Blog · Buying Mittens
Buying Mittens (3): 4 Expressions
This is the final part of our series on Buying Mittens. In Part 2, the cub held out the wrong hand, and the hatter sold him the mittens anyway.
The cub starts for home with his mittens. He has met a human, and nothing bad happened.
1. ちっとも〜ない — not at all
ちっとも is always followed by a negative. It means "not even a little."
「お母さんは、人間は恐ろしいものだって仰有ったがちっとも恐ろしくないや。だって僕の手を見てもどうもしなかったもの」
"Mother said humans are frightening, but they aren't frightening at all. After all, he saw my hand and didn't do a thing to me."
There is a lot of spoken Japanese here. 仰有った is おっしゃった, the respectful word for "said," in an old spelling. だって begins a reason, and もの at the end of the sentence closes it: "because ..., you see." Children talk this way a lot.
Today:
- この映画は、ちっともこわくなかった。
This movie wasn't scary at all. - 何度聞いても、ちっともわからない。
No matter how many times I hear it, I don't understand it at all.
Tip: At the end of the story the cub says ちっとも恐かないや. 恐かない is a spoken form of こわくはない.
2. 何という — what a ...!
何という before a description, with 〜でしょう or 〜だろう at the end, means "what a ...!"
何というやさしい、何という美しい、何と言うおっとりした声なんでしょう。
What a kind, what a beautiful, what a calm and gentle voice it was!
Under a window, the cub hears a human mother singing her child to sleep. The song begins like the Japanese version of Schubert's lullaby, which many people in Japan still know. おっとり means "calm and unhurried." The cub thinks at once of his own mother, who rocks him to sleep with a voice like this.
Today:
- 何というきれいな夕日だろう。
What a beautiful sunset! - 何という親切な人なんでしょう。
What a kind person!
Tip: In everyday speech, なんて is more common: なんてきれいな夕日だろう.
3. 今か今かと — any moment now
Literally "is it now? is it now?" It goes with 待つ, and shows someone who can hardly wait.
お母さん狐は、心配しながら、坊やの狐の帰って来るのを、今か今かとふるえながら待っていましたので、坊やが来ると、暖い胸に抱きしめて泣きたいほどよろこびました。
The mother fox had been waiting, worried and trembling, for her boy to come back at any moment, so when he came she hugged him to her warm breast and was so happy she could have cried.
Inside the house, the human mother is telling her child that the little fox in the forest must be falling asleep too. Hearing that, the cub suddenly misses his own mother and runs. 泣きたいほど means "so much that she wanted to cry."
Today:
- 子どもたちは、夏休みを今か今かと待っている。
The children can hardly wait for summer vacation. - 合格の知らせを、今か今かと待った。
I waited impatiently for the news that I had passed.
Tip: In Momotaro we met 首を長くして待つ, which means much the same.
4. 〜かしら — I wonder ...
かしら at the end of a sentence means "I wonder." The speaker is asking herself.
「ほんとうに人間はいいものかしら。ほんとうに人間はいいものかしら」
"I wonder if humans are really good. I wonder if humans are really good."
The cub tells her that humans are not frightening at all, and pats his mittened hands together to show her. His mother says まあ！, amazed. The reader remembers the farmer who once chased her. She says the line twice, in a murmur (つぶやきました), and the story stops there. Niimi does not answer the question.
Today:
- あしたは晴れるかしら。
I wonder if it will be sunny tomorrow. - この道でいいのかな。
I wonder if this is the right road.
Tip: かしら sounds soft and is used mostly by women. かな means the same and is used by everyone.
Read it in the story
In Gon, the Little Fox, a fox and a human understand each other too late. Here they meet without any harm, and still the mother is not sure. Read both stories and see what you think.
On Thursday, October 29, we begin a new digest: Night on the Galactic Railroad（銀河鉄道の夜）, Part 1.