よみうち英語Read the classics by typingNotes Scene 57: The Message's Journey
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Notes on this scene
Determined to preserve the Boone disguise, St. Clair keeps his face dirty and remains silent in custody. When no constable is watching, he gives the Lascar his ring and a hurried note telling his wife she has no reason to fear.
Japanese in this scene
- 人に見られずに投函するのは難しかったでしょうね
- The passive negative 見られずに means without being seen. でしょうね invites agreement with Bradstreet's inference.
- ほかに説明することがあるか、分かりません
- The particle か embeds St. Clair's uncertainty about whether anything else remains for him to explain.
- できるだけ長く変装を保つつもりだった
- できるだけ means as much as possible, and つもりだった states his intention to maintain the disguise.
- 警官が見ていない一瞬に
- The relative clause limits the timing to a single moment when the watching officer was not looking.
Full text: original English and Japanese translation
"I do not know that there is anything else for me to explain. I was determined to preserve my disguise as long as possible, and hence my preference for a dirty face. Knowing that my wife would be terribly anxious, I slipped off my ring and confided it to the Lascar at a moment when no constable was watching me, together with a hurried scrawl, telling her that she had no cause to fear."
「ほかに説明することがあるか、分かりません。できるだけ長く変装を保つつもりだったので、顔を汚したままでいたかったのです。妻がひどく心配すると分かっていたので、警官が見ていない一瞬に指輪を外し、安心するよう急いで書いた手紙と一緒に店主へ託しました」
"That note only reached her yesterday," said Holmes.
「その手紙は、昨日ようやく届いたのです」とホームズは言った。
"Good God! What a week she must have spent!"
「なんということだ。妻はどんな一週間を過ごしたことでしょう」
"The police have watched this Lascar," said Inspector Bradstreet, "and I can quite understand that he might find it difficult to post a letter unobserved. Probably he handed it to some sailor customer of his, who forgot all about it for some days."
「警察はあの店主を見張っていました」とブラッドストリート警部が言った。「人に見られずに投函するのは難しかったでしょうね。たぶん船乗りの客に頼み、その客が何日か忘れていたのでしょう」
"That was it," said Holmes, nodding approvingly; "I have no doubt of it. But have you never been prosecuted for begging?"
「そうでしょう」とホームズは満足そうにうなずいた。「間違いないと思います。でも、物乞いで訴えられたことはないのですか」
"Many times; but what was a fine to me?"
「何度もあります。でも、私にとって罰金など何ほどのものだったでしょう」