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】
下宿の主人は、帰宅した主人公のお茶を勝手に飲みながら、趣味で書画骨董の蒐集を始めてはどうかと主人公に勧めます。
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"Talk to me only, if you want to. There are some queer guys around."
As we parted at the next corner, I did not have time to hear more from him.
On reaching my room, the boss of the house came to me saying, "Let me serve you tea." I expected he was going to treat me to some good tea since he said "Let me serve you," but he simply made himself at home and drank my own tea. Judging by this, I thought he might be practising "Let me serve you" during my absence. The boss said that he was fond of antique drawings and curios and finally had decided to start in that business.
"You look like one quite taken about art. Suppose you begin patronizing my business just for fun as er--connoisseur of art?"
It was the least expected kind of solicitation. Two years ago, I went to the Imperial Hotel (Tokyo) on an errand, and I was taken for a locksmith. When I went to see the Daibutsu at Kamakura, having wrapped up myself from head to toe with a blanket, a rikisha man addressed me as "Gov'ner." I have been mistaken on many occasions for as many things, but none so far has counted on me as a probable connoisseur of art. One should know better by my appearance. Any one who aspires to be a patron of art is usually pictured,--you may see in any drawing,--with either a hood on his head, or carrying a tanzaku[3] in his hand. The fellow who calls me a connoisseur of art and pretends to mean it, may be surely as crooked as a dog's hind legs. I told him I did not like such art-stuff, which is usually favored by retired people. He laughed, and remarking that that nobody liked it at first, but once in it, will find it so fascinating that he will hardly get over it, served tea for himself and drank it in a grotesque manner. I may say that I had asked him the night before to buy some tea for me, but I did not like such a bitter, heavy kind. One swallow seemed to act right on my stomach. I told him to buy a kind not so bitter as that, and he answered "All right, Sir," and drank another cup. The fellow seemed never to know of having enough of anything so long as it was another man's. After he left the room, I prepared for the morrow and went to bed.
[Footnote 3: A tanzaku is a long, narrow strip of stiff paper on which a Japanese poem is written.]
patronize ひいきにする
connoisseur 鑑定家、目利き
solicitation 勧誘
Imperial Hotel 帝国ホテル
locksmith 錠前師
blanket 原文ではケット(毛布類を羽織って防寒具とした)
tanzaku 短冊
crooked 不正直な、ひねくれた
grotesque へんてこな、怪奇な
夏目漱石による原文は
こちら。
*** 慣用句を覚えよう ***
Eye(目)‐2
if someone had half an eye
(人)がもう少し利口だったら
in the eyes of…
…の見るところでは
knock someone's eyes out
人の目をみはらせる、仰天させる
more (in [to]…) than meets the eye
(…における)見た目以上のもの(隠れた資質、困難、背後の理由、事実など)
not know where [which way] to turn one's eyes
ばつの悪い思いをする
one in the eye
ひと泡吹かせるもの、落胆のもと、負け
only have eyes for…
…にしか関心がない、…しか欲しない
pipe one's eye
put one's finger in one's eye
泣く
pull [draw] the wool over someone's eyes
人の目をくらます、だます
【参考】
▽
青空文庫