よみうち英語Read the classics by typingNotes Scene 6: The Riverside Lane
You've finished this scene
Notes on this scene
Watson reaches Upper Swandam Lane, a foul alley hidden behind riverside wharves. Between a clothing shop and a gin shop, steep steps descend toward a dark opening like a cave mouth. At the bottom he finds the opium den Kate described.
Japanese in this scene
- 急な階段を下りていく
- 〜ていく describes movement away from the street and downward along the stairs toward the dark entrance.
- 中央がすり減った階段
- すり減った is a past-form relative clause modifying 階段: repeated footsteps have worn down the middle of the steps.
- 大きな困難はなかった
- The topic marker は contrasts this first stage with later trouble. Watson says there was no major difficulty at the outset.
- 波止場の陰に隠れた
- 陰に隠れた means hidden from ordinary view behind the tall wharves, describing the alley's concealed location.
Full text: original English and Japanese translation
But there was no great difficulty in the first stage of my adventure. Upper Swandam Lane is a vile alley lurking behind the high wharves which line the north side of the river to the east of London Bridge. Between a slop-shop and a gin-shop, approached by a steep flight of steps leading down to a black gap like the mouth of a cave, I found the den of which I was in search. Ordering my cab to wait, I passed down the steps, worn hollow in the centre by the ceaseless tread of drunken feet; and by the light of a flickering oil-lamp above the door I found the latch and made my way into a long, low room, thick and heavy with the brown opium smoke, and terraced with wooden berths, like the forecastle of an emigrant ship.
とはいえ、冒険の初めの段階に大きな困難はなかった。アッパー・スワンダム横丁は、ロンドン橋の東、川の北岸に並ぶ高い波止場の陰に隠れた、ひどく汚い路地である。安物の衣料品店とジンの酒場の間に、洞窟の口のような暗い穴へ急な階段を下りていく、目当ての店があった。馬車を待たせ、酔客の絶え間ない足踏みで中央がすり減った階段を下りた。戸口の上で揺れる油灯を頼りに掛け金を探し、天井の低い長い部屋へ入った。茶色いアヘンの煙が重くこもり、移民船の船首楼のように木の寝台が段々に並んでいた。