Help with Japanese children’s book (Questions About Your Target Languages) Language Learning Forum

Help with Japanese children’s book
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Language Learning Forum : Questions About Your Target Languages

kristiw
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Message 1 of 3

09 August 2015 at 1:32am | IP Logged

I'm reading a children's book, "Morino Okashiyasan."

In the book, Weasel runs a cake shop. His specialty is birthday cakes that look like the person, so for Frog's birthday he made a Frog-shaped cake, and a Lizard-shaped cake for Lizard's birthday, and so on.

He gets a letter ordering a birthday cake, but it doesn't say who it's for, so he doesn't know what it's supposed to look like, or who's going to pick it up.

When the day comes, Weasel wonders what kind of obake will be coming to pick up the cake:

Ittai donnna obake ke-kiwo torinikurunokashirato, dokidokishite itachisanga matteiruto, "yaa, dekiteru?" saishoni yattekitanowa tanukisandeshita.

Three animals come into the shop (Tanuki, Badger, and Squirrel), but no one picks up the cake.

Finally, Weasel hears noise outside and sees that all the forest creatures have come to wish him happy birthday, and realizes the cake is for him - it's his own birthday.

Here are the last pages of the book, and my questions:

Itachisanga oreino kokorowo komete, ojigiwo shiteiru jibunno katachino ke-kiwo koshiraeruto, "itachisan, otanjoubi omedetou!"
Minnawa sou iinagara hakushuwoshimashita.
Hitokara tanomarete tsukutta "jibunno katachino ke-kiwo" wa, nante oishikattakotodeshou.
"Demo hontoni yokatta."
Itachisanwa chiisana koede tsubuyakimashita.
"Bokuwo obakeni shichawanakutesa."

My questions:

1. My understanding of the first sentence is this:

Weasel's heart filled with gratitude, and when he built (constructed) his shaped-like-himself cake bowing, everyone applauded while saying "Happy Birthday, Weasel!"

Is that more or less correct?

2. My understanding of the second sentence is this:

From the person who was asked to make the "shaped-like-himself cake", how delicious it would be.

That doesn't seem correct. What am I getting wrong here?

3. My understanding of the last bit is this:

"But it really was good," Weasel muttered softly. "I'm not turning into an obake!"

Is that correct? if so, why would he think HE would turn into an obake? I understand that they're shape-shifting creatures, but I'm confused about the "ni shichawanakute" part. (I'm reading that as a contraction of "ni shite shimau + nakute" . Is that right?)

Thank you for any help you can offer!

(Sorry for the romaji; I couldn't figure out how to include hirigana in my post.)

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vonPeterhof
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Message 2 of 3

09 August 2015 at 2:13am | IP Logged

kristiw wrote:

1. My understanding of the first sentence is this:

Weasel's heart filled with gratitude, and when he built (constructed) his shaped-like-himself cake bowing, everyone applauded while saying "Happy Birthday, Weasel!"

Is that more or less correct?

For the most part. The phrase in the first part, 心を込めて, when used without modifiers is usually translated as "wholeheartedly" or "putting [one]'s heart into [something]". Since there's お礼の coming before it, 心 should be interpreted as "feeling" or "state of mind", so the whole phrase is more like "putting all his gratitude into it". As for the second part, I think it makes more sense to interpret the word order as "he constructed a cake shaped like himself bowing".

kristiw wrote:

2. My understanding of the second sentence is this:

From the person who was asked to make the "shaped-like-himself cake", how delicious it would be.

That doesn't seem correct. What am I getting wrong here?

人 is often used as if there's a ほかの before it that's omitted, i.e. meaning "others" or "other people". In combination with 頼まれて, から should be interpreted as "by". Therefore I believe the whole sentence should be understood as ""How delicious was the cake shaped like him that he made on the request of others!" (I'm assuming that the を after ケーキ shouldn't be there. Was it really there in the original? を and は aren't supposed to be used together like that in modern standard Japanese, while in older and dialectal Japanese this combination usually comes out as をば)

kristiw wrote:

3. My understanding of the last bit is this:

"But it really was good," Weasel muttered softly. "I'm not turning into an obake!"

Is that correct? if so, why would he think HE would turn into an obake? I understand that they're shape-shifting creatures, but I'm confused about the "ni shichawanakute" part. (I'm reading that as a contraction of "ni shite shimau + nakute" . Is that right?)

I believe that the whole quote should be understood as something like "But it really is good[...]that I didn't end up making myself into an obake!" Meaning that it would have been awkward if he did make an obake-shaped cake only to find out that it was intended for his own birthday celebration.
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kristiw
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Message 3 of 3

09 August 2015 at 5:03am | IP Logged

Thank you VERY much! That is all extremely helpful - especially the explanation of (hokano) hito. ほかの　人

(And you're quite right - there was no "を" after ケーキ - that was a typing mistake.)

どうも　ありがとう　ございました！

Edited by kristiw on 09 August 2015 at 5:04am

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