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】
蕎麦や団子を食べることは中学教師にふさわしくない娯楽だと言われた主人公は、それなら雇う前に言うべきだと腹を立てます。
●----------------------------------------------------------
My "think box" is not of superior quality, so things said by Badger were not clear to me, but I thought if a fellow can't hold the job of teacher in a middle school because he patronizes a noodle-house or dango shop, the fellow with bear-like appetite like me will never be able to hold it. If it was the case, they ought to have specified when calling for a teacher one who does not eat noodle and dango. To give an appointment without reference to the matter at first, and then to proclaim that noodle or dango should not be eaten was a blow to a fellow like me who has no other petty hobby. Then Red Shirt again opened his mouth.
"Teachers of the middle school belong to the upper class of society and they should not be looking after material pleasures only, for it would eventually have effect upon their personal character. But we are human, and it would be intolerable in a small town like this to live without any means of affording some pleasure to ourselves, such as fishing, reading literary products, composing new style poems, or haiku (17-syllable poem). We should seek mental consolation of higher order." There seemed no prospect that he would quit the hot air. If it was a mental consolation to fish fertilisers on the sea, have goruki for Russian literature, or to pose a favorite geisha beneath pine tree, it would be quite as much a mental consolation to eat tempura noodle and swallow dango. Instead of dwelling on such sham consolations, he would find his time better spent by washing his red shirts. I became so exasperated that I asked; "Is it also a mental consolation to meet the Madonna?" No one laughed this time and looked at each other with queer faces, and Red Shirt himself hung his head, apparently embarrassed. Look at that! A good shot, eh? Only I was sorry for Hubbard Squash who, having heard the remark, became still paler.
consolation 慰め（原文では「娯楽」）
hot air 怪気炎、たわごと（原文では「熱を吹く」）
sham 粗悪な、にせの、ごまかしの
夏目漱石による原文はこちら。
＊＊＊ 慣用句を覚えよう ＊＊＊
Leg（脚）－３
pull someone's leg
人をからかう、（いたずら･冗談で）人をだます、一杯食わせる
Pull the other leg [one] (, it's got bells on it)
（見え透いているよ、）もう少しもっともらしいことを言え
run [rush] someone (clean) off his legs [feet]
人を忙しく駆けずりまわらせる（立ち働かせる）
shake a leg
急ぐ、さっさと始める
show a leg
（ベッドから）起きる、起き出す
straight as [like] a dog's back [hind] leg
ひん曲がっている
take to one's legs (= run away)
逃げ出す
talk the hind leg(s) off a donkey [mule]
talk a donkey's [horse's] hind leg off
のべつ幕なしにしゃべる
try it on the other leg
奥の手を出す
walk one's legs off
歩き疲れる
with legs
足が生えた（飛ぶ）ように（売れる）
without a leg to stand on
よって立つべき基礎を欠いて
【参考】
▽青空文庫
