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Hey, I’ve asked the occasional question before. =P
It was originally written in 1976 (though published in 1986, and I don’t know how much post-editing went into it) so some archaisms may be possible. Wondering if maybe it’s “If she hadn’t been born, perhaps she wouldn’t have died so soon.”
I’ve got an official English translation of the book somewhere, though I can’t for the life of me find where it is…
Hm, that makes a bit more sense, but how does こなきゃあ work there, I’m wondering? Can it be used as a conditional on its own? I know it usually implies the ならない part but to me that doesn’t seem to fit here.As for the 犬に生まれて part, comparing with some examples on jisho.org it seems to mean something like “born to a dog” (implying she was born a dog as opposed to a tortoise, say). So adding that to your idea, it might be something like “Had she not been (born) a dog/born to a dog, she mightn’t've died this soon.”. (Can’t say I’ve ever used “mightn’t've” in a written sentence before but it sounded right to my ears :P)
Edit: Hold on, I made a mistake with that first part: なきゃ is a contraction of 「なければ」 and なくちゃ is a contraction of 「なくては」. So it’s 来なければ, not 来なくては as I said before >.<
Yah, was going to say it was probably なければ. =P Still not quite sure why it’s なきゃあ and not just なきゃ.
Your idea sounds pretty good, though.
i’m reading a children’s book and can’t figure out how to translate あげました in the following sentence.
わたしは はっとして、かおをあげました。thanks for the help.
私ははっとして、顔を上げました。
I was taken aback, and looked up （literally raised one’s face）.ahhh, thanks astralfox.
出発前&到着後
When 後 is a suffix, it’s pronounced 「ご」, right? So 到着後 is 「とうちゃくご」. How do you say 出発前? I don’t think I’ve ever learned what 前 is as a suffix, for whatever reason.
That tiny extract is from the blog of Risa Stegmayer, co-presenter of NHK World’s “Cool Japan”. Just discovered it today, and while it’s not the *most* entertaining blog, it’s making great reading practice. I’m a bit worried though – I’m understanding far too much of it, and I don’t know if that’s me getting better or if she’s just using not-so-complex Japanese. I know she’s half-Japanese but she wasn’t born there; she does live and work there now though and hosts the show in Japanese, so I have to assume she’s near enough “fluent” or “native-level” or whatever you wanna call it.
前 as a suffix is まえ.
I sometimes watch Cool Japan, but I often find it kinda wince-worthy…
Incidentally, I found the official English translation of the book, and “Had she not been born a dog, she mightn’t’ve died this soon.” is what they have. =)
I’ve been using まえ、don’t really know if that’s correct now that you mention it.
Speaking of 前 and 後 as temporal suffixes, I keep getting the translations the wrong way around. I automatically take ３日前に as ‘in three days time’ instead of ‘three days ago’, and vice versa with ３日後に.
Perhaps I associate front with future, and back with past too strongly in English, and can’t stop the cross-wiring.
Has anyone else had this problem?Edit: Ninja’d
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This reply was modified 10 years, 9 months ago by
Astralfox.
I’ve occasionally had to think twice, but when you think of it as “three days before” and “three days after” it gets easier to remember which is which. =P
That’s probably what it’ll come down to. However, I have been wondering how to express core of the issue as a matter of perspective.
We are three days to the ‘front’ of three days ago, is how I’m thinking. The same view could be taken with English right? Could it be that I simply haven’t given enough thought to the viewpoints of temporal phrases in either language…@Joel: Yeah, “wince-worthy” :P I really wish they’d put English subtitles instead of dubbing over the presenters and interviewees on the street. It can be interesting at times, though.
That’s the translation they have? That exact wording? Guess I was spot on :D
@Astralfox: 前 doesn’t just mean “front”, it also means “before”. I think the English word “before” is a good choice because something can happen “before” something else (in the relative past), or someone can “stand before you” (in front).
I really wish they’d put English subtitles instead of dubbing over the presenters and interviewees on the street.
Ditto. It kinda feels like they’ve only got two or three people on hand to do the dubbing, so they have to put on stupid voices to sound unique. Some other shows do dubbing too, but it’s usually not quite so much as Cool Japan.
That’s the translation they have? That exact wording? Guess I was spot on :D
No, I just copied your translation – didn’t make a note of the exact wording, but it’s something fairly close. =P I’ll be getting my copy back from the person who borrowed it on Wednesday, if you want an exact quote.
@Astralfox: 前 doesn’t just mean “front”, it also means “before”.
Same as 後 means both “after” and “behind”. =)
I’ve got to assume they don’t actually watch the clip they’re dubbing beforehand because the voices don’t sound like they’re even *trying* to sound similar to the person. The female and child voices are the worst.
Normal voices :D I really wish I could find the English counterpart to this one to compare.
Also, no need to post the exact translation for that sentence – I just assumed what you’d typed was word-for-word what was in the book, amazed that I’d typed the same thing :P
前 doesn’t just mean “front”, it also means “before”.
Same as 後 means both “after” and “behind”. =)
As far as associating words goes, that’s surely the easiest way to tame the mistranslation problem, which was my original question. I just thought it might be interesting to discuss the logical or psychological basis for using the same kanji. Especially since there are similar dual meanings in the English terms, and logics that transcend language can give insight into human cognition.
Essentially, I find it hard to believe that the past would be associated with one’s front, as people usually travel forwards, so perhaps temporal phrases use the time one is referring to as the reference point, rather than the present… -
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