よみうち英語Read the classics by typingNotes Scene 68: Escape from Ennui
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Notes on this scene
Holmes says that the case rescued him from boredom and admits that he seeks problems as an escape from ordinary existence. When Watson calls him a benefactor of humanity, Holmes merely shrugs and quotes Flaubert to place lasting work above the individual person.
Japanese in this scene
- かもしれない
- かもしれない means “might; may.” It marks a possibility rather than a firm conclusion and is less certain than でしょう or だろう.
- 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.
- ている
- The 〜ている form can show an action in progress, a continuing condition, or the present result of a completed action. The surrounding context selects the meaning.
- 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.”
Background
- Flaubert and George Sand
- Gustave Flaubert and George Sand were major French novelists who exchanged letters for years. Holmes’s quotation resembles, but does not exactly reproduce, a statement from their correspondence.
Full text: original English and Japanese translation
"It saved me from ennui," he answered, yawning. "Alas! I already feel it closing in upon me. My life is spent in one long effort to escape from the commonplaces of existence. These little problems help me to do so."
「おかげで退屈せずにすんだよ」と彼はあくびをしながら答えた。「ああ！もうその退屈が、またじわじわと私に迫ってくるのを感じる。私の人生は、ありふれた日々から逃れようとする、ひとつの長い努力についやされているのだ。こうしたささやかな事件が、その助けになってくれる」
"And you are a benefactor of the race," said I.
「しかも、きみは人類の恩人というわけだ」と私は言った。
He shrugged his shoulders. "Well, perhaps, after all, it is of some little use," he remarked. "'L'homme c'est rien—l'œuvre c'est tout,' as Gustave Flaubert wrote to George Sand."
彼は肩をすくめた。「まあ、ことによると、結局は少しばかり役に立っているのかもしれないね」と彼は言った。「ギュスターヴ・フローベールがジョルジュ・サンドに書き送ったとおり、『人間は無、作品こそすべて』というわけさ」