よみうち英語Read the classics by typingNotes Scene 43: Dusk on Serpentine Avenue
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Notes on this scene
Holmes and Watson arrive ten minutes before seven and wait outside Adler’s house as dusk falls. The building matches Holmes’s description, but the area is less secluded than Watson expected. Loiterers, a grinder, soldiers talking to a nursemaid, and well-dressed young men give the small street a surprisingly lively appearance.
Japanese in this scene
- 行きつ戻りつ
- The literary pattern つ … つ describes alternating actions. 行きつ戻りつ means walking back and forth.
- それどころか
- それどころか overturns the preceding expectation: “on the contrary.” The street is far from deserted.
- にしては
- にしては compares reality with what a category would lead one to expect: “considering it is.” The quiet neighborhood seems unusually busy.
Background
- Gas lamps and lamplighters
- London street lighting was mainly gas. At evening, lamplighters went around lighting each lamp individually. “Lamps were just being lighted” captures that dusk scene.
Full text: original English and Japanese translation
It was a quarter past six when we left Baker Street, and it still wanted ten minutes to the hour when we found ourselves in Serpentine Avenue. It was already dusk, and the lamps were just being lighted as we paced up and down in front of Briony Lodge, waiting for the coming of its occupant. The house was just such as I had pictured it from Sherlock Holmes' succinct description, but the locality appeared to be less private than I expected. On the contrary, for a small street in a quiet neighbourhood, it was remarkably animated. There was a group of shabbily dressed men smoking and laughing in a corner, a scissors-grinder with his wheel, two guardsmen who were flirting with a nurse-girl, and several well-dressed young men who were lounging up and down with cigars in their mouths.
私たちがベイカー街を出たのは六時十五分で、サーペンタイン通りに着いたときは、まだ七時の十分前だった。すでに夕闇が迫っており、私たちがブライオニー荘の前を行きつ戻りつしながら住人の帰りを待つうちに、ちょうど街灯がともされはじめた。家はシャーロック・ホームズの簡潔な説明から思い描いていたとおりだったが、あたりは予想していたほど人目のない場所ではなさそうだった。それどころか、閑静な界隈の小さな通りにしては、驚くほどにぎわっていた。角ではみすぼらしい身なりの男たちがたばこを吸いながら笑い合い、ほかにも砥石車を据えた研ぎ屋、子守娘に言い寄る二人の近衛兵、それに葉巻をくわえてぶらぶらと行き来する身なりのよい若者が何人かいた。