The Last Samurai (39 page)

Authors: Helen de Witt

sagashitetanda
contraction of
sagashite ita
, I was searching, contraction of
no da
it is a fact that,
no
nominalising particle
da
verb to be
zo
sentence-final particle expressing strong exclamation generally used only by male speakers, I said even faster

kore o
this object particle
misey
ō
plain volitional I’d like to show
to
, quotative particle applying to previous phrase,
omotte na
present participle of
omou
to think plus
na
emphatic particle, i.e. thinking that I’d like to show you this—

I know all those words, said Sib.

Well, do you want me to just write it down for you? I said. I wrote down a few lines and Sib said I might not be aware of it but writing was generally considered a means of communication & my handwriting in Japanese was even more enigmatic than the scripts I had introduced to English, Greek, Arabic, Hebrew, Bengali, Russian, Armenian and other languages too numerous to enumerate.

, I said,
kore o miro