よみうち英語Read the classics by typingNotes Scene 2: A Year of Cases
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Notes on this scene
The records for 1887 contain many unusual investigations, from secret clubs and missing ships to murders and disappearances. Watson briefly lists several of them, showing the breadth of Holmes’s work before turning to the case he has chosen for this account.
Japanese in this scene
- かもしれない
- かもしれない marks possibility: “might; may.” It presents the statement as uncertain rather than as a firm conclusion.
- ている
- The 〜ている form can show an action in progress, a continuing state, or the result of a completed action. The surrounding sentence decides which meaning applies.
- によって
- によって can mean “by,” “through,” or “depending on.” It marks a means, an agent, or a basis for difference.
- のである
- のである closes the statement with explanation or emphasis. Here it presents Watson’s judgment rather than a reason introduced by “because.”
Full text: original English and Japanese translation
The year '87 furnished us with a long series of cases of greater or less interest, of which I retain the records. Among my headings under this one twelve months I find an account of the adventure of the Paradol Chamber, of the Amateur Mendicant Society, who held a luxurious club in the lower vault of a furniture warehouse, of the facts connected with the loss of the British barque Sophy Anderson, of the singular adventures of the Grice Patersons in the island of Uffa, and finally of the Camberwell poisoning case. In the latter, as may be remembered, Sherlock Holmes was able, by winding up the dead man's watch, to prove that it had been wound up two hours before, and that therefore the deceased had gone to bed within that time—a deduction which was of the greatest importance in clearing up the case. All these I may sketch out at some future date, but none of them present such singular features as the strange train of circumstances which I have now taken up my pen to describe.
一八八七年には、多かれ少なかれ興味を引く事件が長く続き、私はその記録を残している。この一年だけでも、パラドールの部屋の冒険、家具倉庫の地下室に豪華なクラブを設けていた素人乞食協会、イギリスのバーク型帆船ソフィー・アンダーソン号の遭難に関する事情、ウファ島でのグライス・パタースン家の奇妙な冒険、そして最後にキャンバーウェルの毒殺事件といった見出しが見つかる。最後の事件では、覚えておられるかもしれないが、ホームズは死者の時計のぜんまいを巻くことによって、それが二時間前に巻かれていたこと、したがって死者はその時間内に床に就いたことを証明した。この推論が事件の解明に極めて重要だったのである。これらはいずれ、あらましを書くこともあろうが、今ここに筆を執って記そうとしている奇妙な出来事の連なりほど、特異な特徴を備えたものはない。