解説　場面 145「荒れ地の暮らし」

"What did he do?"

「何をしていたのです？」

"He grazed his cattle on these slopes, and he learned to dig for tin when the bronze sword began to supersede the stone axe. Look at the great trench in the opposite hill. That is his mark. Yes, you will find some very singular points about the moor, Dr. Watson. Oh, excuse me an instant! It is surely Cyclopides."

「この斜面で牛を放牧し、青銅の剣が石の斧に取って代わり始めると、錫を掘ることを覚えました。向かいの丘の大きな溝を見てください。あれがその跡です。ええ、ワトソン先生、荒れ地には、とても変わったことがいくつも見つかります。ああ、ちょっと失礼。きっとキクロピデスです」

A small fly or moth had fluttered across our path, and in an instant Stapleton was rushing with extraordinary energy and speed in pursuit of it. To my dismay the creature flew straight for the great mire, and my acquaintance never paused for an instant, bounding from tuft to tuft behind it, his green net waving in the air. His grey clothes and jerky, zigzag, irregular progress made him not unlike some huge moth himself. I was standing watching his pursuit with a mixture of admiration for his extraordinary activity and fear lest he should lose his footing in the treacherous mire, when I heard the sound of steps and, turning round, found a woman near me upon the path. She had come from the direction in which the plume of smoke indicated the position of Merripit House, but the dip of the moor had hid her until she was quite close.

小さなハエか蛾が道を横切って飛び、たちまちステイプルトンは、並外れた力と速さで追いかけていた。驚いたことに、その生き物は大沼へまっすぐ飛び、私の知人は一瞬も止まらず、緑の網を空中に振りながら、草のかたまりから次へ跳ねて追った。灰色の服と、ぴくぴくと不規則にジグザグ進む様子で、彼自身が大きな蛾に似ていた。私は立って追跡を眺め、並外れた活動力への感嘆と、危険な沼で足場を失うのではないかという恐れが入り混じっていた。その時、足音を聞いて振り向くと、小道のすぐそばに女がいた。煙の立ち上る位置からメリピット荘があると分かる方から来たのだが、荒れ地のくぼみで、かなり近くまで姿が隠れていたのだった。