Notes　Scene 24: A Giant at the Door

"But what, then, did the gipsies do?"

「だが、それならジプシーたちは何をしたというんだい」

"I cannot imagine."

「想像もつかないね」

"I see many objections to any such theory."

「そういう説には、異論がいくつも思い浮かぶがね」

"And so do I. It is precisely for that reason that we are going to Stoke Moran this day. I want to see whether the objections are fatal, or if they may be explained away. But what in the name of the devil!"

「私もだ。だからこそ、今日私たちはストーク・モランへ行くのだ。その異論が致命的なのか、それとも説明がつくのかを確かめたい。だが、いったい全体、何事だ！」

The ejaculation had been drawn from my companion by the fact that our door had been suddenly dashed open, and that a huge man had framed himself in the aperture. His costume was a peculiar mixture of the professional and of the agricultural, having a black top-hat, a long frock-coat, and a pair of high gaiters, with a hunting-crop swinging in his hand. So tall was he that his hat actually brushed the cross bar of the doorway, and his breadth seemed to span it across from side to side. A large face, seared with a thousand wrinkles, burned yellow with the sun, and marked with every evil passion, was turned from one to the other of us, while his deep-set, bile-shot eyes, and his high, thin, fleshless nose, gave him somewhat the resemblance to a fierce old bird of prey.

この叫びは、戸が突然荒々しく開け放たれ、大男が戸口いっぱいに姿を現したために、連れの口から漏れたのだった。身なりは専門職風と農夫風が奇妙に入り混じり、黒いシルクハットに丈の長いフロックコート、丈の高いゲートルを身につけ、手には狩猟用の鞭を揺らしていた。あまりの長身に帽子は戸口の横木をかすめ、肩幅は戸口の端から端までをまたぐかに見えた。千のしわが刻まれ、日に焼けて黄ばみ、ありとあらゆる悪い情念の跡をとどめた大きな顔が、私たち二人を交互に見やり、落ちくぼんだ胆汁色に濁った目と、高く細い肉の削げた鼻は、彼にどこか獰猛な年老いた猛禽のような趣を与えていた。