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おもしろうない / 食らわば / 当たります / と思っていますか / あと

eeky

先輩
8 Jun 2010
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Hello,

1. 朕はおもしろうない。

Translation given: "We are not amused."

Is this a typo for おもしろくない?


2. 毒を食らわば皿まで。

Translation given: "As well be hanged for a sheep as a lamb."

Is this a typo for 食らえば? Or possibly an old form or something, along the lines of 言わば?


3. This is an exercise where いわゆる or つまり must be inserted in the bracketed place:

山田さんは80年卒業で、私は85年卒業です。( )私の先輩に当たります。

I'm guessing the answer is つまり, but I can't grasp the meaning of 当たります here.


4. These are questions from a listening comprehension exercise:

i) 土田部長は、マイケルさんに、どんな仕事をさせたいと 思っていますか。
ii) マイケルさんは、今度の仕事をしたいと思っていますか 。

Regarding と思っていますか, are these questions asking what 土田部長 and マイケルさん think, or are they asking what the person doing the exercise thinks?

Sorry, I know I've asked a similar question before about と思って, and I've just been reviewing the answer, but I still can't figure it out. At first I thought the subjects of 思っています were 土田部長 and マイケルさん, but then at the back of my mind is some rule that you shouldn't use ~たい to tell what you think someone else wants to do ... so basically I'm confused!


5. 日本シンクロ界の悲願である金には、あと一歩で届かな かった。

Translation given: "The 'gold' yearned for by the Japanese synchronized swimming world was not quite reached."

What does あと mean here?
 
1)
No, that's an う-euphonic change of おもしろく. It's a classical wording used by noble people.
e.g.
苦しゅうない。ちこう寄れ。=苦しくない(から)近く (に)寄れ。

BTW, 朕 is the singular first person pronoun for emperors/kings, so the translation should be "I am not amused."

2)
Right. It's the mizenkei(the equivalent to the pre -nai stem) of 食らう + the conditinal ば.

3)
to be equal to~/to be related to~

2 物事がその状態である。相当する。
①そのような関係にある。「伯父に―・る人」

http://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/leaf/jn2/4694/m0u/当たる/

4)
Your first thought is correct. The subjects are 土田部長 and マイケルさん, respectively.

In a declarative sentence, yes, you can't use たい for second and third person. But those are interrogative sentences. :D

×あなたはこんな仕事をしたいと思っています。
○あなたはどんな仕事がしたいですか?/どんな仕事がしたいと思っていますか?

5)
6 (副詞的に用いて)まだ余地のある状態を表す。今からさらに。「―一年任期が残る」「―三分で終了します」
http://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/leaf/jn2/5108/m0u/あと/

あと一歩: only one step away (from destination)
 
苦しゅうない。ちこう寄れ。=苦しくない(から)近く (に)寄れ。
What is 寄れ?
BTW, 朕 is the singular first person pronoun for emperors/kings, so the translation should be "I am not amused."
This is the so-called "royal we", formerly used as a sort of singular first person pronoun by the British sovereign. Queen Victoria is famously quoted as saying "We are not amused" rather than "I am not amused". I guess this is where the translation is coming from. Nowadays this usage is viewed humorously.
to be equal to~/to be related to~
I'm a bit uncertain still how this idea would translate to English in the case of つまり私の先輩に当たります. We wouldn't say "In other words, he's equal to my senior", for example. How (if at all) does the meaning differ from just saying "In other words, he is my senior"? I'm wondering if I have misunderstood the whole purpose of the sentence.
あと一歩: only one step away (from destination)
Oh, sorry, yes, I see this is in the dictionary. I didn't think to look up あと一歩 as a whole.
 
Oh sorry Toritoribe, one more thing I wanted to ask. Are forms like 食らわば ordinary modern Japanese, or is this old-fashioned wording that's only used in proverbs, set expressions, and similar?
 
What is 寄れ?
It's an (rough) imperative form of 寄る, as same as 食え of 食う.
Incidentally, 苦しゅうない is a phrase used when giving a permission just like ~してもいい. Thus, 苦しゅうない。ちこう寄れ。 means "You are allowed to come close to me." (Or maybe "us" is more appropriate in this case?;-))

This is the so-called "royal we", formerly used as a sort of singular first person pronoun by the British sovereign. Queen Victoria is famously quoted as saying "We are not amused" rather than "I am not amused". I guess this is where the translation is coming from. Nowadays this usage is viewed humorously.
Interesting! I've never heard that usage. Thanks.:)
That's quite the same as 朕. This pronoun is not used nowadays. (Japanese Emperors used to use it until WWⅡ.) Further, 朕はおもしろうない can be used humorously by "common" people, i.e., us, as a parody of emperors'/kings' words.
So, "We are not amused" is a nice translation.:)

I'm a bit uncertain still how this idea would translate to English in the case of つまり私の先輩に当たります. We wouldn't say "In other words, he's equal to my senior", for example. How (if at all) does the meaning differ from just saying "In other words, he is my senior"? I'm wondering if I have misunderstood the whole purpose of the sentence.
Basically, there's no difference in meaning between 私の先輩に当たります and 私の先輩です. As in the dictionary, 当たる is used to explain the relation of the persons/things.

この子は僕の姉の娘です。つまり、僕の姪に当たります。=この子は僕の姉の娘です。つまり、僕の姪です。

one more thing I wanted to ask. Are forms like 食らわば ordinary modern Japanese, or is this old-fashioned wording that's only used in proverbs, set expressions, and similar?
Basically, "the mizenkai + ば" conditional is a classical construction. Unlike the ば conditional in modern Japanese, this form can be used only for hypothetical cases. Thus, 食らわば is equivalent to 食らうなら rather than 食らえば.
 
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