Japanese
Signs (3)
Doa
shimete beruto o shimete ki o shimete.
Here you get
three different uses of the verb shimeru.
"Close the
door, fasten your seatbelt, tighten your
ki."
"Tighten your ki"
means something like "be alert" or keep your eyes
open or keep on your toes. In any case, one of the
important things in studying any foreign languages is
to learn which words come naturally with other words
(these combinations are called collocations). Here we
have three collocations using shimeru,
in which shimeru
has a
slightly different meaning each time. It is
interesting that doa
shimete is not
doa o
shimete, but if you think about
it, the present wording is in the 5, 7, 5 syllable
count, the same as a haiku. If o
were
inserted, then the first line would have six
syllables and not be a haiku! Or, to put it
differently, this shows the Japanese love of five
syllables and seven syllables.
Here is one
of my favorites, and I'll soon tell you why. The
Japanese is: Sanpo-chû no fun wa
kainushi ga atoshimatsu o! Anata no neko wa gokinjo
no meiwaku ni natte imasen ka! "When your (animal)
poos when out on a walk, it's the responsibility of
the owner to clean it up. Isn't your cat becoming a
neighborhood nuisance?" Well, there is a lot
going on here, and most of it is interesting, but I
would like to focus on the beginning:
Sanpo-chû
no fun wa. Sanpo, of course, means
"walk." Chû
means "in the
midst of" or "during." In fact, chû
can be
attached to a lot of nouns indicating some kind of
activity. For example, benkyû-chû
means "in the
midst of studying." So you could say,
Ima
benkyû-chû da kara, jama shinai de
kudasai. Meaning, "I'm studying
now, so don't bother me" or whatever. Other examples
of chû
are
shigoto-chû
(in the midst
of working), shokuji-chû
(in the midst
of eating), denwa-chû
(in the midst
of phoning), and kôshô-chû
(in
negotiation).
Next, noun plus -chû combinations can also be used as modifiers. For example, Benkychû no gakusei wa jama shinai de kudasai. "Don't bother students who are studying." Shokuji-chû no josei wa is "the woman who is eating." Kôji-chû no michi wa is "the road under construction."
So this brings me back to our original example: Sanpo-chû no fun wa ..." When I first saw this, in my mind I translated it as "When poop is out for a walk ..." That makes sense, doesn't it? Sanpo-chû no fun. It seems to mean nothing less than some poop taking a walk. But alas and alack, that is not what it means; it means, "when (you) are taking your (dog) out for a walk, its poo ...." Etc. To wit, the subject of -chû can be different from the noun it modifies. I think. To fill in the blanks, it should be something like this, (Anata to inu no) sanpo-chû no fun wa ... Now, fun I take to mean something appertaining to animals, but if that is not the case, then it would have to be, (Anata to inu no) sanpo-chû no (inu no) fun wa. I think. I suppose.
Next, noun plus -chû combinations can also be used as modifiers. For example, Benkychû no gakusei wa jama shinai de kudasai. "Don't bother students who are studying." Shokuji-chû no josei wa is "the woman who is eating." Kôji-chû no michi wa is "the road under construction."
So this brings me back to our original example: Sanpo-chû no fun wa ..." When I first saw this, in my mind I translated it as "When poop is out for a walk ..." That makes sense, doesn't it? Sanpo-chû no fun. It seems to mean nothing less than some poop taking a walk. But alas and alack, that is not what it means; it means, "when (you) are taking your (dog) out for a walk, its poo ...." Etc. To wit, the subject of -chû can be different from the noun it modifies. I think. To fill in the blanks, it should be something like this, (Anata to inu no) sanpo-chû no fun wa ... Now, fun I take to mean something appertaining to animals, but if that is not the case, then it would have to be, (Anata to inu no) sanpo-chû no (inu no) fun wa. I think. I suppose.
Continue on to
Japanese Signs
(4)
