よみうち英語Read the classics by typingNotes Scene 52: The Long Vigil
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Notes on this scene
With the lamp extinguished, Holmes sits on the edge of the bed while Watson occupies a chair. The pistol lies on the table, and Holmes keeps his cane and matches beside him. Their silent night watch has only just begun, and many hours remain before dawn. The scene begins from this carefully established point.
Japanese in this scene
- あの恐ろしい寝ずの番を、どうして忘れられようか
- どうして introduces a rhetorical question. With 忘れられようか, it means Watson could never forget that terrible vigil.
- それでも連れが目を見開いたまま
- それでも means ‘even so.’ Although Watson can hear nothing, he remains aware that Holmes is sitting alert nearby.
- ときおり
- ときおり gives the sparse frequency of the night birds' cries, emphasizing the long stretches of silence during the vigil.
- ちょうど窓のすぐそばで
- ちょうど emphasizes the exact location: the cheetah's cry sounds immediately beside the window.
Background
- parish clock
- A parish church clock and its bells kept time for an English village. In the quiet countryside its quarter-hour chimes carried clearly and gave the two watchers their only measure of the passing night.
Full text: original English and Japanese translation
How shall I ever forget that dreadful vigil? I could not hear a sound, not even the drawing of a breath, and yet I knew that my companion sat open-eyed, within a few feet of me, in the same state of nervous tension in which I was myself. The shutters cut off the least ray of light, and we waited in absolute darkness.
あの恐ろしい寝ずの番を、どうして忘れられようか。物音ひとつ、息づかいさえ聞こえなかったが、それでも連れが目を見開いたまま、私から数フィートのところに座り、私と同じように神経を張りつめていることはわかっていた。鎧戸がわずかな光さえ遮り、私たちは真っ暗闇の中で待った。
From outside came the occasional cry of a night-bird, and once at our very window a long drawn catlike whine, which told us that the cheetah was indeed at liberty. Far away we could hear the deep tones of the parish clock, which boomed out every quarter of an hour. How long they seemed, those quarters! Twelve struck, and one and two and three, and still we sat waiting silently for whatever might befall.
外からは夜鳥の鳴き声がときおり聞こえ、一度はちょうど窓のすぐそばで、猫のような長く尾を引く鳴き声がして、チーターが確かに放されていることを知らせた。遠くから教区教会の時計の低い音が聞こえ、十五分ごとに響きわたった。その十五分の、なんと長く感じられたことか。十二時が打ち、続いて一時、二時、三時と打っても、私たちは何が起こるのかと、黙って待ち続けた。