よみうち英語Read the classics by typingNotes Scene 41: The Looped Lash
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Notes on this scene
A dog lash tied into a loop hangs at the corner of the bed. Holmes asks Watson what he makes of it, but Watson can offer only an ordinary explanation. Holmes soon announces that the examination is complete, and the group leaves Dr. Roylott's room and returns to the lawn outside.
Japanese in this scene
- やれやれ
- やれやれ is a sigh of dismay. Holmes reacts to the wickedness of a clever man using intelligence for crime, not to physical tiredness.
- ましてや頭の切れる男が知恵を犯罪に向けたとなれば
- ましてや strengthens the comparison: if evil is bad generally, all the more so when a clever man directs his intelligence toward crime.
- さほど
- さほど combines with the negative to mean ‘not very.’ Holmes says a whip tied into a loop is not especially commonplace.
- 見せてもらった
- 見せてもらった frames the inspection as something Helen has allowed Holmes to do. He politely says they have now seen enough.
Full text: original English and Japanese translation
"What do you make of that, Watson?"
「これをどう思うね、ワトソン？」
"It's a common enough lash. But I don't know why it should be tied."
「ごくありふれた鞭だよ。ただ、なぜ結んであるのかはわからないね」
"That is not quite so common, is it? Ah, me! it's a wicked world, and when a clever man turns his brains to crime it is the worst of all. I think that I have seen enough now, Miss Stoner, and with your permission we shall walk out upon the lawn."
「結んであるほうは、さほどありふれてはいないだろう？ああ、やれやれ、世の中は邪悪なものだ。ましてや頭の切れる男が知恵を犯罪に向けたとなれば、これほど始末の悪いものはない。ストーナーさん、もう十分に見せてもらったと思います。よろしければ、芝生のほうへ出ましょう」
I had never seen my friend's face so grim or his brow so dark as it was when we turned from the scene of this investigation. We had walked several times up and down the lawn, neither Miss Stoner nor myself liking to break in upon his thoughts before he roused himself from his reverie.
私たちがこの調べの現場をあとにしたときほど、友人の顔が険しく、眉のあたりが暗かったことは、これまで見たことがなかった。私たちは芝生を何度も行き来したが、ストーナーさんも私も、彼が物思いから自分で覚めるまで、その考えをさえぎる気にはなれなかった。