Super Mario 64 1-3

Star #3 - 空の島迄打っ飛べ >　そらのしままでぶっとべ　>　Sora no shima made buttobe > Fire Towards the Island of the Sky

The third challenge was officially localized as "Shoot to the Island in the Sky". Besides running around such huge fields and crawling up slippery hills early on, using the friendly Pink Bomb-ombs’ cannons to fling Mario hundreds of feet through the air was really something.  This phrase introduces まで, which is a particularly important grammar particle.

1. 空 > そら > Sora > Sky

Depicting the open space under the roof of a building (穴) of where work is being performed (工), the そら (sora) reading broadly means the empty space that is the sky itself.   When paired with another Kanji, 空 will often use the reading くう (Kuu). An example from a Mario game would be combining　空　with  the character 中 (Middle) and ステージ　(stage) to create 空中ステージ　＞　くうちゅうステージ　＞ Kuuchuu sute-ji > Mid-Air Stage.

2. の > No > Possessive particle

Here, the の specifies “island of the sky”. Who's putting stuff in the sky anyway? Since the NES, Mario games have always had all sorts of objects randomly suspended in the air. But now in 3D space, it looks especially fantastical.

3. 島 > しま > Shima > Island

A bird (鳥) over a relatively small mountain (山), meant to depict the frequent occurrence of birds flying over an island. When focused on gathering all the regular coins surrounding the island mid-air, I wish I was a humming bird rather than the fleeting and blissful, but somewhat unwieldy wing-cap Mario.

4.　迄 >まで > Made > Until, up to

This particle is important as it specifies the limit of where an action extends within space, time or numbers. The まで is telling you to aim exactly towards the island of the sky, not overshoot and go back down with the goombas.

5.　打っ飛べ >　ぶっとべ > Buttobe > To send flying 

Having many similarly violent meanings, here “buttobe” signifies Mario is to be flung somewhere. The first character depicts strike/hit (打), while the second one means to fly or leap (飛). 

Two tricky parts:

The tiny “tsu” (っ) has no sound itself, but is used to link two verbs with a brief sustained pause in speech. You’re almost trying to “stick” the two verbs together by pausing at the “t”: butto. It’s important to pay attention to this, as the pause can create a completely different word. Example:　切手> きって > Kitte > Stamp or  来て> きて > Kite > Come

Finally, the presence of べ is important as its part of the essential verb root which spells out “fly.” 

Processing all that may feel like you mistakenly shot yourself right under that giant floating rock. But, for the sake of the power stars and your own Japanese, please aim to understand this just as you aimed for the island x number of times: 空の島迄打っ飛べ >　そらのしままでぶっとべ　>　Sora no shima made buttobe > Fire Towards the Island of the Sky

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