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The title is self explanatory. I don't seem to understand this sentence as a whole. Can somebody please explain this word by word for me? Also what form is "振ってくれ" in? "振る" in this context means "to wave at someone".

Edit: I've just found out that the "くれ" at the and of the verb is basically the same as "下さい", it's just more casual. Now I only have problem with "僕の分".

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    What's the context? 振る has many meanings and it's not possible to translate this in isolation. And as a rule, we don't answer translation requests that does not show your research efforts.
    – naruto
    Commented Oct 12, 2018 at 16:13

2 Answers 2

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I know this question is a bit old, but since I came across this as a prominent Google hit when searching for help on the same thing, I figured I'd post a more complete answer for anybody else who comes along..

For context, the line in question appears to be from the "よつばと!" ("Yotsuba&!") manga, in the first volume, page 8 (3rd panel). Yotsuba and her father are driving in the car, and the full exchange is:

よつば: おねーちゃんが手ぇふった!とーちゃんもふれ!

とーちゃん: とーちゃん手がはなせないからな俺の分もよつばがふってくれ

The portion in question at the end breaks down to:

  • 俺 ("I"/"me") + の (posessive particle) + 分 ("part") ==> "my part"
  • も (particle) ==> "also"
  • よつば ("Yotsuba" (name)) + が (identifier/subject particle) ==> "you" (subject)
  • ふって (te-form of 振る: "to wave") + くれ (idiomatic form of 呉れる: "to do for someone") ==> "wave for me"

As you noted, くれ is related to 下さい; however, they are not really the same. ください is a special conjugation of くださる, which itself is the honorific form of くれる. くれ is a special idiomatic form of the (non-honorific) くれる, so the basic action (to do something for someone) is the same, but the politeness implications are very different. くれ is a (fairly masculine and informal) direct command, as opposed to a polite (honorific) request.

For more information on くれ and friends, you can read through Tae Kim's excellent page on making requests

As a side-note, I had originally read "とーちゃん手がはなせないからな" as "Daddy's hands can't speak right now" (which seemed a little poetic/idiomatic, but actually could make some sense when taking about waving to people, so I didn't think too much about it), but @Mauro pointed out that the verb "がはなせない" (はなす) there is probably not 話す (to say / to speak) but is actually 放す (to release / to let go) instead, which would make it more like "Daddy's hands can't let go (of the wheel) right now", which does make a bit more sense in context.

So in summary, the translation of the full exchange comes out to something like:

Yotsuba: The lady waved! Daddy, you wave too!

Father: Daddy's hands can't let go right now. You do my part of the waving too.

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    Is that はなす to be read as 話す? I read it 放す, since the father is driving, so "Daddy's hands can't let go [of the wheel] right now".
    – Mauro
    Commented Nov 20, 2019 at 9:28
  • @Mauro Oh, very good point.. I was not aware of that homonym (still learning too). Yes, 放す actually makes more sense in the context (though it is kinda neat that in this situation he could be saying either one and it sorta works.. That may even have been intentional?). I'll update my answer to reflect that..
    – Foogod
    Commented Nov 20, 2019 at 16:47
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Well... I think I just found the answer myself... I don't know why did I even post this, it became so clear now. The problem was that I thought "僕の分" is a physical part of one's body, rather than a part in performing some sort of action (God, it's so obvious now...). So, advice to others who are reading this: Read the sentence you have trouble with a couple of times and see if you can figure out the meaning. If you can't then, and only then post; don't be stupid like me.

To be sure, can someone confirm it?

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    No one can confirm this without enough context. 僕の分 roughly just means "mine", and it can refer to virtually anything depending on the context.
    – naruto
    Commented Oct 13, 2018 at 0:18

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