よみうち英語Read the classics by typingNotes Scene 14: A Stormy Night
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Notes on this scene
Helen now describes the night of her sister's death. Unable to sleep and troubled by a sense of coming disaster, she lies listening to the storm. Julia's scream suddenly rings through the house. Helen wraps a shawl over her nightdress, rushes into the corridor, hears a whistle and a metallic sound, and watches Julia's door slowly open.
Japanese in this scene
- のしかかっていました
- のしかかる turns the vague premonition into a figurative weight pressing on Julia's chest, conveying how heavily the approaching danger troubled her.
- 思い出してください
- 思い出してください is a polite imperative asking Holmes to keep one fact in mind: the sisters were twins and shared an unusually sensitive bond.
- 絆がどれほど微妙なものか
- どれほど means ‘how’ or ‘to what extent.’ With か, it forms the embedded question ‘how subtle the bond is.’
- あなたならご存じでしょう
- でしょう presents the speaker's confident expectation: ‘You, surely, will know.’
Full text: original English and Japanese translation
"I could not sleep that night. A vague feeling of impending misfortune impressed me. My sister and I, you will recollect, were twins, and you know how subtle are the links which bind two souls which are so closely allied. It was a wild night. The wind was howling outside, and the rain was beating and splashing against the windows. Suddenly, amid all the hubbub of the gale, there burst forth the wild scream of a terrified woman. I knew that it was my sister's voice. I sprang from my bed, wrapped a shawl round me, and rushed into the corridor. As I opened my door I seemed to hear a low whistle, such as my sister described, and a few moments later a clanging sound, as if a mass of metal had fallen. As I ran down the passage, my sister's door was unlocked, and revolved slowly upon its hinges. I stared at it horror-stricken, not knowing what was about to issue from it.
「その夜、私は眠れませんでした。何か漠然と、不幸が迫っているような予感が胸にのしかかっていました。姉と私が双子だったことを思い出してください。これほど深く結ばれた二つの魂を結ぶ絆がどれほど微妙なものか、あなたならご存じでしょう。荒れ模様の夜でした。外では風がうなり、雨が窓を打ちつけて、水しぶきを上げていました。突然、嵐の大騒ぎのただ中から、怯えきった女の狂おしい悲鳴が響きました。それが姉の声だとすぐにわかりました。私はベッドから跳ね起き、ショールを体に巻きつけ、廊下へ飛び出しました。戸を開けると、姉が話していたような低い口笛が聞こえた気がし、少しのち、金属の塊が落ちたかのような、ガチャンと響く音がしました。廊下を走っていくと、姉の部屋の戸は鍵が外れており、蝶番を軸にゆっくりと開いていきました。私は恐怖に打たれてそれを見つめ、中から何が出てくるのかもわかりませんでした。