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】
山嵐に言われて下宿を出ることにしたものの行く当てのない主人公は、新たな下宿先を探すために英語教師うらなり(古賀)の家を訪ねます。
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CHAPTER VII.
That very night I left the boarding house. While I was packing up, the boss came to me and asked if there was anything wrong in the way I was treated. He said he would be pleased to correct it and suit me if I was sore at anything. This beats me, sure. How is it possible for so many boneheads to be in this world! I could not tell whether they wanted me to stay or get out. They're crazy. It would be disgrace for a Yedo kid to fuss about with such a fellow; so I hired a rikishaman and speedily left the house.
I got out of the house all right, but had no place to go. The rikishaman asked me where I was going. I told him to follow me with his mouth shut, then he shall see and I kept on walking. I thought of going to Yamashiro-ya to avoid the trouble of hunting up a new boarding house, but as I had no prospect of being able to stay there long, I would have to renew the hunt sooner or later, so I gave up the idea. If I continued walking this way, I thought I might strike a house with the sign of "boarders taken" or something similar, and I would consider the first house with the sign the one provided for me by Heaven. I kept on going round and round through the quiet, decent part of the town when I found myself at Kajimachi. This used to be former samurai quarters where one had the least chance of finding any boarding house, and I was going to retreat to a more lively part of the town when a good idea occurred to me. Hubbard Squash whom I respected lived in this part of the town. He is a native of the town, and has lived in the house inherited from his great grandfather. He must be, I thought, well informed about nearly everything in this town. If I call on him for his help, he will perhaps find me a good boarding house. Fortunately, I called at his house once before, and there was no trouble in finding it out. I knocked at the door of a house, which I knew must be his, and a woman about fifty years old with an old fashioned paper-lantern in hand, appeared at the door. I do not despise young women, but when I see an aged woman, I feel much more solicitous. This is probably because I am so fond of Kiyo. This aged lady, who looked well-refined, was certainly mother of Hubbard Squash whom she resembled. She invited me inside, but I asked her to call him out for me. When he came I told him all the circumstances, and asked him if he knew any who would take me for a boarder. Hubbard Squash thought for a moment in a sympathetic mood, then said there was an old couple called Hagino, living in the rear of the street, who had asked him sometime ago to get some boarders for them as there are only two in the house and they had some vacant rooms. Hubbard Squash was kind enough to go along with me and find out if the rooms were vacant. They were.
pack up 荷造りする
bonehead まぬけ
strike 発見する、行き当たる
solicitous 気にかける、気遣う
夏目漱石による原文は
こちら。
*** 慣用句を覚えよう ***
Knee(膝)
at one's mother's knees
母のひざもとで、子供の時に
bend [bow] the knee to [before] ...
…に敬意を表する、…にひざを折って嘆願する、…に屈服する
bring [beat] someone to his knees
人を屈服させる
cut someone off at the knees
人を無能力にする、無力化する、ギャフンと言わせる
drop the knee
fall [go (down)] on [to] one's knees
ひざまずく、ひざを屈する、ひざまずいて嘆願する(拝む)
knee to knee
ぴったり並んで(=knee by knee)、ひざ突き合わせて
on bended knee(s)
on one's knees
1.(崇拝・嘆願・服従のため)ひざまずいて、低姿勢で
2.疲れはてて、弱って、つぶれそうで
on the knees [in the lap] of the gods
人力の及ばない、不確かな、未定の
put someone across one's knee
(子供などを)横ざまにひざに載せて(尻を)ひっぱたく
up to the [one's] knees
knee-deep
ひざまでの深さ(高さ)の、熱中して、深くはまって、忙殺されて
weak at the knees
ひざががくがくして、(急に)腰が抜けて、へなへなになって
【参考】
▽
青空文庫