Hi everybody,
This is my first post here, so I'm not quite sure if this is the right place to post this(please move it if not).

Anyway, I am having a problem translating a line from the kid song "Dog Policeman".
The line is "いぬのこまわりさん　こまって　しまって"　then ワン repeats several times.

The thing is I don't understand the こまって　しまって　part. The translation I found lists it as "Doesn't know what to do" but that doesn't seem right. From what I can tell こまって is supposed to be the verb 困る and しまって is しまう. The words don't seem to fit together right. Also, what does the て form after しまう mean? 　

neoblood Wrote:The thing is I don't understand the こまって　しまって　part. The translation I found lists it as "Doesn't know what to do" but that doesn't seem right.

Looks right to me.

Thanks for the reply Jimmy. But, I don't understand how 困る and しまう fit together to mean "doesn't know what to do". According to WWWJD 困る means "to be troubled" or "to be worried" and しまう " means "to finish" or "to put an end to". Could someone explain how those two words work together. Or, Is it just that I have the wrong definitions?

neoblood Wrote:Thanks for the reply Jimmy. But, I don't understand how 困る and しまう fit together to mean "doesn't know what to do". According to WWWJD 困る means "to be troubled" or "to be worried" and しまう " means "to finish" or "to put an end to". Could someone explain how those two words work together. Or, Is it just that I have the wrong definitions?

This is しまう being used as an auxiliary verb: V-て + しまう. A reasonable grammar reference will help here. Or you could try Tae Kim: http://www.guidetojapanese.org/learn/grammar/unintended

However, if you're still at the stage where this is unfamiliar grammar to you, you might want to try something easier -- song lyrics are notoriously hard to translate.

困る expresses that meaning all on its own. No dictionary is going to provide every possible translation of a word, and saying the dog "Didn't know what to do" is more natural English than saying the dog "Was troubled", though for all intents and purposes, they're the same idea.

-てしまう here is a suffix that indicates an undesirable situation. Here's Tae Kim's less-than-stellar explanation, though the example sentences give a pretty good sense of how it works:
http://www.guidetojapanese.org/unintended.html#part2

困る=troubled/in trouble
困ってしまう=completely in trouble ->doesn't know what to do

Thanks Everyone.

I guess this was just a case of me not being to see how that the two meanings cross over.

JDIC has a meaning for 困る：　to be stumped. Maybe it's that...