なんて is like なんか; Kojien says it can mark something unexpected.  なかなか plus a negative means "[not] easily".  から is "because"; when it comes at the end of a sentence it means the sentence is explaining something.

A non-literal translation would be something like this:
"But being hit by a doll isn't something that usually happens in your whole life."

家を無くした貧しい人が、一人寂しく道ばたで死んでいたのです。
The poor people who lost their house were dead in the side of the road.

Because of the 一人, it's just one person who lost their house and is dead on the side of the road.

それを、とおりかかった『けんおう』という和尚さんが弔っているのです。
A priest named Kenou who happened to pass is mourning there.

弔う　means 'mourn' but also 'hold a memorial service.' Maybe a good translation here would be 'performing burial/funeral rites.'

貧乏でらの和尚さんですが、いつも弱いものの見方になってくださる立派な方ですよ。
He is the priest of the poor and/but is [always] teaching how splendid is to look at things from the side of the weak.

Here, 方　isn't the abstract 方　that means 'way' -- it's the polite way to refer to a person. So, 'a splendid person.'

貧乏でら　is a poor temple. （寺）"He's a priest from a poor temple, and..."

Are you sure that 見方　shouldn't be 味方, 'ally'? That would make more sense to me given になって.

turvy wrote:

The story is all in ひらがな except for 1st grade 漢字 so I don't know.

If you put things from ひらがな to 漢字 on your own when you ask questions here you'll just end up making mistakes and confusing the people who try to help.

turvy wrote:

The story is all in ひらがな except for 1st grade 漢字 so I don't know.

What about いつも弱いもののみかたになってくださる立派な方ですよ。I can't quite make sense of that part either. And what is ものの?

It's 者　＋　の　

Like Filanzea said, 方 means person. everything before that up to the comma is describing what kind of person he is. It can be split in to:

立派な - which obviously means he was splendid

+

いつも弱い者の味方になってくださる - which means he always gave help to the weak. (became the ally)

If the sentence as a whole confuses you, try attaching 人 to the end of each of these phrases and trying to understand them separately first. (e.g. いつも弱い者の味方になってくださる人 = Someone who is always helping the weak) Their role  in the sentence is essentially the same, but they both share the same noun.

Everyone makes mistakes.  I'm not saying that I'm great at Japanese and you're not.  I'm saying that if anyone is asking about a native source, why not leave it as it is to reduce the possibility of errors and confusion.

(That is, unless what you're asking about is what the proper kanji would be.)

Last edited by Tzadeck (2012 March 04, 7:47 am)

Tzadeck wrote:

こんな状況は、子育てをした人なら誰しも経験があることだろう。いつかも動物園で若い夫婦が子どもと歩いていた。子どもが転び、いかにもどこかけがをしたかのように泣き叫び、母親を見て助けを求めた。母親はちらっと見て、にっこり笑った。「さあ、自分で起きなさい」というわけが、子どもの方ががんばるので、母親は根負けして子どもを抱き起こし、泣きじゃくる子を一生懸命あやした。私たちの子どものころは、まるでサルの子同様に扱われていて、母親の邪険さを恨んだものだがと苦笑させられた。

I asked my tutor about this paragraph, and her response was pretty interesting.  She responded that いつかも sounds like it's being used similarly to ある日 here, and that this story was meant to explain something that the writer actually saw and does not sound hypothetical.

She agreed about the だがと thing though, and suggested that to her it sounds like what is left out is something about how we (or he) didn't really fully resent or bear a grudge against our mother's hard-heartedness.

Last edited by Tzadeck (2012 March 04, 8:35 pm)

More from the biographies book, this one about 野口英世.

毒を取り出さなくてはならない、危ない仕事です。（人の嫌がる仕事こそ進んでやらなくては。）

I'm having trouble with the part in red, specially 進んでやらなくては.

Last edited by turvy (2012 March 05, 7:13 pm)

Thanks Joshua, that helps. I am still trying to come up with a literal translation though.

Thanks that's clarifying. Actually, that's exactly it so what more context did you need? I mean, what other information should I have written here? It's not like I am trying to hide all the context to drive people crazy.

Last edited by turvy (2012 March 05, 9:49 pm)

Turvy: I just said 'we' as a general translation - I don't really know if the actor is an individual, an industry, a government agency... I don't know what the work is exactly other than it seems to involve removing poison sometimes...
Context is generally speaking, the sentence before, the sentence after, the point of view the piece is from (especially role and social position), the setting of the piece (time, location). In the case of dialogue, the participants in the conversation and their relationships, but that's not relevant here. Japanese is a highly context-sensitive language, unlike English, and so any of these elements can completely reconfigure the meaning. It's just fortunate that the obvious assumptions to make were in fact correct in this case.

Josh: I don't know about a list; my familiarity with shorthand writings for 'must' comes from Tae Kim's Guide: http://www.guidetojapanese.org/learn/grammar/must

turvy wrote:

I understand that, but I have a 'feeling' that no matter how much context you put in, someone is always going to say, "well, I'm afraid that's the best I can do with the context you are providing…".

Anyway, thanks x 100

Well, some sentences are by their nature ambiguous, even in context. Some are totally unambiguous by themselves. Seriously, the people saying that aren't being jerks, they just honestly have multiple (valid) interpretations in their head and all they can do is give the most likely one...

zigmonty wrote:

turvy wrote:

I understand that, but I have a 'feeling' that no matter how much context you put in, someone is always going to say, "well, I'm afraid that's the best I can do with the context you are providing…".

Anyway, thanks x 100

Well, some sentences are by their nature ambiguous, even in context. Some are totally unambiguous by themselves. Seriously, the people saying that aren't being jerks, they just honestly have multiple (valid) interpretations in their head and all they can do is give the most likely one...

That's because we're clinging helplessly to a thought that there must be a translation when in reality some things just don't translate, period.

I take comfort in how many things/concepts do translate sometimes even literally, given how much these languages and cultures differ it really surprises me.

Last edited by thurd (2012 March 06, 3:26 pm)

I love this thread sooooo much. Its going to take awhile to read all 173 pages though.