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】
学校を抜け出したことを校長に遠回しにとがめられ、さらにそのあと出会った山嵐にも注意されてすっかり腹を立てた主人公は、まっすぐ宿直室に戻ります。
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Chuck that "Am-I-wrong-to-understand"! Two hours ago, did he not say to me "You're on first night watch to-night. Now, take care of yourself?" What makes one use such a roundabout, twisted way of saying anything when he becomes a principal? I was far from smiling.
"Yes, Sir," I said, "I'm night watch to-night, and as I am night watch I will return to the school and stay there overnight, sure." With this parting shot, I left him where we met. Coming then to the cross-streets of Katamachi, I met Porcupine. This is a narrow place, I tell you. Whenever one ventures out, he is sure to come across some familiar face.
"Say, aren't you night watch?" he hallooed, and I said "Yes, I am." "Tis wrong for night watch to leave his post at his pleasure," he added, and to this I blurted out with a bold front; "Nothing wrong at all. It is wrong not to go out."
"Say, old man, your slap-dash is going to the limit. Wouldn't look well for the principal or the head teacher to see you out like this."
The submissive tone of his remark was contrary to Porcupine as I had known him so far, so I cut him short by saying:
"I have met the principal just now. Why, he approved my taking a stroll about the town. Said it would be hard on night watch unless he took a walk when it is hot." Then I made a bee-line for the school.
Soon it was night. I called the janitor to my room and had a chat for about two hours. I grew tired of this, and thought I would get into bed anyway, even if I could not sleep. I put on my night shirt, lifted the mosquito-net, rolled off the red blanket and fell down flat on my back with a bang. The making of this bumping noise when I go to bed is my habit from my boyhood. "It is a bad habit," once declared a student of a law school who lived on the ground floor, and I on the second, when I was in the boarding house at Ogawa-machi, Kanda-ku, and who brought complaints to my room in person. Students of law schools, weaklings as they are, have double the ability of ordinary persons when it comes to talking. As this student of law dwelt long on absurd accusations, I downed him by answering that the noise made when I went to bed was not the fault of my hip, but that of the house which was not built on a solid base, and that if he had any fuss to make, make it to the house, not to me. This room for night watch was not on the second floor, so nobody cared how much I banged. I do not feel well-rested unless I go to bed with the loudest bang I can make.
chuck that (…だなんて)やめろ、よせ
parting shot 捨て台詞
Katamachi 竪町(地名の読み間違い。正しくは「たてまち」)
come across …にでくわす
blurt out だしぬけに言う
bold front 大胆な態度
slap-dash でたらめ、行き当たりばったり
make a bee-line for 一直線に進む、最短距離で向かう
mosquito-net 蚊帳
weakling 弱虫
dwell on 長々と論ずる
accusation 非難、言いがかり
夏目漱石による原文は
こちら。
*** 慣用句を覚えよう ***
Ear(耳)‐2
eat [drink] (something) till [until] it comes out of one's ears
食べ(飲み)すぎる
fall on deaf ears
耳を傾けられない、馬の耳に念仏である
from ear to ear
顔中で(笑う)
give one's ears
犠牲をいとわない
go in (through) one ear and out (of) the other
go in (at) one ear and out (at) the other
印象(感銘)を与えない、馬耳東風と聞き流される
have ... coming out of one's ears
あり余るほどの…をもっている
have nothing between one's ear
愚かだ、軽薄な顔つきをしている
have something between one's ear
賢明だ、賢明な顔つきをしている
keep [hold, have] an ear [one's ear(s)] (close) to the ground
世の中(世論)の動きに注意を払う、いろいろなうわさを聞きのがさないようにする
lay back one's ears
全速力で走る
【参考】
▽
青空文庫