よみうち英語Read the classics by typingNotes Scene 46: A Friend in Kilburn
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Notes on this scene
Ryder considers taking the jewel to an ex-convict friend in Kilburn, then devises a way to hide it inside a goose. 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
- 彼の住むキルバーンまでまっすぐ行って
- In 彼の住むキルバーンまでまっすぐ行って, まで marks the preceding item as the endpoint or outer limit reached in this statement.
- ペントンヴィルで刑期を務めて出てきたばかりの男です
- In 務めて出てきたばかり, past-form verb + ばかり means ‘has only just come out’ after serving his sentence.
- けれども、どうすれば無事に彼のところまでたどり着けるでしょう
- Ryder asks 彼のところまでたどり着けるでしょう to mean ‘how can I safely reach him?’ Person + ところ refers to Maudsley's location, and まで marks it as the destination.
- けれども、どうすれば
- In けれども、どうすれば, けれども connects the following statement in contrast with what precedes it.
Background
- Pentonville
- Pentonville is a north London prison famous for keeping inmates separately in individual cells. Maudsley has only recently completed a sentence there.
Full text: original English and Japanese translation
"I had a friend once called Maudsley, who went to the bad, and has just been serving his time in Pentonville. One day he had met me, and fell into talk about the ways of thieves, and how they could get rid of what they stole. I knew that he would be true to me, for I knew one or two things about him; so I made up my mind to go right on to Kilburn, where he lived, and take him into my confidence. He would show me how to turn the stone into money. But how to get to him in safety? I thought of the agonies I had gone through in coming from the hotel. I might at any moment be seized and searched, and there would be the stone in my waistcoat pocket. I was leaning against the wall at the time and looking at the geese which were waddling about round my feet, and suddenly an idea came into my head which showed me how I could beat the best detective that ever lived.
「以前、モーズリーという友人がいました。道を踏み外して、ペントンヴィルで刑期を務めて出てきたばかりの男です。ある日その男に会ったとき、泥棒のやり口や、盗んだ物をどうやって処分するかという話になりました。私は彼の弱みを一つ二つ知っていましたから、裏切られる心配はありませんでした。そこで、彼の住むキルバーンまでまっすぐ行って、秘密を打ち明けようと心を決めたのです。彼なら、石を金に換える方法を教えてくれるはずでした。けれども、どうすれば無事に彼のところまでたどり着けるでしょう？ホテルからここへ来るまでに味わった、生きた心地もしない苦しみが思い出されました。いつ捕まって身体検査をされるか分かりません。そうなれば、チョッキのポケットから石が出てきてしまいます。そのとき私は塀にもたれて、足もとをよちよち歩き回るガチョウを眺めていましたが、ふと、この世でいちばんの名探偵でも出し抜ける方法が頭に浮かんだのです。