This is my favorite book in winter, I always enjoy this original version, and Japanese version.The skies are gray. The rooftops are gray. The whole city is gray.
Then one snowflake.
---in Japanese version, it is translated "HITOHIRA NO YUKI". "HITOHIRA", it sounds really romantic for Japanese.
"It's snowing,"said boy with dog.
"It's only a snowflake" said grandfather with beard.
Then two snowflakes.
"It's snowing,"said boy with dog.
"It's nothing", said man with hat.
--Recently, I noticed, where are articles?
said the boy with his/ a dog
said a man with a hat
Why are they omitted? It is correct ? Is there a special meaning?
Well, it is cloudy today, but not so cold, so it seems to start raining, not snowing.
5 comments:
I wrote a dismissive comment before, but I'll modify it: it isn't correct, but the author did it on purpose. I assume he was trying to represent a child's way of thinking. Kids don't think in complete sentences, but in impressions: they see a man and a hat and don't see the need to link them grammatically. He was also cutting down text to a minimum to showcase the drawings. It does bother me, though--I wouldn't want my children to mimic the pattern after reading it.
Thanks Tamara, "a child's way"-- this answer is really clear for me.
Anyway the pictures of this book are really beautiful, and the translation in Japanese is really wonderful.
I think the English you quoted sounds very strange. I haven't read the entire book but it seems that the phrases without articles are the "names" of the people. So I guess it's like in Japanese when you call an old man whose name you don't know "gramps" even if he is not your grandfather.
The book won an award for it's illustrations. But like Tamara, I wouldn't have chosen it for my own son because of the odd language. Even nonsense books use correct grammar; in fact, they are used to teach grammar, and rhythm and pronunciation. Look at the wonderful Beatrix Potter books. The language is beautiful, poetic, and sometimes difficult.
Beatrix Potter, she is really famous for creating Peter Rabbit, isn't it?
Anway the pictures of "SNOW" are really beautiful, and translated in lots of foreign languages, including Japanese. And the Japanese sentences are beautiful.
Hmm, it is difficult to chose English picture books for me, but fun.
I'm really happy to get such concrete comments .
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