よみうち英語Read the classics by typingNotes Scene 29: Questions Still Open
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Notes on this scene
Holmes retains the theory only because no better one is available. Boone has been arrested, but his long record as a peaceful beggar offers no evidence of violence. St. Clair's reason for visiting the den, what happened there, his present whereabouts, and Boone's role all remain unanswered, making an apparently simple case unusually difficult.
Japanese in this scene
- 相変わらず解けていない
- 相変わらず means the state remains unchanged; all the central questions are still unsolved.
- これほど難しかったものは思い出せない
- これほど means 'to this degree.' Holmes cannot recall another case that proved this difficult after looking so simple.
- 署へ連れていかれた
- The passive 連れていかれた describes Boone being taken away to the police station by the officers.
- 暮らしぶりはまったく平穏
- まったく intensifies the description: despite his years of begging, Boone's way of life appeared entirely peaceful.
Full text: original English and Japanese translation
"Well, we will take it as a working hypothesis for want of a better. Boone, as I have told you, was arrested and taken to the station, but it could not be shown that there had ever before been anything against him. He had for years been known as a professional beggar, but his life appeared to have been a very quiet and innocent one. There the matter stands at present, and the questions which have to be solved—what Neville St. Clair was doing in the opium den, what happened to him when there, where is he now, and what Hugh Boone had to do with his disappearance—are all as far from a solution as ever. I confess that I cannot recall any case within my experience which looked at the first glance so simple and yet which presented such difficulties."
「そう、もっとよいものがない以上、当面の仮説としておこう。言ったとおり、ブーンは逮捕されて署へ連れていかれたが、過去に問題を起こした証拠はなかった。何年も物乞いとして知られていたが、暮らしぶりはまったく平穏で、悪いところはないようだった。今はそういう状態だ。セントクレアがアヘン窟で何をしていたか、そこで何が起きたか、今どこにいるか、ブーンがその失踪にどう関わったか、どの問いも相変わらず解けていない。正直、経験した事件の中で、初めはこれほど単純に見えながら、これほど難しかったものは思い出せないよ」