小説を読みながら、語彙を増やしましょう。
夏目漱石の小説『坊っちゃん』の原文と毛利八十太郎が英訳した “Botchan (Master Darling)” を併せて見ていきます。
【あらすじ】
清(きよ)に見送られて四国へと旅立った主人公ですが、慣れない田舎では目的地の中等学校に行き着くのも一苦労です。
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On the day of my departure, she came to my room early in the morning and helped me to pack up. She put into my carpet-bag tooth powder, tooth-brush and towels which she said she had bought at a dry goods store on her way. I protested that I did not want them, but she was insistent. We rode in rikishas to the station. Coming up the platform, she gazed at me from outside the car, and said in a low voice;
"This may be our last good-by. Take care of yourself."
Her eyes were full of tears. I did not cry, but was almost going to. After the train had run some distance, thinking it would be all right now, I poked my head out of the window and looked back. She was still there. She looked very small.
CHAPTER II.
With a long, sonorous whistle the steamer which I was aboard came to a standstill, and a boat was seen making toward us from the shore. The man rowing the boat was stark naked, except for a piece of red cloth girt round his loins. A barbarous place, this! though he may have been excused for it in such hot weather as it was. The sun's rays were strong and the water glimmered in such strange colors as to dazzle one's sight if gazed at it for long. I had been told by a clerk of the ship that I was to get off here. The place looked like a fishing village about the size of Omori. Great Scott! I wouldn't stay in such a hole, I thought, but I had to get out. So, down I jumped first into the boat, and I think five or six others followed me. After loading about four large boxes besides, the red-cloth rowed us ashore. When the boat struck the sand, I was again the first to jump out, and right away I accosted a skinny urchin standing nearby, asking him where the middle school was. The kid answered blankly that he did not know. Confound the dull-head! Not to know where the middle school was, living in such a tiny bit of a town. Then a man wearing a rig with short, queer shaped sleeves approached me and bade me follow. I walked after him and was taken to an inn called Minato-ya. The maids of the inn, who gave me a disagreeable impression, chorused at sight of me; "Please step inside." This discouraged me in proceeding further, and I asked them, standing at the door-way, to show me the middle school. On being told that the middle school was about four miles away by rail, I became still more discouraged at putting up there. I snatched my two valises from the man with queer-shaped sleeves who had guided me so far, and strode away. The people of the inn looked after me with a dazed expression.
carpet-bag カーペット地の旅行かばん
dry goods store 衣料品店(ここでは小間物屋の意)
sonorous 響きわたる
stark naked 真っ裸で
girt 腹帯(ここではふんどしの意)
barbarous 野蛮な
Great Scott! おやまあ、こいつは驚いた
hole ひどい町、うすぎたない場所
accost ことばをかけて近寄る
urchin 少年
confound ちくしょう、ちぇっ
dull-head うすのろ、まぬけ
rig 服装、身なり
chorus 異口同音に言う
valise 旅行かばん
夏目漱石による原文は
こちら。
*** 慣用句を覚えよう ***
Goose(ガチョウ)
kill the goose that lays [laid] the golden egg(s)
目先の利益に目がくらんで将来の利益を犠牲にする
cook somebody's goose
人の機会(計画、希望)をだいなしにする、チャンスをつぶす
The goose hangs [honks] high.
万事好都合だ、形勢がよい
shoe the goose
むだな事に時間を費やす(つぶす)
(as) loose as a goose
落ちついて、くつろいで
All his geese are swans.
彼は手前みそばかり並べる
What's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.
一方にあてはまることは他方にもあてはまる
goose bumps (gooseflesh)
鳥肌
【参考】
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青空文庫