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Shanghai by Yokomitsu Riichi

karenk

Sempai
3 Apr 2014
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Hi Toritoribe, how are you? I'm translating Shanghai, by Yokomitsu Riichi. And already at the beginning, there is the sentence: 突堤に積み上げられた樽の上で、苦力(クリー)たちが湿って来た. I'm questioning the meaning of the last part. Does it mean that the coolies were receiving the humidity from the fog? Or is there another way to understand that? Thank you!
 
Forgot to ask if I should understand that the coolies were seated on the barrels stacked in the jetty. (Or were they working on the top of them?)
 
Oh, that's a good point! I, too, got an impression that they seated on the barrels without thinking deeply, but judging from the expression 積み上げられた, they indeed seem to be working there, since 積み上げられた樽の上に座って休む is unusual.
 
Hi! Another question. In the passage bellow, the woman is asking Sanki if he is not going to gamble with the Chinese or if he is not going to spend the night with her? Thanks!

霧が帆桁(ほげた)にからまりながら湯気のように流れて来た。女は煙草に火を点(つ)けた。石垣に縛られた船が波に揺れるたびごとに、舷名のローマ字を瓦斯燈(ガスとう)の光りに代る代る浮き上らせた。樽の上で賭博をしている支那人の首の中から、鈍い銅貨の音が聞えて来た。
「あんた、行かない。」
「今夜は駄目だよ。」
「つまんないわ。」
 
Thank you, Tori! It is nice to have a separated thread. I think that I will be coming here often...:giggle:
 
Hi, what would the meaning of 青ざめた眼 be in this passage: 春婦たちは立ち上ると鉄柵に添ってぞろぞろ歩いた。一番後になった若い女が、青ざめた眼でちらりと参木の方を振り返った? "Sad/melancholic eyes" or "inexpressive"?
 
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Hi, what would the meaning of 青ざめた眼 be in this passage: 春婦たちは立ち上ると鉄柵に添ってぞろぞろ歩いた。一番後になった若い女が、青ざめた眼でちらりと参木の方を振り返った? "Sad/melancholic eyes" or "inexpressive"?
I think it expresses that the color of the (probably Russian) woman's eyes are bluish. It doesn't seem to be "sad/melancholic" to me since 青ざめる is usually connected to "fear" in that usage, and there is no reason why she is afraid of him. Anyway, his feelings would become clear later when the episode of his separation from 競子 is described.
 
I think it expresses that the color of the (probably Russian) woman's eyes is bluish. It doesn't seem to be "sad/melancholic" to me since 青ざめる is usually connencted to "fear" in that usage, and there is no reason why she is afraid of him. Anyway, his feelings would become clear later when the episode of his separation from 競子 is described.

Yes, I thought about the color, but the way she looked at Sanki made him remember the way Kyoko looked at him with a kind of despise before lefting... Maybe "with a blankness"?
 
I thought the episodes with 競子 are described more in detail later in the novel, but it doesn't seem so.
Unlike 見くだす, 見おろす is rarely used as "to despise" especially with the kanji 見降ろす, even though that difinition is in dictionaries. Anyway, what reminds him of 競子 is the way of her looking at him, and I don't think 青ざめた is not the description about her (or 競子's) despise since this word doesn't have that nuance.
 
Hi! Could I translate えーい、ひとつ、ここらあたりで泣いてやれ, as "let me cry here for a bit"? And 古めかしい幼児のことを追想 as "recollect his distant childhood"?
 
Hi, I'm trying to figure out what 時計の台盤 means here: そのぎっしり詰った豚の壁の奥底からは、一点の白い時計の台盤だけが、眼のように光っていた. Would it be one of those weighing tables with the clock like scales ( scale table clock - Pesquisa Google
 
I think it simply refers to 時計盤/時計の文字盤 "the dial plate (of a clock)". It's uncommon to be called 台盤, but those kinds of scales are quite rare, so I don't think it's mentioned like that without any exlanation/descrition about the scale.
 
I think it simply refers to 時計盤/時計の文字盤 "the dial plate (of a clock)". It's uncommon to be called 台盤, but those kinds of scales are quite rare, so I don't think it's mentioned like that without any exlanation/descrition about the scale.

Understood! What about the following passage: 勿論(もちろん)、お柳は客の浴室へ出入すべき身ではない。だが、彼女の好みにあった客を選ぶためには、番号のついたその幾つもの浴室を遊ばせておくことは不経済には相違ない

Oryu is not a person supposed to get in and out the clients rooms due to her position (owner of the bath house), but in order to select the best clients, she kept some rooms empty (they were numbered), which was not bad for her business. Is it more or less the idea of this passage? The beginning and the ending don't make much sense to me.
 
The nuance of 出入りする would be closer to "to have access to~" here.

The meaning is opposite. The sentence says that it must be uneconomical not to use those numbered rooms when she chooses ("meets" is closer in this case) her favorite clients. Thus, she thinks it's economical/good for her business to meet him, whom she likes, as her client in the bath house.
 
Hi Tori! Is ベリーマイン the name of a song (Very mine?)? I couldn't find anything on the net. It appears on this passage: 壁から吹き込む蒸気と一緒に蓄音器がベリーマインを歌い出した。
 
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I don't know it, either. There is another possibility that it's the name of a singer.
 
I don't know it, either. There is another possibility that it's the name of a singer.

I thought about that, but couldn't find any match either. I'll research it further. Here:

「あなたに馬券分けようか。」
「もうプレミヤムがついてるんですか。」
「それや、つくさ。でも、負けてもいいわよ。」

Does the Koya ask if the tickets already come with a prize? Or does it has another meaning?

Thank you!
 
I think it means the tickets are not available for everyone freely, and the price already rose from the net price (=プレミアムがついている). She can buy it, and says that she can share it with him.
 
Hi Tori! I couldn't grasp the meaning of this passage: 参木はやがてお柳が自分に擦り寄るであろう誘いをお杉が自分にするものとして思いたかった. Sanki wanted Oryu to let Osugi bath him? What's the meaning of であろう誘い in this context?
 
であろう is the same as だろう, thus it's for the future tense.

参木 wished that the one who would do the invitation had been お杉 instead of the actual doer お柳, thus, he wanted お杉 to do that to him, not お柳.
 
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