sentence from a children's book

shiniaite · 16 Jan 2009

Hi there
so I started to translate children's books for myself, to practice hiragana reading (no kanjis in there ) and learn sentence structures and some vocabulary too. I started with one called "issun-boushi" (see english wikipedia ).
The first sentence is as follows (already transcribed it to romaji):
mukashi mukashi kodomo ga inai ojiisan to obaasan ga kamisama ni onegai wo suru to koyubi kurai no otokonoko ga umaremashita.
So it already started, I'm helpless
I understand parts of it ("Long long time ago.. Grandpa and grandma asked god... a boy as big as a pinky was born"), but the I cant get the "kodomo ga inai"-part into the context ...
Does this mean "while they asked god for a child, blabla"? That would make sense in one way, but a baby isn't just suddenly born xD
could someone please help me out here? Thanks a lot

becki_kanou · 16 Jan 2009

"Kodomo ga inai" is modifying "ojiisan to obaasan". It means "without a child" or "child-less". "Ojiisan" and "obaasan" can be "grandfather" and "grandmother", but sometimes they just mean "old man" and "old woman".

Also since it's a fairy tale, children do sometimes just appear, like KaguyaHime from the bamboo and Momotarou from the peach.

shiniaite · 16 Jan 2009

that makes sense, thanks!

edit:
ok so i have another problem:
jiisama baasama oira miyako wo mitekitai.
I understand everything but oira, like that:
jiisama to baasama wa miyko wo mitekitai.

I looked in some dictionaries and found out that oira means "I, me". That wouldnt make sense, would it? And besides, a narrator in a fairy tale very seldomly uses "I". Since the particles after jiisama and baasama are left out maybe it's a suffix/particle, but I couldn't find anything about it...

again, can someone help me out? thanks

Toritoribe · 17 Jan 2009

That line is not a narration but issun-boushi's words.
The subject is oira(a countrified saying of "I" in this case), and he is addressing them "jiisama baasama" or "grampa, gramma" at the beginning of the sentence.

shiniaite · 18 Jan 2009

ahh thank you! damn I just ignored those 「 ... 」

kyubisharingan · 18 Jan 2009

Where did you find those children books? Are they online somewhere?

shiniaite · 18 Jan 2009

sent you a message!

next question
"daijin ha karada ha chiisai keredo genki na issunboushi wo taisou kiniiri jibun no ie de hatarakaseru koto ni shimashita."
Is this translation correct?
"The rich man liked the small but strong Issun-Boushi so much, he decided to let him work in his house."
I'm not sure about the "taisou kiniiri", I looked it up and means something like "very much" and "favourite".

thank you, again

Toritoribe · 18 Jan 2009

But "daijin" means minister in this case.

shiniaite said:
I'm not sure about the "taisou kiniiri", I looked it up and means something like "very much" and "favourite".

It might be a nuance more likely "daijin is delighted with him."

shiniaite · 18 Jan 2009

thanks again, toritoribe!

however, I already have the next question

Just for context, the sentence before my problem is as follows:
"aruhi ohimesama ga omairi wo suru no de issunboushi ga otomo wo suru koto ni narimashita."
I translated it like that:
"One day, the daughter of the minister went to a shrine, and because of that, Issun-Boushis was decided as her escort."

Now the problematic sentence:
"omairi ga buji ni sunde kaeroutoshitatoki desu."
Whats that supposed to mean? And this long verb form, I never heard of it, and googling just brings up some Japanese sites.

Thank you again

Update: I translated everything else, so once you help me with this one, I'm finished!

undrentide · 19 Jan 2009

shiniaite said:
"omairi ga buji ni sunde kaeroutoshitatoki desu."
Whats that supposed to mean? And this long verb form, I never heard of it, and googling just brings up some Japanese sites.

...toki (nokoto) desu.
Means (It was) when...

So it means "It was when the visiting shrine is finished" and I'm sure something happened which was explained in the following sentence of this one.

shiniaite · 19 Jan 2009

Yeah thank you, undrentide!

That means I'm finished with my first very own translation

Thanks to all of you who helped me!

Max

sentence from a children's book

shiniaite

honno joudan da yo :P

becki_kanou

Sumo Freak

shiniaite

honno joudan da yo :P

Toritoribe

松葉解禁

shiniaite

honno joudan da yo :P

kyubisharingan

旨くなるつもりだよ

shiniaite

honno joudan da yo :P

Toritoribe

松葉解禁

shiniaite

honno joudan da yo :P

undrentide

Japa'n vagyok

shiniaite

honno joudan da yo :P

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