よみうち英語Read the classics by typingNotes Scene 27: To Covent Garden
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Notes on this scene
Holmes and Watson hurry toward Covent Garden because the trail may save an innocent man from seven years' imprisonment. The scene establishes this development clearly and closes before the next step begins, preserving the original passage's order and the limits of what the characters know at this point.
Japanese in this scene
- とことん最後まで追ってみよう
- In とことん最後まで追ってみよう, まで marks the preceding item as the endpoint or outer limit reached in this statement.
- 彼はコートのボタンを留めながら続けた
- In 彼はコートのボタンを留めながら続けた, ながら links the action before it with the action or state that follows.
- おやすみなさい
- In おやすみなさい, おやすみなさい is the polite fixed farewell used when leaving someone for the night.
- この鎖の一方の端にはガチョウなどというありふれたものがあるが
- In ガチョウなどというありふれたもの, などという labels the goose as an example of something ordinary, with a slightly dismissive tone.
Background
- penal servitude
- Penal servitude combined imprisonment with hard labour and was imposed for serious crimes. Holmes warns that failure could condemn an innocent man to seven years of it.
Full text: original English and Japanese translation
"Indeed? I know some of them. Which was it?"
「そうですか。何人かは知っていますよ。どの人です？」
"Breckinridge is his name."
「ブレッキンリッジって名前です」
"Ah! I don't know him. Well, here's your good health landlord, and prosperity to your house. Good-night."
「ああ！その人は知りませんね。では、ご主人の健康と、この店の繁盛を祈って乾杯。おやすみなさい」
"Now for Mr. Breckinridge," he continued, buttoning up his coat as we came out into the frosty air. "Remember, Watson that though we have so homely a thing as a goose at one end of this chain, we have at the other a man who will certainly get seven years' penal servitude unless we can establish his innocence. It is possible that our inquiry may but confirm his guilt; but, in any case, we have a line of investigation which has been missed by the police, and which a singular chance has placed in our hands. Let us follow it out to the bitter end. Faces to the south, then, and quick march!"
「さて、次はブレッキンリッジ氏だ」と、凍てつく夜気の中へ出ると、彼はコートのボタンを留めながら続けた。「いいかね、ワトソン、この鎖の一方の端にはガチョウなどというありふれたものがあるが、もう一方の端には、私たちが無実を証明できなければ間違いなく七年の懲役を受ける男がいるのだ。私たちの調べは、彼の有罪を裏づけるだけに終わるかもしれない。だが、いずれにせよ、私たちは警察が見落とした捜査の筋を、奇妙な偶然のおかげで手にしているのだ。とことん最後まで追ってみよう。では、南へ向かって、早足、進め！」