Re: because i can't stay away

On Fri, 21 Jul 2006 00:15:50 +0900, dareka wrote:

Phil Yff wrote:

On Wed, 19 Jul 2006 22:42:31 +0900, dareka wrote:


Phil Yff wrote:

On 17 Jul 2006 20:18:07 -0700, Andreas Rusterholz wrote:



meredeth wrote:


2) まあ、最初見た時はショックでしたねえ、
なんだこの変な宇宙人は？みたいな（汗）
でも、なんだか下ぶくれで憎めない顔つきですね（笑）
妙に癒されます・・・。

My attempt at translation:

Well, I was shocked when I first saw it; (I thought/felt that)
"What's this weird alien?" or something along these lines
(sweats). But, it has a face with plump/baggy cheeks (and
jowl) which somehow you can't hate, doesn't it? (laughs). It
is strangely soothing....


If you go to the website and take a look at Odenkun, you'll see the stuffed
toy looks like a potbellied stove. It has no jowls nor is there anything
baggy about it. It has a head shaped kind of like a rugby ball. Before I
looked at the picture, I had imagined something really bizarre and changed
my translation afterwards.

For one thing, as far as I know and use, a 下膨れ usually or
typically refers to a face. For another, it seems to me that
this で is not a conjunction nor anything like that but is a
で used as in 崖崩れで通れない道; making the word it tags a
reason, source or means of the words or phrase that follows
the で. And for yet another thing, the doll in the picture in
the blog has a face which I marginally categorize as a 下膨れ
の顔, though it is technically not so 下膨れ, if it is not
called a 潰れ豚饅 instead.

You're right that 下膨れ usually refers to a face and I at first read the
passage in that context. However, it does not always refer to a face. It
can mean potbellied and is equivalent to the Japanese expression 太鼓腹
taikobara - drum belly.

After seeing the picture, I interpreted de as being the -te form of desu.
Thus, Odenkun is potbellied and has a disarming facial expression.

Mata ato de,

Phil Yff
.

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