豆しば (Mameshiba)

[charusu]

Good evening Friends,

So my girlfriend got a Mameshiba ringtone a few days ago, it says the last stanza (stanza?) of the Mameshiba theme song.



I have it on good authority that it is saying:

豆でもないし
犬じゃないけど
毎日一つ
まめちしき

Which I translate as:

I'm not a bean, nor am I a dog, every day [learn] a little piece of knowledge.

But I don't really understand the grammar - I mean I guess I do after the fact, but if were to say that sentence I would say it differently. I believe the でも is meaning "even" here, so でもない means "not even"? And けど (from けれども) is the conjunction "although, but, however". し is the conjunction meaning "and". Should a more literal translation be "Although I am not a dog, and I'm not even a bean, [I am able to] learn something new every day"? But it doesn't seem like 毎日一つまめちしき has anything to do with 豆でもないし犬じゃないけど such that the conjunction けど would be appropriate.

I'm just all confused, can somebody please clear a bit of this grammar up for me?

Thank you kindly!

 

[Mike Cash]

豆知識

I think you're missing the pun due to not knowing the secondary meaning of まめ

 

[charusu]

You mean a meaning other than 豆知識 or just 豆? I knew that the まめちしき was 豆知識, which makes sense - am I missing something?

 

[Mike Cash]

It's just a little goofy wordplay.

You have run into one of those things about which it can be said, "It doesn't translate well".

 

[charusu]

Thanks! I do think it's very cool that "a little bit of knowledge" translates to "[a] bean [of] knowledge" - which I think is fun considering that the speaker is a bean.

Could you perhaps comment on the grammatical structure (けど, でも, et cetera)?

Thanks again Mike!

 

[Mike Cash]

でもない is just plain old ではない with the substitution indicating "even". When used in a positive it indicates "also".

 

[charusu]

Thanks!

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[Toritoribe]

Another pun:
豆しば is from 豆柴, a breed of dog. That's why the character said "I'm not a dog".

Shiba Inu - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
豆柴 - Google 検索


豆/まめ in 豆柴 and 豆知識 is a suffix, meaning "tiny/little/small".

［接頭］名詞に付く。
１ 形や規模などが小さい意を表す。「―電球」「―台風」

まめ - goo辞書


けど/が is not always used as an adversative conjunction.

 

[charusu]

Thanks Toritoribe!

One last question: is 一つ here the [generic] counter for 豆知識 or 毎日? It makes more sense to me that it be 豆知識 since that is a noun, but I just wanted to be sure.

Thanks again!

 

[Mike Cash]

Your impression is correct.

 

[charusu]

Thanks Mike!

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