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】
うらなり（英語教師）に紹介してもらい、元士族である萩野の家に住むことになった主人公は、東京に残してきた清（下女）のことが気にかかります。
●----------------------------------------------------------
From that night I boarded at the house of the Haginos. What surprised me was that on the day after I left the house of Ikagin, Clown stepped in and took the room I had been occupying. Well used to all sorts of tricks and crooks as I might have been, this audacity fairly knocked me off my feet. It was sickening.
I saw that I would be an easy mark for such people unless I brace up and try to come up, or down, to their level. It would be a high time indeed for me to be alive if it were settled that I would not get three meals a day without living on the spoils of pick pockets. Nevertheless, to hang myself,--healthy and vigorous as I am,--would be not only inexcusable before my ancestors but a disgrace before the public. Now I think it over, it would have been better for me to have started something like a milk delivery route with that six hundred yen as capital, instead of learning such a useless stunt as mathematics at the School of Physics. If I had done so, Kiyo could have stayed with me, and I could have lived without worrying about her so far a distance away. While I was with her I did not notice it, but separated thus I appreciated Kiyo as a good-natured old woman. One could not find a noble natured woman like Kiyo everywhere. She was suffering from a slight cold when I left Tokyo and I wondered how she was getting on now? Kiyo must have been pleased when she received the letter from me the other day. By the way, I thought it was the time I was in receipt of answer from her. I spent two or three days with things like this in my mind. I was anxious about the answer, and asked the old lady of the house if any letter came from Tokyo for me, and each time she would appear sympathetic and say no. The couple here, being formerly of samurai class, unlike the Ikagin couple, were both refined. The old man's recital of "utai" in a queer voice at night was somewhat telling on my nerves, but it was much easier on me as he did not frequent my room like Ikagin with the remark of "let me serve you tea." The old lady once in a while would come to my room and chat on many things. She questioned me why I had not brought my wife with me. I asked her if I looked like one married, reminding her that I was only twenty four yet. Saying "it is proper for one to get married at twenty four" as a beginning, she recited that Mr. Blank married when he was twenty, that Mr. So-and-So has already two children at twenty two, and marshaled altogether about half a dozen examples,--quite a damper on my youthful theory. I will then get marred at twenty four, I said, and requested her to find me a good wife, and she asked me if I really meant it.
brace up 奮起する
spoils 略奪品（原文では「上前」）
pick pocket スリ
utai 謡（能・狂言などの歌唱）
tell on ~にこたえる、影響する
夏目漱石による原文はこちら。
＊＊＊ 慣用句を覚えよう ＊＊＊
Heel（かかと）‐１
at heels
すぐあとから、あとについて
at someone's heels
at the heels of someone
人のすぐあとに追い迫って.
bring [beat] someone to his knees
人を屈服させる
back on one's heels
大いに驚いて（当惑して）
bring ... to heel
（犬など）あとについて来させる、服従させる
come [keep] to heel
（黙って）従う、ついて行く
dig one's heels [feet, toes] in
自分の立場（意見）を固守する、頑として譲らない、決意を示す
down at (the) heel(s)
（靴が）かかとがつぶれて、（人が）みすぼらしいなりで、だらしなく
【参考】
▽青空文庫
