"pride and prejudice" を読み終わりました。原書は多読用のリライト版とは比べ物にならない程厄介でした。特に現在でも使われている単語なのに意味やニュアンスが異なるものが多い様に感じました。物語の背景は英国で二百年以上前の上流階級の暮らしでしたが、違いが良く分かり非常に興味深い話でした。気に入ったのは主人公のElizabethが好きになったMr. Darcyの伯母、Lady Catherineが、自分の娘をMr. Darcyと結婚させたいために、身分、家柄、資産等々の違いを理由に、Mr. Darcyとの結婚から手を引けと非常に高圧的に迫って来たのに対し、きっぱりと断るやりとりの箇所です。その一部を引用します。
“Tell me once for all, are you engaged to him?”
Though Elizabeth would not, for the mere purpose of obliging Lady Catherine, have answered this question, she could not but say, after a moment’s deliberation:
“I am not.”
Lady Catherine seemed pleased.
“And will you promise me, never to enter into such an engagement?”
“I will make no promise of the kind.”
“Miss Bennet I am shocked and astonished. I expected to find a more reasonable young woman. But do not deceive yourself into a belief that I will ever recede. I shall not go away till you have given me the assurance I require.”
“And I certainly never shall give it. I am not to be intimidated into anything so wholly unreasonable. Your ladyship wants Mr. Darcy to marry your daughter; but would my giving you the wished-for promise make their marriage at all more probable? Supposing him to be attached to me, would my refusing to accept his hand make him wish to bestow it on his cousin? Allow me to say, Lady Catherine, that the arguments with which you have supported this extraordinary application have been as frivolous as the application was ill-judged. You have widely mistaken my character, if you think I can be worked on by such persuasions as these. How far your nephew might approve of your interference in his affairs, I cannot tell; but you have certainly no right to concern yourself in mine. I must beg, therefore, to be importuned no farther on the subject.”
難しい単語 "importune" の意味を辞書で確認します。
・Oxford English Dictionary: Harass (someone) persistently for or to do something.: reporters importuned him with pointed questions
・Collins Dictionary: If someone importunes another person, they ask them for something or ask them to do something, in an annoying way.: One can no longer walk the streets without seeing beggars importuning passers-by.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: to make repeated, forceful requests for something, usually in a way that is annoying or causing slight problems: As a tourist, you are importuned for money the moment you step outside your hotel.
現在の状況は分かりませんが、1980年代にマンハッタンに車で行くことが何度かありましたが、交差点の赤信号で止まる度に、男が近づいて来て車のフロントガラスを勝手に磨き始め、お金を要求された経験を思い出しました。
“Tell me once for all, are you engaged to him?”
Though Elizabeth would not, for the mere purpose of obliging Lady Catherine, have answered this question, she could not but say, after a moment’s deliberation:
“I am not.”
Lady Catherine seemed pleased.
“And will you promise me, never to enter into such an engagement?”
“I will make no promise of the kind.”
“Miss Bennet I am shocked and astonished. I expected to find a more reasonable young woman. But do not deceive yourself into a belief that I will ever recede. I shall not go away till you have given me the assurance I require.”
“And I certainly never shall give it. I am not to be intimidated into anything so wholly unreasonable. Your ladyship wants Mr. Darcy to marry your daughter; but would my giving you the wished-for promise make their marriage at all more probable? Supposing him to be attached to me, would my refusing to accept his hand make him wish to bestow it on his cousin? Allow me to say, Lady Catherine, that the arguments with which you have supported this extraordinary application have been as frivolous as the application was ill-judged. You have widely mistaken my character, if you think I can be worked on by such persuasions as these. How far your nephew might approve of your interference in his affairs, I cannot tell; but you have certainly no right to concern yourself in mine. I must beg, therefore, to be importuned no farther on the subject.”
難しい単語 "importune" の意味を辞書で確認します。
・Oxford English Dictionary: Harass (someone) persistently for or to do something.: reporters importuned him with pointed questions
・Collins Dictionary: If someone importunes another person, they ask them for something or ask them to do something, in an annoying way.: One can no longer walk the streets without seeing beggars importuning passers-by.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: to make repeated, forceful requests for something, usually in a way that is annoying or causing slight problems: As a tourist, you are importuned for money the moment you step outside your hotel.
現在の状況は分かりませんが、1980年代にマンハッタンに車で行くことが何度かありましたが、交差点の赤信号で止まる度に、男が近づいて来て車のフロントガラスを勝手に磨き始め、お金を要求された経験を思い出しました。
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