よみうち英語Read the classics by typingNotes Scene 34: What the Letters Indicate
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Notes on this scene
Holmes reasons that several people must be involved and that they are trying to recover important papers. The repeated initials therefore indicate an organization rather than one person. He identifies the name they represent and finds the relevant encyclopedia entry.
Japanese in this scene
- 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.
- という
- という links a quoted name, statement, or idea to the noun that follows. It can be translated as “called,” “that,” or “the idea that.”
- のだ
- のだ adds explanation or emphasis. In conversation it often appears as んだ.
Full text: original English and Japanese translation
"The papers which Openshaw carried are obviously of vital importance to the person or persons in the sailing-ship. I think that it is quite clear that there must be more than one of them. A single man could not have carried out two deaths in such a way as to deceive a coroner's jury. There must have been several in it, and they must have been men of resource and determination. Their papers they mean to have, be the holder of them who it may. In this way you see K. K. K. ceases to be the initials of an individual and becomes the badge of a society."
「オープンショーの持っていた書類が、その帆船の一人か何人かにとって、極めて重要なのは明らかだ。相手は一人ではない、とはっきり考えてよいと思う。一人の男に、検視陪審を欺くようなやり方で二人を死なせることはできなかっただろう。何人かが関わっていたに違いなく、しかも知恵と決断力のある者たちだったはずだ。書類を持っているのが誰であろうと、自分たちの書類を取り戻すつもりなのだ。こうして見ると、Ｋ・Ｋ・Ｋは個人の頭文字ではなくなり、ある団体のしるしになる」
"But of what society?"
「だが、何という団体だい」
"Have you never—" said Sherlock Holmes, bending forward and sinking his voice—"have you never heard of the Ku Klux Klan?"
「一度も聞いたことがないのか」とホームズは前かがみになり、声を落とした。「クー・クラックス・クランを聞いたことがないのか」
"I never have."
「一度もない」
Holmes turned over the leaves of the book upon his knee. "Here it is," said he presently:
ホームズは膝の本のページをめくった。「あったよ」と、やがて彼は言った。