Translations - Help me understand

[chilla40001624]

Hello.

I've been looking through dictionaries and googling all day, but I can't find a translation for this:

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雅弘さんとは
部屋に同居している
五つ上の親戚だ

Masahiro-san
lives in the same room
??? relatives

The original text looked like this (no punctuation)
The only translation I could come up with was "top 5".
The person saying this does live in the same room as Masahiro, in case that's relevant.
So I thought it might mean, that Masahiro is a close relative. But I have no idea.

Please help! And thanks in advance.

PS: What does 絵ズラ mean?^^
I assume something like scene/sight/view.
I could only find that ズラ is short for wig, but that doesn't make much sense.

[Psy]

雅弘さんとは
部屋に同居している
五つ上の親戚だ

You're pretty close. Sometimes the traditional Japanese counting words are used in reference to age, so in this case 五つ上（いつつうえ） means "five years older." As you probably know already, you can start an explanation of something with とは, in this case we're talking about Masahiro. The explanation of him is 部屋に同居している五つ上の親戚だ, literally "is a five-years older relative living together in the room," but more loosely "is a relative five years older than I am. We live together in the same room."

PS: What does 絵ズラ mean?^^

Best as I can tell 絵ズラ・絵ヅラ is a synonym for 見た目.

Hope that clears things up!

[chilla40001624]

Thank you very much, Psy!
I think it's all cleared up now.

If I have further questions about Japanese texts, that I don't understand, I'll post them in this topic as well, unless someone minds.

Edit:
I have a new question:

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よっこい
しよっと

I can't figure out the meaning. I assume this is some colloquial short-form, but I can't find anything.
The context is, that the person saying this, is tired and sitting down and waiting for someone who's late, in case that's relevant.
Edit2: I've stumbled upon a likely related phrase よっこらしょっと , which would v(very) roughly translate to "Heave-ho". Are they related?

Thanks in advance.

EDIT3: I've encountered this again and judging from the context, this seems be said when sitting down.

Edit2:

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こうしてマスク被り
何食わぬ態度で
応対している

If I put on the mask like this,
my hunger dissappears (?)

I'm especially confused by the second line. I assume 食わぬ　means 食わない.
If the mask is able to make one's hunger dissappear, it would make only a bit sense.
Context is that the person is using the mask to disguise himself.

[j_bertoni2279]

食わぬ is the classical form (think Edo era) of 食わない. I think 対応 is more like "handling" or maybe enduring, in this case, but I'm not good at this. It's interesting reading this thread, though.

[Javizy]

よっこい I believe is like a heave-ho sound or 'whoa (hold on a minute!)'. Probably just a variation of どっこい.

しよっと is an informal way of saying しようと思っている 'I think I'm going to do X.' I think it needs to be a spontaneous thing, e.g. 'there's nothing in the fridge, huh? Think I'll order a pizza.'

何食わぬ is part of the set phrase 何食わぬ顔 'an innocent look (from somebody who is actually guilty)'. I guess this is a variation. As for ぬ, like bertoni said, it's the classical negative form, but it's not completely obsolete. You can see it in set phrases and ことわざ, and occasionally hear it in formal contexts.

Hard to give a perfect translation without much context (or translation skills), but I think it means something like this.

Wearing a mask like this, I'm dealing with him/the problem as if I'm completely innocent.

[chilla40001624]

Alright, thanks a lot for the answers.

I didn't know about the expression 何食わぬ顔.
But this makes much more sense, than anything about "not eating"! Thanks again!

I might post question in the future here again.

EDIT:
I need your help again:

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考えながら
歩くのはよそう
前　ホームから
おちかけたこと
あったしな。。。

The context is that a girl dropped a video game and a guy accidentally picks it up and quickly boards the train.
I'm not even sure which one of them is saying this.

My very literal translation goes something like:
"While thinking, thing of walking seems good.
Before, from platform, event of dropping was (because?)..."
But I'm very unsure about most of this. Plus I can't make sense out of it.

Please help.
Thank you.

[Psy]

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考えながら
歩くのはよそう
前　ホームから
おちかけたこと
あったしな。。。

I suspect this is an inner monologue type of thing going on, but without the page in front of me I can't say for sure. The な at the end here suggests this is a guy. Anyway, the whole 考えながら bit is pretty vague to me here. I really can't tell what it refers to, besides the fact that he's pondering on something. I guess it's either a contextual thing or a usage of 考えながら that I haven't heard before.

The rest of it is a bit more straightforward. One of the things that is throwing you off is that you're reading よそう as some conjugation of よい/いい which it isn't. The そう form of よい is actually よさそう, which is one of those rare illogical conjugation rules that pops up from time to time in the language. よそう comes from よす which is basically another way of saying やめる。In this case he decides to stop walking.

ホームからおちかけた means "just about fell from the platform." The かける bit has several functions, ranging from "being in the middle of something" （食べかけのりんご half-eaten apple) to "right about to happen" (死にかけた almost died) to "directed pointedly at someone/something" (呼びかけた called out to). In this case we aren't talking about a time where someone fell from the platform, but rather someone who was right on the edge of falling.

ことあったし is, as I'm sure you're aware, comes from た〜ことがある describing a past experience.

So we sum it all up and get something like: "Might as well get off my feet while I think about it. That one time almost falling from the platform and all..."

Well, that's my take. Hope it helps shed some light on the subject. Let me know if it fits at all!

[chilla40001624]

Thank you again, Psy!
It's probably a monologue, because it's being said, when the guy is already inside the train.
Also, I should have mentioned, that the people exiting the train had bumped into him and he had dropped all the video games he just bought on the platform and was quickly picking them up.
So could the second part be refering to him almost dropping his games from the platform onto the rails?

Something like: "Thinking about it, might as well stop walking. Just now, almost (my games) fell from the platform."
So he basically thinks that walking around while carrying 4 bags full games was a bad idea. (Maybe he wants to order them in the future?)
Is this in accord with what was originally said?

[Jessi]

To me it looks like the first two sentences are connected: 考えながら歩くのはよそう ("I should stop thinking as I walk")
This is what caused him to almost fall off the platform before (which I'm not sure is related to dropping the video games, since there is no mention of "dropping" anything here). He uses 前 which makes it sound like something that happened awhile ago (not something that just happened).

[Psy]

*slaps forehead*

I like it when things click, but at the same time it's kind of embarrassing that I should screw up on something so obvious considering how long I've been at this language. Thanks, Jessi.

Incidentally: he isn't talking about the games, he's talking about falling off the platform himself. ことがある is past experience, and as Jessi wrote, this isn't something that happened a moment ago. Remember there is a difference between おちる and おとす.

[chilla40001624]

Thank you very much, both of you! I've learned something.
Consider this issue solved.


EDIT: I don't really understand this one:

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警察官もそんな事に
うつつを抜かすとは
随分とお暇なんですね

The context is that a police man is hitting on a female colleague by inviting her to a movie and she rejects him by saying that.

I think the first part means something like:
"That even a police officer is slipping reality (fooling himself)"

I'm totally not sure on the second part:
"You have too much free time" or "you should go home" or even "should quit your job".

Please help me understand.
Thanks for reading.

(By the way, in case anyone is wondering, I bump my Topic by deleting my last reply and posting a new one)

[Javizy]

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警察官もそんな事に
うつつを抜かすとは
随分とお暇なんですね

うつつを抜かす means 'to be hooked on, to be infatuated with' (I had to look that one up). I guess in this case it means something like 'spending (a lot of) time doing.'

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To think that even a police officer spends his time doing that (sort of thing)!
You sure have a lot of free time, huh!?

If this is what the woman said to the policeman directly following the ナンパ, you'd need to replace 'that' with 'this' and 'he' with 'you.'

[chilla40001624]

Thanks for the answer, Javizy.

I actually knew about the expression うつつを抜かす, because I looked it up in my add-on Rikai-chan and yes she speaks directly to his face after being asked.
I'm still a bit confused though, as I have trouble coming up with a translation and you left out the middle part (うつつを抜かす) in your translation.

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To think that even a police officer spends his time doing that sort of thing (being infatuated),
you sure have a lot of free time, huh!?

I was also confused, because the translation I could find for 随分と was something like "very", so I guessed it means "a lot/much" here.
I assume お暇 means "free time", but the dictionary also says: (1)leaving; going home (2) quitting one's job


To sum it up:
Is the translation in the code box accurate? Do 随分と and お暇 here mean, what I think they mean?
Thank you.

[Javizy]

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警察官もそんな事に
A policeman also that sort of thing
うつつを抜かすとは
(that you are) infatuated with/very enthusiastic about (means)
随分とお暇なんですね
it is that (you are) extremely free, huh?


暇 can be used as a 形動 (adjectival noun) as the antonym of 忙しい. とは can be short for というのは, which is used to define or give an explanation for something. It can also be used to express shock or disbelief and often the rest of the sentence is omitted, e.g. 夏にはこんな寒い日があるとは（思わなかった）！I took it as the latter, but if it's all one sentence, I guess 随分とお暇 is offering an explanation/interpretation of the first part. It doesn't quite fit the と（いうの）は～（という）ことだ pattern, but real language isn't always as formulaic as what you see in grammar books.

[chilla40001624]

Thank you again, Javizy, and sorry for the late reply. Consider this issue solved.

I've come up with a new question, which is probably less about understanding and more about finding a good translation:
What would be a good translation of the following?

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前編
中編
後編１
後編２
最終編

This seems to be a common way of dividing mangas and stories in Japan, but I couldn't find anything about the origins and/or possible meaning of this kind of division. Several ways of translating sprang to mind:

1) Literal translations -> won't work because "middle part" (中編) and "later part" (後編) can easily be confused.
2.1) Numbering like this: part 1, part 2, ... , part 5/last part
2.2) Numbering like this: fist part, second part, ... , fifth part/last part (or 1st, 2nd, etc., if it gets too long)
3) Similar to 2.1), only that "part 3" and "part 4" become "part 3a" and "part 3b" respectively (or something like that)


Something like 3) or similar seems most faithful to me, but I personally gravitate to 2.2). I also prefer using last part instead of something like 5th part, as it would clearly indicate it being the last part, though it can mess up automated alphabetical ordering (one solution could be "part 5 (end)" or something like that), but that (alphabetical order) has low priority. It slightly bothers me that there's is no indication that "part 3" and "part 4" might actually be a division of 後編 (後編1 and 後編2), though this division might not hold any relevance (at least, as far as I remember, it never did).

As a European, this system of division seemed very peculiar to me, so I would like to hear your opinions. Preferably from someone who is familiar with this and may even be able to tell me about its origins.

I'm probably overthinking this, but anyway...

In short:
How would you translate this and why?

EDIT: Another small question. What does 嫌た mean and how is it pronounced?
It's most likely not a spelling mistake of 嫌った, as I've seen it several time, but it may a colloquialism of it. However I've also seen 嫌たから which would suggest, I assume, that it has noun properties (I don't think た here is a dialect of the declarative だ, because in other instances だ is used). Context suggest either "no", "(I) disapprove(d)" or "(I) like(d)" or something like that.