よみうち英語Read the classics by typingNotes Scene 13: If Only I Were Red
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Notes on this scene
Wilson says that he, Spaulding, and a young servant girl share a quiet household. Their settled life changed eight weeks earlier when the assistant appeared with a newspaper and exclaimed that he wished he were red-haired. That odd remark becomes the starting point of Wilson’s extraordinary experience.
Japanese in this scene
- てくれる
- Verb + てくれる says that someone performs an action for the speaker or the speaker’s group. It presents the act as a welcome favor.
- わけ
- わけ can mean a reason, circumstances, or the logical conclusion of a situation. Expressions such as わけだ and わけがない depend on this sense of an explainable outcome.
- だけ
- だけ means “only; just; as much as.” Unlike しか, it does not require a negative predicate.
- たら
- The past-form verb + ら creates a conditional meaning “if; when.” It can describe either a hypothetical condition or what was discovered after an action.
Background
- A fourteen-year-old servant
- Victorian girls of twelve to fourteen often entered domestic service as live-in general servants. Even a modest shopkeeper’s household might employ one girl to cook and clean.
Full text: original English and Japanese translation
"Yes, sir. He and a girl of fourteen, who does a bit of simple cooking and keeps the place clean—that's all I have in the house, for I am a widower and never had any family. We live very quietly, sir, the three of us; and we keep a roof over our heads and pay our debts, if we do nothing more.
「ええ、おります。あの男と、簡単な料理と掃除をしてくれる十四の娘と、家にいるのはそれだけでして、なにしろ私は男やもめで、家族を持ったこともないんです。三人でごく静かに暮らしておりまして、ほかに何ができるわけでもありませんが、雨露をしのいで借金を払うくらいはできております。
"The first thing that put us out was that advertisement. Spaulding, he came down into the office just this day eight weeks, with this very paper in his hand, and he says:
「そんな暮らしを最初にかき乱したのが、例の広告でした。スポールディングのやつが、ちょうど八週間前の今日、まさにこの新聞を手にして店へ下りてきましてね、こう言うんです。
"'I wish to the Lord, Mr. Wilson, that I was a red-headed man.'
「『ああウィルソンさん、自分が赤毛の男だったら、どんなにいいか』
"'Why that?' I asks.
「『そりゃまた、どうして？』と私は聞きます。