よみうち英語Read the classics by typingNotes Scene 49: Two Companions
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Notes on this scene
Jones assures the unhappy Merryweather that Holmes has genuine detective ability and has sometimes been more correct than the official police. Merryweather accepts the claim but complains about losing his weekly card game after twenty-seven uninterrupted years. The men prepare to discover whether the night justifies the sacrifice.
Japanese in this scene
- ように
- ように can express a goal, an intended result, or resemblance, depending on the words around it. With a verb of request, it can also report what someone was told to do.
- という
- という connects quoted words, a name, or an idea to the noun that follows. Depending on context, it can mean “called,” “that,” or “the idea that.”
- 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.
- は
- は marks the topic of a sentence and can also set up a contrast with another item.
Background
- Rubber
- In games such as whist, a rubber is a set normally won by taking two out of three games. A regular Saturday card rubber was a familiar gentleman’s social habit.
- The Sholto murder and the Agra treasure
- These events belong to the novel The Sign of Four. Inspector Athelney Jones eventually relied on Holmes’s reasoning, and the case also brought Watson and Mary Morstan together.
Full text: original English and Japanese translation
"We're hunting in couples again, Doctor, you see," said Jones in his consequential way. "Our friend here is a wonderful man for starting a chase. All he wants is an old dog to help him to do the running down."
「またそろって狩りというわけですな、先生」と、ジョーンズがもったいぶった調子で言った。「こちらのご友人は、獲物を狩り出すことにかけてはたいしたものでしてな。あとは、追いつめる役を手伝う老犬が一匹いれば十分というわけです」
"I hope a wild goose may not prove to be the end of our chase," observed Mr. Merryweather gloomily.
「追いかけた末が、骨折り損に終わらなければよいのですが」と、メリーウェザー氏が浮かない顔で言った。
"You may place considerable confidence in Mr. Holmes, sir," said the police agent loftily. "He has his own little methods, which are, if he won't mind my saying so, just a little too theoretical and fantastic, but he has the makings of a detective in him. It is not too much to say that once or twice, as in that business of the Sholto murder and the Agra treasure, he has been more nearly correct than the official force."
「ホームズさんなら大いに信用してよろしいですよ」と、ジョーンズ警部は偉そうに言った。「この人には独特のやり方がありましてな、こう言ってはなんですが、それがいささか理屈に走りすぎ、突拍子もないのですが、探偵の素質はちゃんと持っておるんです。あのショルトー殺しとアグラの財宝の一件のように、一度か二度は、警察よりも真相に近かったと言っても言いすぎじゃありません」
"Oh, if you say so, Mr. Jones, it is all right," said the stranger with deference. "Still, I confess that I miss my rubber. It is the first Saturday night for seven-and-twenty years that I have not had my rubber."
「いや、あなたがそうおっしゃるなら、ジョーンズさん、異存はございません」と、初対面の紳士はうやうやしく言った。「ただ、正直に申しますと、いつものカードの勝負ができないのが寂しいのです。土曜の夜に勝負をしないのは、この二十七年で初めてなのですから」