よみうち英語Read the classics by typingNotes Scene 24: After the Visitor
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Notes on this scene
Holmes settles into a thoughtful silence with his pipe after the client departs. He says that the central scheme resembles cases in his files and is not especially difficult. Mary herself, however, offered a rich lesson in observation that Watson largely missed.
Japanese in this scene
- は
- は marks the topic of the sentence and can also contrast it with another topic. It is written ha but normally pronounced wa.
- が
- が marks the grammatical subject or introduces newly focused information. It can also connect clauses with a mild contrast.
- を
- を marks the direct object of a verb. With a movement verb, it can instead mark the route or place being crossed.
- に
- に can mark a destination, target, time, recipient, purpose, or resulting state. The predicate shows its role here.
Full text: original English and Japanese translation
Sherlock Holmes sat silent for a few minutes with his fingertips still pressed together, his legs stretched out in front of him, and his gaze directed upward to the ceiling. Then he took down from the rack the old and oily clay pipe, which was to him as a counsellor, and, having lit it, he leaned back in his chair, with the thick blue cloud-wreaths spinning up from him, and a look of infinite languor in his face.
シャーロック・ホームズは数分間、黙って座っていた。指先は合わせたままで、両脚を前に伸ばし、視線を天井へ向けていた。やがて彼は、相談相手のように頼りにしている、古い油じみた陶製パイプをパイプ掛けから取り、火をつけた。椅子の背にもたれると、濃い青い煙が輪を巻いて立ち上り、その顔には限りないけだるさが浮かんだ。
"Quite an interesting study, that maiden," he observed. "I found her more interesting than her little problem, which, by the way, is rather a trite one. You will find parallel cases, if you consult my index, in Andover in '77, and there was something of the sort at The Hague last year. Old as is the idea, however, there were one or two details which were new to me. But the maiden herself was most instructive."
「あの娘さんは、なかなか面白い研究対象だね」と彼は言った。「私は、あの人のちょっとした問題より、本人のほうが興味深かった。ついでに言えば、あの問題はかなりありふれたものだ。私の索引を調べれば、七七年のアンドーヴァーに似た事件が見つかるし、昨年のハーグにも同じようなものがあった。もっとも、考え方そのものは古いが、細部には一つ二つ、私にも初めてのことがあった。だが、あの娘さん本人には、学ぶところが実に多かったよ」