あんまり、滅多なもの好物になるなよ


I've been trying my hand at translating a small game on my own (Touhou 6) and
stumbled upon a line I can't quite wrap my head around, so I figured I'd ask
for some opinions. I'll just go ahead and post the important part of the
dialogue the line appears in:

> 咲夜「ちなみに、ケーキには希少品が入っています」  
>  魔理沙「何入れたんだよ(^^;)」  
>  咲夜「竹の花とか」

Afterwards it goes on:

> レミリア「今日のおやつは何？」  
>  咲夜「希少品です」  
>  レミリア「わーい、大好物ね」  
>  魔理沙「 **あんまり、滅多なもの好物になるなよ** （汗）」

In case anybody wants the full script, you can view it
[here](https://pt.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Embodiment_of_Scarlet_Devil:_Finais).

Obviously the bolded part is what I'm struggling with. First off, I assume
that 「滅多なもの」in this case is supposed to mean 'rare (food)stuff'; a dictionary
gives me following definition for the word 「滅多」:

> １ 思慮の浅いさま。軽率であるさま。「滅多なことを言って怒らせてはまずい」  
>  ２ ごく当たり前であるさま。並大抵。「滅多なことでは驚かない」  
>  ３ 度を越しているさま。むやみ。  
>  「―に高価なる洋服を被り」〈逍遥・当世書生気質〉  
>  ４ （多く「めったに」の形で、あとに打消しの語を伴って）まれにしかしないさま。まれにしか起こらないさま。「滅多に外出しない」「滅多に姿を見せない」

I assume that this is just some peculiar way of expressing the idea of 'rare'
(piggybacking of the 「滅多に～ない」idea) deliberately chosen by the developer? None
of the other definitions seem to fit in this contexst but I'm not sure.

Then there's the question regarding「好物になるなよ」. I assume the「なよ」here is used as
a negative imperative, though I can't say I've ever seen it in conjunction
with「好物」. Considering that there's also an「あんまり」at the beginning of the
sentence, I guess the whole thing is (literally) meant to mean something like
"don't let rare stuff become your favorite food", though personally I'd go
with something like "don't get used to this sort of food".

But I could also be way off the mark and maybe I'm just parsing it wrong? The
series as a whole seems to have quite a few of these uniquely worded one-
liners, so maybe it's just me not being used to this sorts of expressions.

In any case, as always any help is welcome!




Your parsing is correct. ～が好物になる means "to come to like ～", and な is for
negative imperative. So "Don't get used to this sort of food" is basically
fine, but it lacks the meaning of 滅多な. Here I feel 滅多なもの has a mixed nuance of
度を越している and 軽率であるさま. So it's perhaps better to translate it like "Don't get
used to this sort of _odd_ food _lightly_ ".

I took a look at examples of 滅多なもの on the net and found it has two different
(or maybe contradictory) meanings depending on the context. In your case, it's
the latter, but the former is more common.

  1. mediocre, ordinary, commonplace 

>     * どこの魚市場でも同様であるが、お客さんのほとんどが魚関係のプロなので滅多なものは出せない
>     * ここは神域だから滅多なものは近づかないと思う
>     * こんな曲が地上波でかかることは滅多なものではない
>     * プロたちの中にも着ている人がいるし、滅多なものではないんだろうな

  2. (strange, odd, uncommon) + (lightly, casually, without thinking) 

>     * 滅多なものを身体に入れるのが怖い
>     * (to an alchemist) 身内だからって滅多なもの作らないでくださいね




Your parsing is correct. ～が好物になる means "to come to like ～", and な is for
negative imperative. So "Don't get used to this sort of food" is basically
fine, but it lacks the meaning of 滅多な. Here I feel 滅多なもの has a mixed nuance of
度を越している and 軽率であるさま. So it's perhaps better to translate it like "Don't get
used to this sort of _odd_ food _lightly_ ".

I took a look at examples of 滅多なもの on the net and found it has two different
(or maybe contradictory) meanings depending on the context. In your case, it's
the latter, but the former is more common.

  1. mediocre, ordinary, commonplace 

>     * どこの魚市場でも同様であるが、お客さんのほとんどが魚関係のプロなので滅多なものは出せない
>     * ここは神域だから滅多なものは近づかないと思う
>     * こんな曲が地上波でかかることは滅多なものではない
>     * プロたちの中にも着ている人がいるし、滅多なものではないんだろうな

  2. (strange, odd, uncommon) + (lightly, casually, without thinking) 

>     * 滅多なものを身体に入れるのが怖い
>     * (to an alchemist) 身内だからって滅多なもの作らないでくださいね

