よみうち英語Read the classics by typingNotes Scene 18: Gipsies and a Band
You've finished this scene
Notes on this scene
What did Julia mean by her final words, ‘the speckled band’? After confirming that gipsies camp on the estate, Holmes asks Helen how she interprets the phrase. She offers two possible explanations, but Holmes shakes his head, unconvinced by either one, and asks her to continue with the events that followed.
Japanese in this scene
- ほとんど
- ほとんど modifies いつも to mean ‘almost always.’ Helen says members of the travelling group are present on the estate most of the time.
- おそらく林にいるあのジプシーたち
- おそらく introduces Helen's tentative identification of the group: perhaps the words referred to the travelling people in the woods.
- なかなか
- なかなか intensifies the difficulty in a measured way: Holmes calls the case quite unfathomable before asking Helen to continue her account.
- ほとんどいつも何人かいます
- いつも combines with ほとんど to mean ‘almost always’: some members of the travelling group are usually on the estate.
Background
- gipsies
- Gipsies is the period term used in the story; Roma is generally preferred today. Travelling groups sometimes camped on rural estates and were often unfairly treated with suspicion.
Full text: original English and Japanese translation
"Were there gipsies in the plantation at the time?"
「そのとき、屋敷の林にジプシーはいましたか？」
"Yes, there are nearly always some there."
「はい、あそこにはほとんどいつも何人かいます」
"Ah, and what did you gather from this allusion to a band—a speckled band?"
「ほう。では、紐、いや、まだらの紐という言葉から、あなたは何を読み取りましたか？」
"Sometimes I have thought that it was merely the wild talk of delirium, sometimes that it may have referred to some band of people, perhaps to these very gipsies in the plantation. I do not know whether the spotted handkerchiefs which so many of them wear over their heads might have suggested the strange adjective which she used."
「ただのうわごとの、錯乱した言葉だと思うこともありますし、人の一団、おそらく林にいるあのジプシーたちのことかもしれないと思うこともあります。姉が使った奇妙な形容詞は、あの人たちの多くが頭に巻く水玉模様のスカーフから連想されたのかもしれませんが、よく分かりません」
Holmes shook his head like a man who is far from being satisfied.
ホームズは、少しも納得していない人のように首を横に振った。
"These are very deep waters," said he; "pray go on with your narrative."
「これはなかなか底の知れない問題ですね」と彼は言った。「どうか話を続けてください」