よみうち英語Read the classics by typingNotes Scene 16: Further Questions
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Notes on this scene
The coroner asks why McCarthy called before seeing James or knowing he had returned from Bristol. James cannot explain it. Questioned further, he remembers a vague gray object on the ground to his left, perhaps a coat or shawl. When he rose from beside his father and looked around, it had disappeared.
Japanese in this scene
- ことさえ知る前に
- さえ means ‘even.’ The clause 戻ったこと names James's return, and 知る前に places the call before his father even knew about it. The coroner stresses this unexpected timing.
- 何も考えられませんでした
- 考えられる is the potential form of 考える. Its polite past negative means ‘could not think.’ 何も with the negative emphasizes that nothing beyond his father occupied his mind.
- なくなっていました
- なくなる describes something becoming absent. 〜ていました presents the resulting situation at that past moment: the object was already gone when James looked around again.
Full text: original English and Japanese translation
"The Coroner: I understand that the cry of 'Cooee' was a common signal between you and your father?
検視官：『「クーイー」という呼び声は、あなたとお父さんの間で使う合図だったのですね。』
"Witness: It was.
証人：『そうです。』
"The Coroner: How was it, then, that he uttered it before he saw you, and before he even knew that you had returned from Bristol?
検視官：『それなら、お父さんがあなたを見る前に、しかもあなたがブリストルから戻ったことさえ知る前に、その声を上げたのはなぜですか。』
"Witness (with considerable confusion): I do not know.
証人（ひどく当惑して）：『分かりません。』
"A Juryman: Did you see nothing which aroused your suspicions when you returned on hearing the cry and found your father fatally injured?
陪審員：『叫び声を聞いて戻り、お父さんが致命傷を負っているのを見たとき、疑いを抱かせるものは何も見ませんでしたか。』
"Witness: Nothing definite.
証人：『はっきりしたものは何も。』
"The Coroner: What do you mean?
検視官：『どういう意味ですか。』
"Witness: I was so disturbed and excited as I rushed out into the open, that I could think of nothing except of my father. Yet I have a vague impression that as I ran forward something lay upon the ground to the left of me. It seemed to me to be something grey in colour, a coat of some sort, or a plaid perhaps. When I rose from my father I looked round for it, but it was gone.
証人：『開けた場所へ駆け出たとき、私はあまりに動転して興奮し、父のこと以外は何も考えられませんでした。それでも、走って進んだとき、自分の左手の地面に何かがあったという、ぼんやりした印象は残っています。灰色の何かで、何かの上着か、ひょっとすると格子柄の肩掛けのように思えました。父のそばから立ち上がって、その辺りを探したときには、もうなくなっていました。』