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- 「肉を咥えた犬が端を渡っていました。」
- 「肉を咥える犬が」
- “a dog that was holding meat in its mouth”
- descriptive clause made by reversing a logical clause
- 「箸を渡っていました」
- “was in the process of crossing a bridge”
- 「ふと下を見ると、川の中にも肉を咥えた犬がいます。」
- this sentence is in the non-past tense (unlike the first one) and this can give a sense of immediacy
- 「ふと下を見ると」
- “suddenly, (the dog) looked down”
- this 「と」 is the conditional connective
- 「川の中にも」
- “also in the middle of the river”
- 「犬はそれを見て思いました。」
- 「犬」 is now marked by 「は」 instead of 「が」 because it has already been introduced and is now referred to as “the dog” instead of “a dog”
- “the dog saw that and thought”
- 「あいつの肉のほうが大きいそうだ。」
- “the side of that guy’s 肉 (as opposed to mine) looks bigger”
- 「犬は悔しくてたまりません。」
- 「犬は悔しくて」
- 「たまりません」
- “(was annoyed) to an unbearable degree”
- 「そうだ、あいつを脅かしてあの肉を取ってやろう。」
- 「あいつを脅かして」
- “I’m going to scare him and”
- 「あの肉を取ってやろう」
- 「そこで、犬は川の中の犬に向かって思いっきり吠えました。」
- “thereupon, the dog faced toward the dog in the middle of the river and barked single-mindedly”
- 「そのたたん、咥えていた肉はポチャンと川の中に落ちてしまいました。」
- “at that moment, the meat that was being held in the mouth done fell into the middle of the river and made a splashing sound”
- 「川の中には、がっかりした犬の顔が映っています。」
- “inside the river, the face of a sad dog is being reflected”
- 「さっきの川の中の犬は水に映った自分の顔だったのです。」
- “it is that the dog that was just in the river earlier was one’s own face reflected in the water”
- 「同じ物を持っていても人が持っている物のほうが良く見え、また欲張ると結局損をするというお話です。」
- the い stem of a verb can be used like the て form (especially in literally contexts) as a connector
- “even if having the same thing, the things that (other) people have seem better”
- “also, if one is full of desire, they will suffer a loss in the end”
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