Breakfast at Tiffany'sでFredはHollyに誘われニューヨークの市内で乗馬をします。しかし事件が起きます。
For all at once, like savage members of a jungle ambush, a band of Negro boys leapt out of the schrubbery along the path. Hooting, cursing, they launched rocks and thrashing at the horses' rumps with switches.
Fredの馬は驚き疾走します。それをHolly、そして騎馬警官が追います。
Onward: across the park and out into Fifth Avenue: stampeding against the noonday traffic, taxis, buses that screechingly swerved. Past the Duke manshion, the Frick Museum, past the Pierre and the Plaza. But Holly gained ground; moreover, a mounted policeman had joined the chase: flanking my runaway mare, one on either side, their horses performed a pincer movement that brought her to a steamy halt.
"pincer movement" の意味は "pincer" が使われているので分かりますが、この "pincer movement" の表現は覚える価値がありそうです。辞書で他の例文を見ます。
・Collins English Dictionary: a military tactical movement in which two columns of an army follow a curved route towards each other with the aim of isolating and surrounding an enemy Also called envelopment.: The Government faced "a pincer movement" from an alliance of France's Islamic fundamentalists and the far-right.; The Russians developed a huge pincer movement against the flanks of the salient that led to Stalingrad.
・Wiktionary: a military maneuver in which both flanks of an enemy force are attacked with the aim of attaining complete encirclement.
"pincer movement" は軍隊用語ですね。
She came to sufficiently to focus the doctor. 'Everything hurts. Where are my glasses?' But she didn't need them. Her eyes were closing of their own accord.
今日はこの慣用句 "of their own accord" を覚えたいと思います。
・Dictionary.com: of one's own accord, without being asked or told; voluntarily: We did the extra work of our own accord.
・American Heritage Dictionary: Also, of one's own free will: Voluntarily, without prompting or coercion, as in The entire audience rose of their own accord, or No, I'm climbing this mountain of my own free will.
なるほど, I wish I could remember many English expressions of my own accord.
Story was: their mother died of the TB, and their papa done the same - and all the churren, a whole raft of 'em, they been send off to live with different mean people. Now Lulamae and her brother, them two been living with some mean, no-count people a hundred miles east of Tulip.
Lulamaeと言うのはHollyの本名です。 "children" が "churren" になったり、文法的にも怪しい英語なのはDoc Golightlyが南部の田舎の人間を表しているせいだと思いますが、"no-count" の意味を辞書で確認します。
・Dictionary.com: good-for-naught, good-for-nothing, meritless, no-account, no-good
・Wiktionary: (idiomatic, slang, US) Of no value.
"no-count" は文字通り覚える程の価値のない俗語の様でした。
HollyがJoseと旅行中に寝たのではないかとMagが疑うので、Hollyは "...simply told her I was a dyke" と言ったとHollyがFredに話した直後の場面です。
'She couldn't have belied that.'
'The hell she didn't. Why do you think she went out and bought this army cot? Leave it to me: I'm always top banana in the shock department. Be a darling, darling rub some oil on my back.'
"top banana in the shock department" は中々ユニークな表現ですが辞書で分かるでしょうか？
"top banana" は直ぐに分かりました。
・Wiktionary:
(idiomatic) The boss, the leader: Only the top banana can make a decision of that magnitude.
(idiomatic, dated) The principal comedian in a vaudeville or burlesque show.: He was hilarious, and remained the top banana on the tour for years.
問題は "shock department" の方です。辞書には "top banana" と共に使われる例も "shock department" のみの例も見つかりません。しかし、"department" を良く見ると次ぎの用例があります。
・Collins English Dictionary: informal a specialized sphere of knowledge, skill, or activity ⇒ wine-making is my wife's department
・Infoplease Dictionary: a sphere or province of activity, knowledge, or responsibility: Paying the bills is not my department.
"department" は日本語で言うデパートとか組織など以外にも使えるのですね。 それなら "top banana in the shock department" は、「ショックを与えるのが得意」と解釈できそうです。つまり、HollyがMagに自分は "dyke" だとショッキングな暴露をしたと言う事でしょう。
Breakfast at Tiffany's のHollyは日焼けで入院したMagを置いてMagの彼氏のJoseと旅行に行ってしまします。
その旅行先での話しです。
We had an irresistible guide, most of him Negro and the rest of him Chinese, and while I don't go much for one or the other, the combination was fairly riveting: so I let him play kneesie under the table, because frankly I didn't find him at all banal; but then one night he took us to a blue movie, and what do you suppose? There he was on the screen.
"play kneesie" ユニークな表現ですね。 辞書を見ます。
OneLook検索でListされた辞書はスラング辞書のUrban Dictionaryだけでした。そこでの説明は：
When two, sitting, people are flirting by touching knees usually under a table. Similar to footsie but is better done while sitting side by side or kitty corner, and is less likely to cause outbursts of laughter. Also the recipient often wonders if the kneesier is doing it on purpose.
なるほど、そんな意味の単語があるのですか。 Googleで調べるとMerriam-Webster's Dictionaryにも説明があるのが分かりました。
an action of flirting or becoming friendly or intimate: played kneesies under the table
Urban Dictionaryに出てきた "footsie" だとほとんどの辞書に載っていました。 Oxford English Dictionaryの説明だけ引用します。
the action of touching someone’s feet lightly with one’s own feet, especially under a table, as a playful expression of romantic interest: He was playing footsie under the table with Mara.
何十年か前に読んだ日本の小説にこの "play kneesie/footsie" にあたる表現があった事を思い出しました。
今日の表現は辞書を引かなくても分かりますが、面白いと思ったので取り上げます。Breakfast at Tiffany's のHollyと物語の語り手とのメモのやり取りにその表現がありました。
That night I left a message in her mailbox: Tomorrow is Thursday. The next morning rewarded me with a second note in the play-pen script: Bless you for reminding me. Can you stop for a drink tonight 6-ish?
"6-ish" は6時頃の意味でしょう。"-ish" は最近の若い女性が使う「～みたいな」を思い起こさせます。 "-ish" の説明、例文が辞書にあるか見てみます。
・Collins English Dictionaryの"-ish" の説明は:
1.of or belonging to a nationality or group ⇒ Scottish
2.often derogatory having the manner or qualities of; resembling ⇒ slavish prudish boyish
3.somewhat; approximately ⇒ yellowish sevenish
4.concerned or preoccupied with ⇒ bookish
小説と同じ様な例は３ですね。 ついでに他の辞書の例も見ます。
・Macmillan Dictionary: used with many numbers to make adverbs meaning approximately: We’ll have lunch around one-ish.; “How old is she?” “I don’t know. Fortyish, I guess.”
・Cambridge English Dictionary: used to form adjectives to give the meaning to some degree; partly; quite: He had a sort of reddish beard.; She was oldish - about 60, I'd say.; We'll start at sevenish (= about 7 o'clock).
ところで小説の題名の由縁はHollyの次ぎの台詞からのようです。
I want to still be me when I wake up one fine morning and have breakfast at Tiffany's.
私もN.Y.のTiffanyに一度行った事がありますが、食事をする場所は無かったですね。
次ぎの文の 'He' は依頼人（弁護士）を指しています。
He asked me how I'd like to cheer up a lonely old man, at the same time pick up a hundred a week. I told him look darling, you've got the wrong Miss Golightly, I'm not a nurse that does tricks on the side. I wasn't impressed by the honorarium either; you can do as well as that on trips to the powder room: any gent with the slightest chic will give you fifty for the girls john, and I always ask for cab fare too, that's another fifty.
"honorarium" は知らない単語ですが、文脈からすると面会に対する報酬/礼金の様ですが確認します。
・Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary: a payment for a service (as making a speech) on which custom or propriety forbids a price to be set
・Cambridge English Dictionary: a usually small sum of money paid to someone for a service for which no official charge is made: We usually offer our visiting lecturers an honorarium of ￡50.
・Dictionary.com: a payment in recognition of acts or professional services for which custom or propriety forbids a price to be set: The mayor was given a modest honorarium for delivering a speech to our club.
報酬はちょっと合わないですね。礼金やお坊さんに戒名を付けてもらう時に渡すお金もこれでしょう。それにしてもHollyは今で言う援助交際で生活している女の様です。
Breakfast at Tiffany's のHollyはシンシン刑務所で服役しているSalvatore "Sally" Tomatoに毎週木曜日に面会に行っているという話を 'Fred' にしていますが途中で話を止めようとします。
'I'm keeping you awake. Go to sleep.'
'Please. I'm interested.'
'I know you are. That's why I want you to go to sleep. Because if I keep on, I'll tell you about Sally. I'm not sure that would be quite cricket.'
"cricket" と言うと、英国と英連邦だけで人気のある野球に似たクリケット（恐らく野球がクリケットから生まれたのでクリケットに似た野球と言うべきか？）とコーロギの様な虫しか思い起こせないのですが、この "cricket" は何でしょう。
・Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary: fair and honorable behavior: it wasn't cricket for her to break her contract
・Cambridge English Dictionary: If someone's behaviour or actions are not cricket, they are not honest or moral: It's simply not cricket to flirt with another man's wife.
・Oxford English Dictionary: not cricket; British informal something contrary to traditional standards of fairness or rectitude: an appeal by the Crown against too lenient a sentence is simply not cricket
やはり球技のクリケットに関係していたのですね。
Breakfast at Tiffany's にも出てきた "<B>goad</B>" はApril 18のThe Japan Times Onlineの記事タイトルにも使われていました。
Governor seen as <B>goading</B> administration into action
The Tokyo Metropolitan Government's intention to purchase the Senkaku Islands will likely have little impact on the territorial dispute between Japan, China and Taiwan, but Gov. Shintaro Ishihara may just be trying to get the government to move forward on the issue.
"<B>goad</B>" の説明を辞書で調べます。
・Macmillan Dictionary: to deliberately make someone feel very angry or upset so that they react: <B>goad</B> someone into doing something: She was finally <B>goaded</B> into losing her temper.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: to make a person or an animal react or do something by continuously annoying or upsetting them: Will the pressure applied by environmentalists be enough to <B>goad</B> the industrialized nations into using less fossil fuels?
V2 Vocabulary Building DictionaryのTipsは例によって非常に参考になります。
The original meaning of <B>goad</B> was "to prod an animal with a stick," and also referred to the stick itself. Think of <B>goading</B> goats and trying to get them to move along or do something. Today, the meaning has come to encompass any kind of prodding or prompting, but is used in a negative sense, a sense of pushing someone into doing something he or she doesn't really want to do. As a verb, <B>goad</B> should NOT be used to denote positive encouragement or support. As a noun, however, a <B>goad</B> can be a motivator, in a more positive sense.
羊を突っつく棒から来た表現ですか。なるほど。"<B>goading goats</B>" で覚えましょう。
次に引用する文はBreakfast at Tiffany's でHollyが語り手であるFredに話をしているところです。
Of course people couldn't help but think I must be a bit of a dyke myself. And of course I am. Everyone is: a bit. So what? That never discouraged a man yet, in fact it seems to goad them on. Look at the Lone Ranger, married twice. Usually dykes only get married once, just for the name. It seems to carry such cachet later on to be called Mrs. Something Another.
この中に出てきた "goad" と "cachet" が今日覚えたい単語ですが、 "goad" はThe Japan Times Onlineの記事でも見掛けたばかりなので、この単語は明日取り上げます。 さて、 "cachet" の意味を辞書で見ます。
・Cambridge English Dictionary: a quality which marks someone or something as special and worth respect and admiration: This type of jacket used to have a certain cachet.
・Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary: a. seal used especially as a mark of official approval b. prestige: being rich … doesn't have the cachet it used to - Truman Capote
・Vocabulary.com: an indication of approved or superior status: Certain high-end brands have a particular cachet, or respectability. People just know they are the finest of their kind.
The word cachet comes from the French cachet meaning "seal affixed to a letter or document," and if something has cachet, it's as if it has a seal of approval from society. If you start a design company selling cachets for people to seal their letters with fancy wax, try getting some celebrities to endorse it. Then your cachets will have cachet - and that's fancy.
Vocabulary.comの説明にある様に "cachet" はフランス語由来なので "t" は発音されません。
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