Understanding a sentence

[Sequa]

I have trouble understanding this sentence:

そうして、　たんぽぽの　花の　じくは、　ぐったりと　じめんに　たおれて　しまいます。

It is taken from a Japanese textbook for first (I think) class students.
I got this far: "Then the stem of the dandelion flagged and fell to the ground and finished/put away (しまいます)."
(Sorry my German translation sounds a bit nicer. I had to look up the English words and I'm not sure I translated it correctly to English.^^)

This doesn't make too much sense, especially the last verb.
Can anyone analyse this sentence a little for me?
I understand it up to じくは, although I don't understand why there are commas.
Why is there a と in ぐったりと?
Is たおれて the　て-Form of たおれる?
Does しまう have any other meanings which fit better than "to finish" and "to put away"?

Thanks for help

[kinoko]

「～て(")しまう」 is used similarly to the English "end up ~ing" for unintented actions. It's also sometimes shortened to ちゃう、じゃう、ちまう、or じまう. There's a nice explanation here.

[Jason]

「～て(")しまう」 is used similarly to the English "end up ~ing" for unintented actions. It's also sometimes shortened to ちゃう、じゃう、ちまう、or じまう. There's a nice explanation here.

Ehhh...I really don't like their explanation of ～てしまう. It doesn't necessarily express unintention, though it might. What it usually expreses is a sense of regret.

I'm not sure what to tell you about ぐったりと except that some adjectives seems to take と to turn into a sort of adverbial form. Ex)

そのケーキは意外とまずいです。
"That cake is surprisingly bad."

So I would translate this sentence simply, "The dandelion's stem fell limply to the ground."

[Sequa]

Thank you for your help kinoko and Jason!

[metablue]

Could the "to" be the conditional "to"? And mean "when/if".
ぐったりと

I wanted to practice, so before reading the rest of the posts I tried translating and got this:
And so when the dandelion's stem is completely exhausted, it falls to the ground and dies.

Like in a botanical explanation of the lifecycle of dandelions. =)

[Bueller_007]

Could the "to" be the conditional "to"? And mean "when/if".
ぐったりと

I wanted to practice, so before reading the rest of the posts I tried translating and got this:
And so when the dandelion's stem is completely exhausted, it falls to the ground and dies.

Like in a botanical explanation of the lifecycle of dandelions. =)

I don't think so. ぐったり is an onomatopoeic expression. These (and mimetics) often take "to" as a particle after them to express that the action is being performed in this manner.

ゆっくりと話しました。("(I) spoke splowly.")

If it were being used as the conditional "to", it would come after a verb. For example:
ゆっくりと話すと、誰も分かる。("If (you) speak slowly, everyone will understand.")

[Bueller_007]

I have trouble understanding this sentence:

そうして、　たんぽぽの　花の　じくは、　ぐったりと　じめんに　たおれて　しまいます。

Can anyone analyse this sentence a little for me?

Okay. Here's a proper translation:
「そうして、タンポポの花の軸は、ぐったりと地面に倒れてしまいます。」
Literally: "And then, the entire stem of the dandelion droops lifelessly to the ground."
Naturally: "And then, the dandelion wilts."

I realize that German is your first language, not English, but please note: it "droops". It doesn't "fall". That's the purpose of the "guttari" in the sentence. The stem becomes limp, and it slowly droops down until it touches the ground.

Why is there a と in ぐったりと?

See my post above.

Is たおれて the　て-Form of たおれる?

Yes. たおれる=倒れる="to fall"

I don't understand why there are commas.

Commas often follow conjunctions (like そうして) and the topic particle は. Their purpose is the same as in English. They represent a pause taken while speaking. They also help to organize things a little bit in a language where there is no space between written words.

Does しまう have any other meanings which fit better than "to finish" and "to put away"?

As a stand-alone verb, it means "to finish", "to put away". "-te shimau" means "to do something completely", or expresses the same nuance as "unfortunately".

So, depending on the context, the "shimaimasu" in your sentence could express that the dandelion's stem droops completely to the ground (i.e. the whole stem is touching the ground, not just the tip), or it could express the author's regret that the dandelion is dead. Personally, I would say it is the former: the dead dandelion's stem lies completely lifeless across the ground.