#57 夏目漱石『吾輩は猫である』
ふと気が付いて見ると書生は居ない。沢山居った兄弟が一疋も見えぬ。肝心の母親さえ姿を隠してしまった。その上今までの所とは違って無暗に明るい。
Vocabulary:
夏目漱石 なつめそうせき Natsume Soseki (author, 1867-1916)
ふと suddenly
気が付くと きがつくと the next thing you know, before you know it
書生 しょせい student (see explanation below)
居る いる to be (somewhere)
沢山 たくさん many, a lot
居る おる to be (somewhere)
兄弟 きょうだい siblings
~疋 ひき counter for small animals (usually ~匹)
肝心 かんじん precious, dear, essential, vital
母親 ははおや mother
姿を隠す すがたをかくす to disappear
その上 そのうえ on top of that
無暗に むやみに excessively, extremely
明るい あかるい bright
Grammar & notes:
書生
This word is not longer in use today, but appears regularly in literature from the Meiji (1868-1912) and Taisho (1912-1926) periods. It refers to university students who help out around the house in exchange for board and lodging.
見えぬ
The ~ぬ at the end is a somewhat archaic form of ~ない.
Translation:
Suddenly, the next thing I knew the student was gone. Not one of my many siblings was there. Even my dear mother had disappeared. On top of that, unlike the place I had been thus far, it was excessively bright.
Amazon.jp link for the book I used:
Hi! What is the context behind this text? Just this excerpt, it's quite mysterious. Thanks for your work BTW ^^
This is amazing. How you pulled this off, so soon after my request, is beyond me. Thank you so so much. Now I also understand the word 書生. I couldn't find it. In the book there is I think it is called ふりがな next to the word 家 (うち) and I wondered why, because this seems to be easy kanji to me. In a other post "Nr 31 Light and dark" you mentioned okurigana, what is the difference between furigana and okurigana? Because maybe うち after 家 is actually okurigana? Reading those little pieces is really really helpful, because I have noticed how frequently the same words, sentences structures and grammar come back. It also gets you more thinking in Japanese. Like in your very first post 1: "I was given the name Hajime" I now know how to say :"when I was born" and what name I was given. The sentences in literature are not like anything in my textbook (which is Genki I by the way) and though they are very useful to learn the grammar, vocabulary and so on, you often want to be able to say more. I think it's true about what you said to keep it simple, but doing this and still being able to express yourself fully is difficult, but your posts are little gems in helping me/ us achieve this. So again thank you so much.