よみうち英語Read the classics by typingNotes Scene 27: After the Tide
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Notes on this scene
The receding tide uncovers St. Clair's coat rather than his feared body. Holmes asks Watson to guess what filled its pockets. Watson cannot, and Holmes prepares to disclose the unexpected added weight that kept the garment on the muddy riverbank.
Japanese in this scene
- 外套しか着ていなかったのかい
- しか with a negative means 'nothing but.' Watson asks whether St. Clair had been wearing only his coat.
- 心配していたもの
- The nominalizer もの refers indirectly to the feared object of the search—St. Clair's body—without naming it immediately.
- 潮に流されなかったのも、無理はない
- 無理はない means the outcome is unsurprising or reasonable: the weighted coat could not be carried away by the tide.
- 想像もつかない
- 〜もつかない is a set expression meaning one cannot even imagine or guess the answer.
Full text: original English and Japanese translation
"And it did, though they hardly found upon the mud-bank what they had feared to find. It was Neville St. Clair's coat, and not Neville St. Clair, which lay uncovered as the tide receded. And what do you think they found in the pockets?"
「実際に手掛かりは出た。もっとも、心配していたものが泥の岸から見つかったわけではなかった。潮が引いて姿を現したのは、ネヴィル・セントクレア本人ではなく、その外套だった。ポケットには何があったと思う」
"I cannot imagine."
「想像もつかない」
"No, I don't think you would guess. Every pocket stuffed with pennies and half-pennies—421 pennies and 270 half-pennies. It was no wonder that it had not been swept away by the tide. But a human body is a different matter. There is a fierce eddy between the wharf and the house. It seemed likely enough that the weighted coat had remained when the stripped body had been sucked away into the river."
「そうだろうね。まず当てられまい。どのポケットにも一ペニー銅貨と半ペニー銅貨がぎっしりで、一ペニーが四百二十一枚、半ペニーが二百七十枚あった。潮に流されなかったのも、無理はない。だが、人の体となると別だ。波止場と家の間には強い渦がある。重くなった外套は残っても、衣服を脱がされた体は川へ吸い出されたと考えれば、かなりもっともらしかった」
"But I understand that all the other clothes were found in the room. Would the body be dressed in a coat alone?"
「でも、ほかの衣服は全部部屋にあったんだろう。体には外套しか着ていなかったのかい」