Hello,
I'm reading 魔女の宅急便 and -I'm blushing while writing this, because I've found problems in the very first page *-_-*- although I understand the general meaning of what I'm reading, I've found some expressions that I cannot fully understand.
The book starts telling that once upon a time, there was a town that seemed to be like any other town anywhere, but that it has some "special features", such as some big trees having small bells hanging from them.
The sentences that says so is:
町の高い木という木のてっぺんにぶらさがっている銀色の鈴です。
From this, I can understand that there were little silver (or silver-coloured) bells hanging from the top of the tall trees in the town, but I cannot understand the use of "to iu" there...
But, my main problem is here... The book keeps on explaining that those bells sounded even when there was not any storm to move them, and when that happened, someone said...
「おや、おや、またちっちゃなキキが足をひっかけたね。」
I don't know what "ashi wo hikkakeru" means here. I've seen the film and I know that Kiki is a little witch and that she flies on her broom and, by the context, once it's said that the bells sounded loud even when there was no wind moving them, I can suppose that the bells ring because Kiki is flying near them or something similar but I'm not sure. Is there, maybe, any metaphorical meaning of this expression that I couldn't find out?
Again, thanks in advance!!
I'm reading 魔女の宅急便 and -I'm blushing while writing this, because I've found problems in the very first page *-_-*- although I understand the general meaning of what I'm reading, I've found some expressions that I cannot fully understand.
The book starts telling that once upon a time, there was a town that seemed to be like any other town anywhere, but that it has some "special features", such as some big trees having small bells hanging from them.
The sentences that says so is:
町の高い木という木のてっぺんにぶらさがっている銀色の鈴です。
From this, I can understand that there were little silver (or silver-coloured) bells hanging from the top of the tall trees in the town, but I cannot understand the use of "to iu" there...
But, my main problem is here... The book keeps on explaining that those bells sounded even when there was not any storm to move them, and when that happened, someone said...
「おや、おや、またちっちゃなキキが足をひっかけたね。」
I don't know what "ashi wo hikkakeru" means here. I've seen the film and I know that Kiki is a little witch and that she flies on her broom and, by the context, once it's said that the bells sounded loud even when there was no wind moving them, I can suppose that the bells ring because Kiki is flying near them or something similar but I'm not sure. Is there, maybe, any metaphorical meaning of this expression that I couldn't find out?
Again, thanks in advance!!
