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I'm not certain why the の is in the 2nd sentence:

「それから、おれのくちばしやつめを見ろ。そして、よくお前のとくらべて見るがいい。」 「鷹さん。それはあんまり無理です。」

It seems like the meaning should be "And then, often you are compared with [me] and you look good."

But if that's right, then the の seems unnecessary. (Shouldn't お前とくらべて = "you are compared with [me]?)

So, I guess the の is saying that the comparison itself belongs to お前?
e.g.
"And then, often [there is the] comparison of you with [me] and you look good."
or
"And then, often [there is] your comparison with [me] and you look good.

Are either of those right?

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    前文も示してください。「おれのくちばしやつめを見ろ。そして、よくお前のとくらべて見るがいい。」ですよね。「そして、それらを(=俺のくちばしや爪を)、お前のとよく比べて見るがいい。」ってことですよね。前文を書いてくれなくちゃ 、「くらべてみる」の目的語が何かわからない。If you do not show the previous sentence, we can not know what's the object of くらべてみる.
    – Chocolate ♦
    Feb 24, 2018 at 1:02
  • Fair point. I didn't want to clutter the post with a wall of text (I thought it would be distracting). I assumed that "[me]" would be enough for the purpose of recognizing an implied comparison to the speaker. (Unless I was wrong, and お前 isn't being compared to the speaker). I'll include more context next time.
    – Hyperglyph
    Feb 24, 2018 at 1:47
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    ^ macky 完全 ? 「俺の(もの)を お前の(もの) とくらべてみろ」ですよ？　"Compare mine with yours" ですよ？ "You should have a good look at yours " じゃないでしょう。"Look at my beak and nails. And compare them (= mine ) with yours carefully." じゃないんですか。鷹は夜だかに「俺のを見ろ」って言ってんです。「お前のを見ろ」って言ってんじゃないんです。前文がないと、 誰のものをお前のと比べてみろ、って言ってるかわかんないです。
    – Chocolate ♦
    Feb 24, 2018 at 3:23
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    ^ Huh? It's saying "Look at mine. And you should compare them with yours." 「俺のを見ろ。そしてお前のと比べろ。」. It's not the same as "Look at mine. And you should have a good look at yours."
    – Chocolate ♦
    Feb 24, 2018 at 5:12
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    And, saying 「もの」が省略されたものです is inaccurate; the の's in 俺のと比べろ and 俺のものと比べろ are not the same thing, to begin with. The former is 準体助詞, eg 彼女の hers, 大きいのが欲しい I want the big one, さっき来たのは誰？ (examples from 明鏡国語辞典), whereas the latter is the genitive case particle (属格助詞).
    – Chocolate ♦
    Feb 24, 2018 at 6:02

1 Answer 1

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お前の stands on its own and means 'yours'. The の doesn't join お前 to the following words as you seem to suggest. So お前のとくらべる is 'compare (mine) with yours', where 'mine' is implicit.

For the verb+がいい part have a read of this post.

verb-て見る is 'try doing verb' in this case (see @chocolate's comment below for why 見る is in kanji)

Finally (unless context suggests otherwise) I'd be more inclined to think that よく meant 'well' rather than 'often'.

Maybe I'd translate the whole thinks as something like:

You should carefully/thoroughly compare (mine) with yours.

where よく is carefully/thoroughly, or some word that implies that the comparison is done 'well'.

Thanks to @chocolate for helping to improve my answer.

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    So the の isn't indicating a specific possession since it isn't followed by a noun, right? It's just "of you/yours." Therefore, a more literal translation would be "And then, [it is] nicely [done] [that] you compare yours with [mine] and to look [is] good." Or more creatively, "You should take a good look, and compare yours with mine." Right?
    – Hyperglyph
    Feb 23, 2018 at 22:18
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    You should have a good look at yours. -- The context was added: 「おれのくちばしやつめを見ろ。そして、よくお前のとくらべて見るがいい。」 So it means 「そして、 それらを(=俺のくちばしや爪を)、お前のとよく比べてみるがいい。」"And, you should try comparing them (= mine) with yours carefully." になりません？
    – Chocolate ♦
    Feb 24, 2018 at 5:53
  • @Chocolate Without context I was guessing a situation that might have gone like: "Your skills are rubbish". "Yeah? Well you should take a good look at yours". In this case the comparison is implied. Possibly I extrapolated a bit too much, but I still think your translation and mine have very similar meaning. I'm happy to change my translation to something more literal if you think it will improve the answer.
    – user3856370
    Feb 24, 2018 at 7:29
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    I think you should at least show the basic grammatical structure of this sentence to the OP by pointing out that 1) くらべてみる used here is 「くらべて+ subsidiary verb みる」 "try comparing", not "compare and look" (宮沢賢治 often writes subsidiary verbs/補助動詞 in Kanji, eg 飛んで行く, 出て来ない) since OP is misreading that part as "compare yours with [mine] and to look..." "You should take a good look , and compare...", 2) the object of the くらべてみる is not お前の/yours but 俺のくちばしや爪 which is omitted/implied, since OP is misreading this part, too, as "compare yours with mine".
    – Chocolate ♦
    Feb 27, 2018 at 15:54
  • @Chocolate thanks for your comments. I've made some updates.
    – user3856370
    Feb 27, 2018 at 16:25

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