Kazuo Ishiguroの短編 COME RAIN OR COME SHINEを読んでいますが、Ishiguro作品としては珍しくコメディの様な話になって来ました。友人のCharlieとEmily夫妻の家に一時的に厄介になっている主人公ですが、Charlieが出張で家を空けている間にEmilyのメモを見てしまい、自分についての悪口が書いてあったのでついかっとし、メモのそのベージを破りとってしまいました。出張中のCharlieから電話がかかってきた時に対処法を相談したら、時々遊びに来る近所の犬のせいにしろと助言を受け、Emilyが嫌いな犬の匂いを作る方法を教えてもらいその指示に従いました。
'Charlie, listen to me. Since the last time you called, I've pulled myself together considerably. And quite frankly, I think you should pull yourself together too. We can discuss all of this when you get back. But Emily will be here in an hour or so, and I've got to have everything ready. I'm on top of things here now, Charlie. I suppose you can tell that from my voice.'
上の引用文の "on top of things" が慣用句の様で意味が分からないので辞書で調べます。
結構色々な意味で使われるのですが、上記の例は多分次ぎの意味で使われていると思います。
・Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary: in control of: acted like a man on top of his job - Newsweek
・Wiktionary: (idiomatic) Fully informed about, and in control of something; up to speed with: I have sorted out the problems and am now on top of the situation.
・Cambridge Idioms Dictionary: if you are on top of a situation, you are dealing with it successfully We had a lot of work to do, but I think we're on top of it now.
Kazuo Ishiguroの短編小説集を読んでいます。短編は登場人物は少なく、話の展開も早いので読むのも速くなる気がします。最初の話のCroonerを読み終えて、次ぎの話は COME RAIN OR COME SHINE です。 主人公は英国の大学を卒業以来海外で英語を教える仕事についていますが、一時的に英国に戻り、大学時代の友人夫婦宅で過ごす予定です。夫婦のどちらも主人公の友人ですが、この夫婦の仲が危機に陥っている様です。
Instead, he fired questions at me about my life in Spain, and each time I told him anything, good or bad, he'd do this sour little smile and shake his head, like I was confirming his worst fears. At one point I was trying to tell him how much I'd improved as a cook - how I'd prepared the Chrismas buffet for over forty students and teachers virtually single-handed - but he just cut me off in mid-sentence.
主人公は長年独り者なので料理も上手な様です。しかし、片手で料理する訳ではないと思うので "single-handed" が気になります。 辞書を見ます。
・Macmillan Dictionary: done by one person without help from anyone else: a single-handed boat race across the Atlantic
・Cambridge English Dictionary: without any help from anyone else: a single-handed voyage
・Dictionary.com: accomplished or done by one person alone: a single-handed victory; single-handed sailing.
誰の助けも借りず一人で作ったのですね。 辞書の例に船に関係するのが多いのが気になります。語源の由来と関係するのだろうと思いますが、1700年頃から使われていると言う事しか分かりませんでした。
Nocturnes by Kazuo Ishiguroを借りて読み始めました。Ishiguro作品を読むのはこれが最後になるでしょう。図書館には後２作品がありますが、私が読む本の選択基準である３００ページ程度以内をかなり超える厚さなので当面は読みません。
Nocturnesはこれまでの作品と異なり、短編小説集で、Nocturnはその内の一つの作品です。Nocturneを含み全部で５作品が収められていますが、最初の作品はCroonerと題されていて、イタリアのベニスが舞台で、ベニスのレストランで演奏しているギタリストの話です。ギタリストの母親が大ファンであったと言う往年の歌手、Tony Gardnerがベニスに旅行で来ていて、話の主人公のギタリストのバンドが演奏していうのを聴いているのに主人公は気がつきます。 Tony Gardnerが実在の歌手かどうかは私は知りませんが、題名の Crooner からは、男性歌手では私が最も好きな歌手の一人であるNat King Coleを連想してしまいます。 主人公はベニスで働いていますが、実はイタリア人ではありません。
There's also, of course, the small matter of my not being Italian, never mind Venitian. It's the same for that big Czech guy with the alto sax. We're well liked, we're needed by the other musicians, but we don't quite fit the official bill. Just play and keep your mouth shut, that's what the cafe managers always say. That way the tourists won't know you're not Italian. Wear your suit, sunglasses, keep the hair combed back, no one will know the difference, just don't start talking.
私の気になったのは、つまり意味が良く分からなかった個所は、"fit the official bill" の表現です。 これは "bill" に私の知らない意味があるからに違いありません。 早速辞書で調べます。
・Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary: a: a written or printed advertisement posted or otherwise distributed to announce an event of interest to the public; especially: an announcement of a theatrical entertainment b: a programmed presentation (as a motion picture, play, or concert)
・Macmillan Dictionary: a list of events and performers at a concert, show, etc.: top the bill (=be the most important performer): He’ll be topping the bill at the show next month.
・Collins English Dictionary: any printed or written list of items, events, etc, such as a theatre programme ⇒ who's on the bill tonight?
観光地ベニスのバンドで実際に演奏しているのはこの話の主人公を含めた外国人達であることは宣伝には使えない、隠しておきたいとの事なのでしょう。
A man and his wife were arguing about who should make the coffee each morning.
The wife says, "You get up first." The husband says, "No! Since your're in charge of the cooking, you should do it."
The wife replies, "No, even the Bible says that the man should make the coffee." The husband is incredulous. He says, "I don't believe that! Show it to me."
So his wife opens the Bible, and points out how the top of several pages read: "HEBREWS".
And so I realized that we have always, since the time of Christ or Cleopatra or who, you know, you can go back through history and name any iconic or historical figure we hear, you know, it's like Chinese whispers. You know, it gets to us, it's something completely different, and we believe it to be true.
記事には注があり、"Chinese whispers" は伝言ゲームと説明がありました。 辞書での説明を見てみます。
OneLookの検索では普通の辞書はリストされずWikipediaだけが参照されました。
Chinese whispers is one name for a game played around the world, in which one person whispers a message to another, which is passed through a line of people until the last player announces the message to the entire group. Errors typically accumulate in the retellings, so the statement announced by the last player differs significantly, and often amusingly, from the one uttered by the first. Some players also deliberately alter what is being said in order to guarantee a changed message by the end of it.
なるほど、そんなゲームがあるのですか。
The game is also known as telephone, grapevine, broken telephone, whisper down the lane, KISU KISU (Tamil "grapevine") ...
Wikipediaにはゲームの方法などもっと詳細に説明がありますが、、"Chinese whispers" はいわゆるPCでは無いとされた表現の様です。
Today, the name "Chinese whispers" is said by some to be considered offensive or racist, although it is still commonly used in the United Kingdom and is not known to cause offence to the Chinese themselves.
ついでに、これまでに取り上げた "Chinese XXX" の表現をおさらいします。
"Chinese box":A set of boxes of graduated size, each fitting inside the next larger one.
"Chinese trunpet vine/creeper": is a fast growing, deciduous creeper with large, orange, trumpet-shaped flowers in summer.
"Chinese hibiscus": Hibiscus rosa-sinensis is the national flower of Malaysia.
２月１４日のThe Japan Times Onlineの記事タイトルに "Hashimoto group hopes to upset political applecart big time" とありました。 橋下大阪市長が提案している政治改革案についての記事だと分かるので、この "political applecart" は政治家の集合/衆参議員を示しているのだろうと思いながら、記事を読みます。
最初の段落だけを引用します。
Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto's local political group is preparing a platform for the next Lower House poll that will likely include promises to shrink or even abolish the Upper House, create a system for voters to directly elect the prime minister, and to drastically limit the state's role to diplomacy, defense and macroeconomic policies.
と言う具合でだいたい他の報道で知っている内容がこの後も続き、直接 "political applecart" の意味を具体的に特定できる記述は分かりません。 やはり辞書を見た方が手っ取り早い。
・Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary: a plan, system, situation, or undertaking that may be disrupted or terminated: upset the applecart
・Macmillan Dictionary: upset the applecart: to spoil someone’s plan or arrangement
・Wiktionary: to upset the applecart: (idiomatic) to spoil carefully laid plans or arrangements; to spoil something: I don't want to upset the applecart, but I don't think that will work, at all.; He came to our house uninvited and started to upset the applecart
・Infoplease:upset the or someone's applecart, to ruin plans or arrangements; spoil something: He was making a fantastic profit until a competitor upset the applecart by cutting prices.
なるほど "applecart" はひっくり返される対象を示しているのですね。
今年の１月のASJ総会・例会は英国大使邸で開かれ、ASJのパトロンの高円宮妃だけではなく皇太子も参加されました。毎年総会時に頂く Transactions of ASJ は読んだことはないのですが、時々付いている SUPPLEMENT は以前読んだ事があります。 今年も DIPLOMACY Memories & Visions by George Sioris が SUPPLEMENT として付いていました。 Kazuo Ishiguroの小説とRD１月号を読み終え、予約した次ぎの小説がまだ手に入らないので、取りあえずその SUPPLEMENTを読むことにしました。
Memoriesの個所は４つの章に分かれていてBEGINNINGSの章に気になる表現がありました。
My initial role at the newspaper was as a translator. But the baptism of fire went terribly wrong. When I very timidly handed over to the editor-in-chief - a most respected man of letters, influential political commentator, theatre critic and linguist - my first specimen of translated work, he most unceremoniously threw it into the wastebasket!
洗礼は普通水で行われるのですが、"baptism of fire" となると、最初の試練は厳しいものであったと言う事でしょうか？ 辞書で確認します。
・Collins English Dictionary: 1.a soldier's first experience of battle 2.any initiating ordeal or experience: To most men, of whatever rank, it was their baptism of fire Townsend, Eileen, In Love and War (1989)
・Wiktionary: The first experience of a severe ordeal, especially a first experience of military combat: Having to deal with a bomb scare on his first day was a real baptism of fire for John.
・American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms: A severe ordeal or test, especially an initial one, as in This audition would be Robert's baptism of fire. This term transfers the original religious rite of baptism, whereby holiness is imparted, to various kinds of ordeal. At first it signified the death of martyrs at the stake, and in 19th-century France it was used for a soldier's first experience of combat. Currently it is used more loosely for any difficult first encounter.
学校、職場、仕事、何でも初めての経験には厳しい試練が待ち受けている場合がありますね。 大学を卒業して総合商社の電子部品輸出部門に配属された私の、"baptism of fire" は輸出書類の作成に必須のタイプライター（当時はメカニカルなかなり重量のあるがっしりとしたものです）をブラインドタッチでタイプする事でした。タイプを習熟するために最初の給料でブラザーのタイプライターを買い、家でタイプの練習をしました。もう何十年も使わないタイプライターで、妻から処分してと時々言われますが、何故か捨てられず、レコードなどと一緒に私の部屋のゴミ同然のガラクタになっています。
Jack Sadelstein, a successful advertising executive in Los Angels with a beautiful wife and kids, dreads one event each year; the Thanksgiving visit of his twin sister Jill. Jill's neediness and passive-aggressiveness maddens Jack, and turns his normally tranquil life upside down.
"neediness" は "need/needy" と関係がありそうですが、上記引用文での意味との関係が分かりません。早速辞書を見ます。
・Collins English Dictionary: the state of being needy; poverty
・Vocabulary.com: a. the quality of needing attention and affection and reassurance to a marked degree: “he recognized her neediness but had no time to respond to it” b. a state of extreme poverty
なるほど "needy" と言うのは、お金や愛情が必要・足りないと言う事なのですね、納得。
Reader's Digest 1月号の映画紹介コーナーにTINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPYの説明がありました。
Don't expect Bond style over-the-top action, but a brooding, calculated examination of the human cost of spy games in this new adaptation of John le Carre's classic 1974 espionage novel.
"over-the-top action" はボンド（００７）のアクションですから派手なアクションと思いますが、辞書で確認します。
・Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary: extremely or excessively flamboyant or outrageous: an over-the-top performance
・Macmillan Dictionary: someone or something that is over-the-top is so extreme that they seem unreasonable or silly: go over-the-top: She’s really has gone completely over-the-top with this wedding.
・Wiktionary: (idiomatic) Bold; beyond normal, expected, or reasonable limits; excessive; outrageous: He has always had an independent style, but don't you think purple spiky hair is a bit over the top?
最後に引用したWiktionaryに合成語のハイフンの使用法について次ぎの注が付いていました。
Usage notes
Over the top occurs only following a copula as the object of a sentence, as above, whereas
Over-the-top is used where the adjective occurs before the word it modifies, as He gave an over-the-top performance.
Reader's Digest 1月号に広大なマリーゴールド畑の写真が載っていました。
The cheerful, unassuming marigold, a member of the sunflower family, has been caltivated in Mexico since Aztec times.
"unassuming" は "not sssuming" だと思いますが、推測する "assume" しか知らないので unassuming" の意味が分かりません。 まず "unassuming" を辞書で引きます。
・Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary: not assuming : modest: an unassuming librarian; an unassuming manner; an unassuming neighborhood
・Cambridge English Dictionary: Someone who is unassuming is quiet and shows no wish for attention or admiration: He was shy and unassuming and not at all how you expect an actor to be.
やはり "assuming" に私が知らない次ぎの意味がありました。
・Vocabulary.com: If someone accuses you of being assuming, he or she thinks you are arrogant or that you take too much for granted. If you take on an assuming tone when you ask for something, people are more likely to feel offended than to be generous.
"assuming" と "unassuming" の意味を対で覚えましょう。
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