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Tip to the people who thought 覚えている meant “remembering”. Although “いる” after the “て-form” can mean an action is taking place: “食べている” (eating) it can also mean something occurred and is now in that state: “姉さんは来ている” (My older sister is here) or literally (My older sister came and exists). For 覚えている in this sentence it means: “Recalled and exist” or “in a state of remembering”. But, in English we say “remember” with the same effect.
That is what I find interesting about Japanese. In Japanese they designate things that are just assumed or felt in English, or add extra details – interesting details not over the top like English’s pronoun-centric-ness – that is left out in English. しまう is a good example of this. “I forgot.” in Japanese could be written – ignoring other politeness levels and slang – either as “忘れた” or as “忘れてしまった”. The first one is the basic past tense of “to forget” which would get your point across, but the second one tells you that with the added feeling of it being an unintentional or regrettable action.
I just love the Japanese language! ;3
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This reply was modified 13 years, 3 months ago by
Drayomi. Reason: 4th stupid typo
Ok, I’m going to first post the answers I came up with myself and then look at the correct answers and compare them.
1. I’d say, there is a good chance that the person in question is a man, because he is using 僕 to refer to himself
2. I think that the second 僕 is actually part of 「僕が生まれった日」.
3. I’d translate 「生まれた日」 as “day when was born”. If this translation is correct then 「僕が生まれった日」 should mean “The day when I was born”.
4. I’d translate the whole sentence as “I’m thinking of the day when I was born.” While the first meaning of 「覚える」 is “to memorize”, “I’m memorizing of the day when I was born.” wouldn’t make much sense, neither would “I’m picking up the day when I was born.”, nor “I’m feeling the day when I was born.”, so that leaves us with “I’m thinking of the day when I was born.”
Time to check the answers!
[update]
Well, my first answer seems close enough to me. More so for the second and the third ones.
The fourth answer… All right, here is where I’ve failed. I’ve totally forgot that 「覚える」 can also mean “to remember”… Oh well, now I’ve memorized this meaning and will remember it.-
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