Japanese with Manga

Taking rice balls to Sadao with にぎり飯

Vocabulary Explanation: Collocations for cooking

Hinata, seen from behind in a straw hat, stands with her hands pressed together in front of a small wooden roadside shrine. Inside sits a stone statue of the rice-field god, with flowers and a round offering at its feet.
老女的少女ひなたちゃん » Volume 2 » Page 27

Hinata lived her first life as an old woman, and she misses her grandson Sadao, whom she hasn’t seen in over six years. She packs a lunch and sets out by bicycle for her old home to see him. After a long ride she notices it’s already noon, and she stops at a roadside shrine to the god of the rice fields.

ひなた:
「これからこの美味(おい)しいにぎり飯(めし)をサダヲにも届(とど)けますんで」
“I'm off to take these delicious rice balls to Sadao too,”
Literal: “From now, I will deliver this delicious rice ball to Sadao too, so...”
「田(た)の神(かみ)さぁ　見(み)ててくんな」
“...watch over me, god of the fields.”

Key Points

1にぎり飯(めし) = rice ball
  • にぎり飯(めし) is rice pressed into a ball by hand. The にぎり comes from 握(にぎ)る, “to squeeze”, the same verb used in おにぎりを握(にぎ)る.
  • 飯(めし) is an older, rougher word for cooked rice or a meal than ご飯(はん). にぎり飯(めし) sounds old-fashioned next to おにぎり, which suits a speaker who was a grandmother in her first life.
2サダヲにも届(とど)けます = I’ll take it to Sadao too
  • 届(とど)ける means to deliver or bring something to someone. に marks who receives it.
  • も after に adds Sadao to the people who get the rice balls: “to Sadao too”.
  • これから means “from now”. With a ます verb, it announces what she is about to go do.
3Polite ます to a god
  • Hinata speaks plainly most of the time, but she switches to 届(とど)けます here. She is speaking to the god of the fields and shows respect.
  • 田(た)の神(かみ)さぁ is how she addresses him. さぁ is a rustic version of the honorific さま.
4〜んで = so, because
  • んで is a casual contraction of ので. 届(とど)けますんで is 届(とど)けますので, “since I’ll be delivering it”.
  • The reason comes first and the request second. In English, “so” fits better: “I’m taking these to Sadao, so watch over me.”
5見(み)ててくんな = please watch over me
  • 見(み)てて is 見(み)ていて, the て-form of 見(み)ている, with い dropped. It asks for continued watching, not a single look.
  • くんな here is a dialect request close to くれな or くださいな. It is not the prohibitive くるな, “don’t come”, which follows the plain form of くる.

Vocabulary

(From now on)

これから means starting from this moment, or later on in the future.

(This)

この means “this” or “these” and comes directly before a noun. It points to something near the speaker or something the speaker is referring to in the conversation.

(Delicious)

美味(おい)しい describes food or drink that tastes good.

(Rice ball)

にぎり飯(めし) is cooked rice pressed into a ball by hand. It is an older, homier word for おにぎり.

(To deliver)

届(とど)ける is to take something to someone. It also means to report something to an office, such as the police.

(God of the rice fields)

田(た)の神(かみ) is the god who watches over rice fields and the harvest. Farming villages honor it with roadside statues and festivals.

(To see)

見(み)る is to see, look at, or watch something. It also means to check or judge something, or to look after someone, as in 面倒(めんどう)を見(み)る.

See Also

老女的少女ひなたちゃん © its respective creators. It is used here for educational commentary.