばかり居りました。

ですからさすがおおどろぼうのかんだたもやはりちのいけのちにむせびながら、まるでしにかかったかわずのように、だたもがいてばかりおりました。

Vocabulary

• ですから means "so, therefore, because of that"
• さすが is an adverb meaning "as one would expect; still, all the same, after all; even (before a noun phrase)"
• 大泥棒 means "master thief, notorious robber"
• やはり is an adverb meaning "as expected; after all; too; still; even so"
• 咽ぶ means "to be choked, to be stifled, to be smothered"
• まるで means "quite, entirely, completely; as if, as though, just like"
• 死にかかる means "to be dying"
• 蛙 means "frog" (which is more commonly pronounced かえる than the reading given here, かわず).
• もがく means "to struggle, to writhe, to squirm"

Kanji

• 咽 is not an N-kanji at all, but it is a jouyou kanji, which occurs in exactly 1 common word, pronounced のど and more commonly written as 喉, meaning "throat."
• 蛙 is not even a jouyou kanji and, like 咽, also occurs in exactly 1 common word: 蛙, meaning "frog." Like all animal species names, this one, too, is often written using katakana (カエル or カワズ).

Grammar

The construction ～てばかりいる (here in the polite version: ～てばかり居りました) means "nothing but... / only..."

Translation

So, even the notorious robber Kandata, as you'd expect while he was being smothered in the blood of the Lake of Blood, did nothing but struggle like a frog who was dying.

 Sentence 2:

ところがある時の事でございます。

ところがあるのときことでございます。

Translation

But then, at some point, something happened.