よみうち英語Read the classics by typingNotes Scene 33: Nothing Lost
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Notes on this scene
Wilson complains that the vanished League has cost him a weekly income. Holmes replies that he earned about thirty pounds and gained knowledge from copying the encyclopedia, so he has suffered no real loss. Wilson nevertheless demands to know the organizers’ identities and the purpose behind their strange trick.
Japanese in this scene
- のだ
- のだ adds explanation or emphasis, similar to “the fact is…” or “it is that….” In polite speech it becomes のです or んです.
- ほど
- ほど expresses degree or an approximate extent: “to the point that; as much as; about.” The comparison in the sentence determines its natural English rendering.
- れば
- The 〜ば form is a conditional meaning “if; provided that.” It focuses on the condition needed for the following result.
- は
- は marks the topic of a sentence and can also set up a contrast with another item.
Background
- Value of the pound
- Around 1890, many clerks earned about one hundred pounds a year. Wilson’s promised four pounds a week would exceed two hundred pounds annually and was an extraordinary salary.
Full text: original English and Japanese translation
"Grave enough!" said Mr. Jabez Wilson. "Why, I have lost four pound a week."
「重大ですとも！」とジェイベズ・ウィルソン氏は言った。「なにしろ、週に四ポンドもなくしたんですからね」
"As far as you are personally concerned," remarked Holmes, "I do not see that you have any grievance against this extraordinary league. On the contrary, you are, as I understand, richer by some £ 30, to say nothing of the minute knowledge which you have gained on every subject which comes under the letter A. You have lost nothing by them."
「あなた個人に関して言えば」とホームズは言った。「この風変わりな組合に文句をつける筋合いはないと思うがね。それどころか、聞いたところでは、あなたは三十ポンドほど懐が豊かになったうえに、Aで始まるあらゆる項目について、細かな知識まで身につけたことになる。彼らのせいで損をしたことは何もないのだよ」
"No, sir. But I want to find out about them, and who they are, and what their object was in playing this prank—if it was a prank—upon me. It was a pretty expensive joke for them, for it cost them two and thirty pounds."
「ええ、それはそうです。でも、あの連中のことを突きとめたいんですよ、何者なのか、そして、なんのつもりで私にこんないたずらを――いたずらだとしての話ですが――仕掛けたのかをね。連中にしてみれば、ずいぶん高くついた冗談ですよ、なにしろ三十二ポンドもかかったんですから」