十二国記 discussion

[spin13]

气抜けするほどあっけなく思われた。<< How do you interpret this sentence? Feeling a bit discouraged as in disappointment?

While disappointment is one possible interpretation of 気抜け, I think the focus is on the relaxing of tension or, in this case, the lack thereof. I think the next sentence 「いつもこんなにか簡単なんですか？｣ "Is it always that easy?" helps explain how Taiki is feeling.

"That was all there was to taming. It wasn't enough to put Taiki, who had been imagining a much more elaborate ceremony, at ease."

Does 気を散じた mean “lose concentration”?

Try looking up 気が散る, a much more common but identical phrase. If you were having difficulty finding 散じた in the dictionary, remember 散 + する →　散ずる → 散じた.

育ちのせいで卑屈になるのか。
Have you become wobbly due to your upbringing?

I think "timid" might be a better translation for 卑屈 and I'm not sure you've got the tense right, but overall you seem to have understood the paragraph.

[ss]

Thanks Chris and Eric for correcting my mistakes.

Eric wrote:
Try looking up 気が散る, a much more common but identical phrase. If you were having difficulty finding 散じた in the dictionary, remember 散 + する →　散ずる → 散じた.

I have tried looking up 気にする、気がする, but never realized that 気を散じた was formed in this way. Thanks for pointing this out. By the way, I've also tried searching 散ずる in ALC and Tangorin, but it shows no results. How do you know this ずる form and how does it turn to じた form?

In WWWDJIC, it gives 気を散じた as
• 気 【き; げ】 (き) (n) spirit; mood; (げ) (suf) (uk) seeming; giving the appearance of; giving one the feeling of
• Possible inflected verb or adjective: (plain, past)
散じる 【さんじる】 (v1) (1) to scatter; to disperse; (2) to chase away

I got this 散ずる from goo 辞書 now, I think no. 4 is what it is in that context.

I think "timid" might be a better translation for 卑屈

なるほどね。 The story continues with Keiki keeps on encouraging him by saying 「謝ることはありません。泰麒には分からなくても無理はないのですから。」. I think being a 10 years old boy, Taiki must have lots of question marks in his mind as to why he was actually a Kirin, he probably also really worries that he has been asking a lot of questions.

[spin13]

I have tried looking up 気にする、気がする, but never realized that 気を散じた was formed in this way. Thanks for pointing this out. By the way, I've also tried searching 散ずる in ALC and Tangorin, but it shows no results. How do you know this ずる form and how does it turn to じた form?

I got this 散ずる from goo 辞書 now, I think no. 4 is what it is in that context.

The definition of 気が散る courtesy of 大辞泉. 気を散ずる = 気が散る.

Both ずる and じる are derivatives of する. The former is simply a voiced version, while the latter is a modern version of the first. They conjugate as follows:

する
未然形 し
連用形 し
連体形 する
已然形 すれ
命令形 せ, し, せい

ずる
未然形 じ, ぜ
連用形 じ
連体形 ずる
已然形 ずれ
命令形 ぜ, ぜい

じる
未然形 じ
連用形 じ
連体形 じる
已然形 じれ
命令形 じ

ずる and じる attach to lone on-yomi. Some of these verbs are incredibly common (感じる、通じる、信じる、応じる、演じる). Though use of じる is much more common in modern Japanese, you can use the two interchangeably. Most J-J dictionaries will point the ～じる form right back to the ～ずる form.

[ss]

Gotcha, thank you, Eric.


**
1級合格、おめでとうございます。良かったですね。