Grand Comic Reading Project #5: Kabu no Isaki

[James Johnston]

I'd say that these all have the meaning of "to begin (doing an activity)", but are typically translated using some version of "to go".

You're right, but I think there is often a combination of the two. You can after all say things like ”我坐车上学“

The Chinese-Chinese dictionary on nciku gives this as the meaning of 上班：按规定的时间到规定的地点工作。 The 到 indicating that 'go to' is part of the meaning.

All three sense (sit on, go to and start doing) make sense for toilets!

[jbradfor]

Good point on the 上班. I have been thinking of the 上 here as meaning "the top", as in "the beginning" (e.g. in English "take it from the top"), but you're right, thinking of it as meaning "to go to" makes more sense.

All three sense (sit on, go to and start doing) make sense for toilets!

Well, when he first said it, I was expecting him to go 大便，but when I saw him standing at the urinal I was a tad surprised.....

[jbradfor]

On the very first page, what does the "脚" in "如果没有“脚”啥也干不了" mean?

"Foot" doesn't make sense here. "If you don't have a foot..."

I assumed it meant "role" (with a jué​ pronunciation), as in "if you don't have a role (purpose in life)....", and put that in the word list, but someone changed it back to jiǎo​, so I must have it wrong.

[James Johnston]

It does mean feet. 'Without our feet we couldn't do anything.' i.e. There's nothing round here for miles around. If it wasn't for our own two feet [to walk with] we'd be stuck. But now we have a plane.

That's how I understood it. The quotation marks are a little confusing though. I might be missing something.

[Gleaves]

I read "foot" as a nickname for planes (edit: or maybe modes of transportation in general?). Like on the second page when he calls the Piper Club his foot/feet.

[feihong]

I agree with Gleaves's interpretation. Also see the English translation:

http://www.mangafox.com/manga/kabu_no_isaki/v01/c001/2.html

[jbradfor]

Excellent, that makes more sense.

@feihong, that's cheating! I'm ashamed of you for even suggesting that!

[feihong]

Well, that translation comes from the original Japanese version, and does need to be taken with a grain of salt. I did my own analysis, and then used a perfectly legitimate source to corroborate my viewpoint.

;-P

[jbradfor]

Just finished vol 1 right before the new year. I'm not sure what to make of it, actually.

But I do have some final questions.

In the story 镜头谷, what's the deal with 小鳅 not wanting to take a bath? Was it just modesty?

On page 103, how to translate "那是因為很多門外漢什麼也不懂就飛過來了"? "That's because many laypeople (?) don't know how to fly here?" That doesn't seem right.

On page 128, why the use of 倆 in one place and 兩 in the other?

In the story 春天卷心菜, was 白小姐 hitting on 井崎? Or just being friendly? It does seem that in the next story, 弯弯在绕, she was trying to teach him how to fly better, and so just didn't want 小鳅 along.

On page 141, in the sentence 今天想要和去沖浪什麼的，what is the use of 什麼 here? Something like "OK"?

[feihong]

In the story 镜头谷, what's the deal with 小鳅 not wanting to take a bath? Was it just modesty?

She has a crush on 井崎, but is a bit self-conscious about her body. I think.

On page 103, how to translate "那是因為很多門外漢什麼也不懂就飛過來了"? "That's because many laypeople (?) don't know how to fly here?" That doesn't seem right.

My translation attempt: "That's because many laypeople (who don't understand anything) fly over here."

On page 128, why the use of 倆 in one place and 兩 in the other?

倆 just sounds better in certain contexts ;-)

Uh, I think 倆 is a bit more casual and 口语化.

In the story 春天卷心菜, was 白小姐 hitting on 井崎? Or just being friendly? It does seem that in the next story, 弯弯在绕, she was trying to teach him how to fly better, and so just didn't want 小鳅 along.

She was just playfully flirting with him, but not in a serious way. She knows that her little sister has a crush on 井崎.

On page 141, in the sentence 今天想要和井崎去沖浪什麼的，what is the use of 什麼 here? Something like "OK"?

"什麼的" here is a common construction roughly meaning "or something like that". I guess the translation would be "Today I want to go surfing or something with Jingqi." Frankly, I'm a little uncertain on this one. The other possible interpretation is that 什麼的 here means "and so on".

[feihong]

Scans for volume 3 were recently published: http://www.dm5.com/Type.aspx?id=6767