ある晴れた日、あまのじゃくは箱根の山のてっぺんに立って、まわりをグルリと見わたしていました。
Aru hareta hi, amanojaku wa hakone no yama no teppen ni tatte, mawari o gururi to miwatashite imashita.
One clear day, Amanojaku was standing on the top of Hakone Mountain and looking over the surroundings.
Why is "o" used here? What is the purpose of the "to" after "gururi"?
人間どもは箱根に尻(しり)を向けて富士ばかり見ておる。
Ningen domo wa hakone ni shiri ( shiri) o mukete fuji bakari mite oru.
People look only at Mt. Fuji, turning their back to Hakone mountain.
Is "domo" just like "tachi"?
それはなんと、富士山のてっぺんの岩を海へ投げすててしまい、その背たけを低くしてやろうというのです。
Sore wa nanto, fujisan no teppen no iwa o umi e nagesutete shimai, sono setake o hikuku shite yarō to iu no desu.
It was to throw rocks from the top of Mt. Fuji into the sea to make Mt. Fuji shorter.
The dictionary says "nanto" means, "what; how; whatever" but that doesn't fit here. What does it mean?
Is "~te yaru" here just for emphasis?
This is not a quote. It is a thought. Why is "to iu" used when "iu" means "to say"? If it means, "some people say that..." or "it is said that..." as a kind of narrator addition, would this clash with a line later in the text (unquoted in this post) that says, "to iu koto desu" - "koto" being a higher form of politeness than "no". Is this an inconsistent politeness level from the narrator?
そして、てっぺんの岩をつかむともっこに入れて、富士山を下り、海岸から海にめがけてなげこみました。
Soshite, teppen no iwa o tsukamu to mokko ni irete, fujisan o kudari, kaigan kara umi ni megakete nagekomimashita.
Then, he grabbed rocks on the top and put them into the mokko. He climbed down Mt. Fuji, and threw the rocks away from the shore into the sea.
"Ireru" is in the ~te form. "Kudaru" is in the ~masu stem form. Both of these forms mean the same thing. Why isn't it consistent? I.e. both of them in the ~te form or both of them in the ~masu stem form?
そして、なげそこなって近くに落ちたのが、「初島(はつしま)」になったということです。
soshite, nagesokonatte chikaku ni ochi tanoga,( hatsu shima( hatsushima)) ninattatoiukotodesu.
And, it is said that he failed to throw away one rock and dropped it into the sea near the shore, and that it became Hatsushima.
nage - from "nageru" (to throw away)
soko - that place
natte - from "naru" (to become)
ochita no ga - to have been falling
Am I misunderstanding any of those words? Because I don't understand the first part of this sentence whatsoever.
しかし、これだけの岩をとられても、富士山の背たけは、まだまだ日本一です。
Shikashi, koredake no iwa o torarete mo, fujisan no setake wa, madamada nippon'ichi desu.
But, even after so many rocks were taken away, Mt. Fuji was still the highest in Japan.
The dictionary says:
madamada - still some way to go before the goal; still more to come; much more; not yet
That doesn't make sense in this context. That would make it, "Mt. Fuji still had some way to go the best in Japan."
So, I'm guessing "madamada" can just mean "still" like "mada" does.
そして富士山を下りて箱根あたりを通りかかったところで、一番鳥が、「コケコッコー!」と、鳴きました。
Soshite fujisan o orite hakone atari o tōrikakatta tokoro de, ichi-ban dori ga, "kokekokkō!" to, nakimashita.
So, by the time he climbed down Mr. Fuji and walked around to Hakone, the first rooster crowed “cock-a-doodle-doo.”
Dictionary:
atari - on the bank of; by the side of (e.g. a river, pond)/(in the) neighbourhood; neighborhood; vicinity; nearby
So shouldn't this be "hakone no atari"?
"Dori" isn't in any dictionary I've seen. Can I add it to my vocabulary list or is it a typo where they meant to write "tori"?
さて、あまのじゃくですが、これにこりたのか、もう二度と富士山には行かなかったという事です。
Sate, Amanojaku desu ga, kore ni korita no ka, mo nido to fujisan ni wa ikanakatta to iu koto desu.
And so, it is said that Amanojaku will never go back to Mt. Fuji because he must have learned his lessons from this.
If this "no" is a nominaliser:
kore ni korita no (...) - From this learneding
It's completely different from English and nobody has ever explained to me how to nominalise in the past tense. As far as I'm aware, there's no lesson on it. I can't find a website to help me. Can anybody point me in the right direction?
Also, what is the "ka" here? I can't imagine how it can be an embedded question.