Welcome to Kimetsu no Japanese, a site for learning Japanese from a manga Demon Slayer.
Today’s topic
Ch.57 Vol.7
Tanjiro Kamado (竈門 炭治郎)
でももう俺は失った！！戻ることはできない！！
Reference source : 五峠呼世晴 (2017) 鬼滅の刃7 集英社
I already lost all that!! And I can’t go back!!
Reference source : KOYOHARU GOTOUGE. (2019). DEMON SLAYER 7 : KIMETSU NO YAIBA. VIZ Media, LL
Tanjiro met his family in his dream but of course, they were already dead in real.
He wanted to stay with them in the dream, but he noticed he had to go and fight.
Supressing his desire that he wants to stay there and spend more time with them, he told this phrase to himself.
It’s one of the moving and sad scene.. （；_；）
Lesson
| JPN | でももう俺は失った！！戻ることはできない！！ |
| JPN♪ | demo mō ore wa ushinatta. modoru koto wa dekinai. |
| ENG | But I already lost that!! I can’t go back!! |
| WORD | JPN♪ | MEANING |
|---|---|---|
| でも | demo | but, however |
| もう | mō | already |
| 俺は | ore wa | I (Explanation continues after “wa”, a particle put after a subject.) |
| 失った | ushinatta | to have lost 失う(ushinau)：to lose |
| 戻ること | modorukoto | returning, going back 戻る(modoru) : to return こと(koto) : a thing * verb + “koto” = verb + ing |
| は | wa | <postpositional particle> about |
| できない | dekinai | cannot |
Exercise1 | Lost something
Let’s exercise
| WORD | JPN♪ | MEANING |
|---|---|---|
| 伊之助は自信を失った | Inosuke wa jishin o ushinatta | Inosuke lost his confidence. |
| 禰󠄀豆子は怒りで我を失った | Nezuko wa ikari de ware o ushinatta | Nezuko lost herself for anger. |
Japanese grammar | Abbreviated subject
Let us see the sentence “I cannot go back” more deeply.
ThIs sentence looks there is no subject. We cannot find “I” in Japanese phrase.
There are only words meaning “to go back” and “can’t”. But it makes sense in Japanese.
In lots of cases a subject is omitted.
Example
A : 何色が好き？（nani iro ga suki) / What color do you like?
B : 赤が好き。 (aka ga suki) / I like red.
“nani iro” is what color. “suki” is to like. “aka” is red.
Let’s line words in Japanese order.
A : What color like?
B : Red like.
There are no subject in the text, but in Japanese we have to find a hidden subject by situation and intonation.
If you cannot find a subject in the conversation, of course you can ask! Juts ask, “dare no koto?” (Whom are you talking about?) or “nan no koto?” (What are you talking about?)
That’s all
We could lose a person and/or a thing which could be as cherish as our own life. In this kind of situation, we can’t stop thinking “what if…” and we can’t get away from the real past as well as a fake past which we want to believe. However people only can go forward and we can’t go back. Today’s phrase is the one when Tanjiro breaks with his happy past. If you are facing a problem, a big one, why don’t you read out this phrase? Hardness never disappears but you may break the wall!
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