Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stoneを読んでいます。Harryは11歳の時にwizardの学校に行くことになり、ロンドン駅から汽車に乗ります。
“Hey, Mom, guess what? Guess who we just met on the train?”
Harry leaned back quickly so they couldn’t see him looking.
“You know that black-haired boy who was near us in the station? Know who he is?”
“Who?”
“Harry Potter!”
Harry heard the little girl’s voice.
“Oh, Mom, can I go on the train and see him, Mom, oh please…”
“You’ve already seen him, Ginny, and the poor boy isn’t something you goggle at in a zoo. Is he really, Fred? How do you know?”
“Asked him. Saw his scar. It’s really there--like lightning.”
“Poor dear--no wonder he was alone, I wondered. He was ever so polite when he asked how to get onto the platform.”
“Never mind that, do you think he remembers what You-Know-Who looks like?”
Their mother suddenly became very stern.
“I forbid you to ask him, Fred. No, don’t you dare. As though he needs reminding of that on his first day at school.”
“All right, keep your hair on.”
A whistle sounded.
子供向けの本なので慣用句は余り出てきませんが、"keep your hair on" は明らかに慣用句ですね。知らない慣用句なので辞書を見ます。
・Farlex Dictionary of Idioms: To remain patient and calm, especially when beginning to become angry or upset with impatience. Usually said as an imperative. Primarily heard in UK. Yeah, yeah, keep your hair on! I'll have the report finished by the end of the day! A: "That lady is pestering us about getting her car back today." B: "We need another day to get it fixed. Tell her to keep her hair on!"
・The Dictionary of American Slang: To stay unruffled; be calm; cool it: I'm coming. Just keep your hair on, won't you?
・Cambridge Idioms Dictionary: Keep your hair on! (British & Australian informal): a slightly impolite way of telling someone who is angry to try to be calm and patient Keep your shirt on! I'll be with you in a second.
"keep your shirt on" と同じ意味ですか、それなら "6/16/2015" に取り上げましたね。
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stoneを読み始めました。
小説を読むのに一番厄介に感じるのは登場人物が増えてくると誰が誰だか分からなくなることです。そこでハリーポッターなら人気のあるシリーズなので、ネット上に色々と情報があるはずなので読む前に特に登場人物の事前調査をしました。思った通りネットにはハリーポッターに関するサイトがありました。ハリーポッターの一作目のタイトルは米国版ではHarry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stoneで、使われている単語も一部異なっていることが分かりました。私が読むのは英語版です。
Mrs Dursley came into the living-room carrying two cups of tea. It was no good.
He'd have to say something to her. He cleared his throat nervously. 'Er - Petunia, dear - you haven't heard from your sister lately, have you?'
As he had expected, Mrs Dursley looked shocked and angry. After all, they normally pretended she didn't have a sister.
'No,' she said sharply. 'Why?'
'Funny stuff on the news,' Mr Dursley mumbled. 'Owls . . . shooting stars . . . and there were a lot of funny-looking people in town today . . . '
'So? ' snapped Mrs Dursley.
'Well, I just thought . . . maybe ... it was something to do with . . . you know . . . her lot.'
Mrs Dursley sipped her tea through pursed lips. Mr Dursley wondered whether he dared tell her he'd heard the name 'Potter'. He decided he didn't dare. Instead he said, as casually as he could, 'Their son - he'd be about Dudley's age now, wouldn't he?'
上の引用個所に出てきた "her lot" の意味が分からないのでネットの情報を見ると、米国版ではここは "her crowd" となっている事が分かりました。つまり、仲間、同類項の様な意味だと分かります。念のために、辞書の "lot" の項にこの様な意味があるか確認します。
・Oxford English Dictionary: British A group or a person of a particular kind (generally used in a derogatory or dismissive way): an inefficient lot, our town council; he was known as a bad lot; you lot think you're clever, don't you?
やはりこの意味で使われるのは英国英語だと分かりました。
PRAISE FOR THE TELOMERE EFFECTも最後の章、conclusion、になりました。
Telomere science has grown into a clarion call. It tells us that social stressors, especially as they affect children, will result in exponentiall higher costs down the line-- costs that are personal, physical, social, and economic. You can respond to that call by, first, taking good care of yourself.
PRAISE FOR THE TELOMERE EFFECTはとても参考になる良い本でした。
In a career spanning three decades, Yoshihiro Nishimura has done about every job on the credit crawl — from gaffer to director. He is best known, however, as a mad master of effects and makeup, spewing blood sprays that achieve a certain demented grandeur and building fantastic creatures that resemble raging piles of medical waste with body parts attached.
"credit crawl" の意味がピンときません。辞書で調べましたが、一般的な辞書には "credit crawl" の項目は見当たりません。しかし次の辞書に説明がありました。
・The TV Handbook & Dictionary: "The Crawl" is slang for the closing title credits (from the fact that one method of presentation is to have the names crawl or move upward from the bottom to the top of the screen). It's nice to have your name on "the crawl".
...
Such moving titles are called Crawling Titles, Creeping Titles, Roller Titles, Roll Titles, The Title Crawl, The Copy Crawl, The Credit Crawl or simply The Crawl quite a lot of titles for a title!
なるほど、映画の最後に出演者などの名前をゆっくりと映し出す場面ですね。
一般の辞書には "credit" の説明はもちろんあります。
・Collins Dictionary: The list of people who helped to make a film, a CD, or a television programme is called the credits.: The star Marlon Brando wants his name removed from the credits.
仕事でヨーロッパのメーカーのマニュアルを読んでいたら、仕事の英語では珍しく気になる単語が出てきました。
Calibration Bath（恒温槽の一種）のユーザーマニュアルの一節です。
Heat transfer medium lifetime is dependent upon the type of medium and the environment. The fluid should be checked at least every month. Once some fluids have become compromised, the break down can occur rapidly. Particular attention should be paid to the viscosity of the fluid. A significant change in the viscosity can indicate that the fluid is contaminated, being used outside of its temperature limits, contains ice particles, or is close to a chemical breakdown.
"compromise" は「妥協する」以外にも「（情報を）洩らす」「（システムに）不正アクセスする」などの意味がある事を5/18/2011に取り上げましたが、上記の "compromise" はそれともちょっと意味が異なるようです。 辞書を見ます。
・Oxford English Dictionary: Cause to become vulnerable or function less effectively.: yo-yo dieting can compromise your immune system
・American Heritage Dictionary:
To reduce the quality, value, or degree of something, such as one's ideals.
A weakening or reduction of one's principles or standards: a compromise of morality.
Impairment, as by disease or injury: physiological compromise.
なるほど、よくよく考えると、前回調べた時の意味、そして妥協とも共通の意味がありました。
村上春樹の "Hear The Wind Sing" を読んでいます。
“Got a favor to ask,” the Rat said.
“What kind?”
“I want you to meet someone.”
“A girl?”
The Rat hesitated before nodding yes.
“Why ask me?”
“Anyone else around?” the Rat shot back, launching into his sixth Jim Beam. “Oh yeah, do you own a suit and tie?”
...
When I drove up to J’s Bar at 2 p.m. on the dot, the Rat was sitting on the guardrail engrossed in a copy of Kazantzakis’s The Last Temptation of Christ. “So where is she?” I asked.
The Rat closed the book and slipped into the seat beside me. He put his sunglasses on.
“It’s a no go,” he said.
“No go?”
“Yeah, I gave it up.”
Ratが主人公に会わせたいと言っていた女性が来ないので "no go" は "no-show" を連想させる表現ですが、辞書にこの表現が出ているか調べます。
・Oxford English Dictionary: Not ready or not functioning properly.: It was repeatedly stuck and no go until 11:15 a.m. when I headed to Lakeland College to teach the first of my classes in Writing Creative Nonfiction.
・Urban Dictionary: when there is no chance something will happen - theres no way the idea is GOing anywhere.
Friend 1: you want to go get a beer with john after work?
Friend 2: thats a no go, john is a total wacko.
村上春樹の "Hear The Wind Sing" を読んでいます。
I wiped the dust off the windshield with a tissue while she slowly circled the car, eyeing it with suspicion. She stopped to stare at the big white bull’s head painted on the hood.
The bull had a huge ring through his nose and a white rose between his teeth. He was smiling a lewd smile.
“Did you paint that?”
“No, the previous owner did.”
“Why a bull?”
“Beats me.”
She took two steps back to study the bull some more, then got in the car with her lips clamped shut, as if regretting having talked too much.
"Beats me" はいかにも口語的な表現ですね。 "beat" を含む表現はこれまでにも幾つも取り上げました。
"my beats" (12/21/2015)
"If that don't beat all!" (9/15/2015)
"beat the odds" (3/30/2012)
"beat all" (10/5/2009)
さて "Beats me" の意味を調べます。
・McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs: I do not know the answer.; I cannot figure it out. The question has me stumped. (The stress is on me.) Bill: When are we supposed to go over to Tom's? Bill: Beats me. Sally: What's the largest river in the world? Bob: You got me beat.
・The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms This baffles or puzzles me, as in I don't know how he does it-beats me! This term originally may have alluded to a winning poker hand. It may also be related to the even earlier usage of beat for "astonished" or "at a loss."
なるほど元は "it beats me" だったのですね。そしてアクセントは "me" にあるとは、実際に聴いて見たいですね。
村上春樹の "Hear The Wind Sing" を読み始めました。
I came across a copy of Hartfield’s long-out-of-print first book during my last summer vacation of junior high, a time marked in my memory by a terrible case of crotch rot. The uncle who gave me the book died in agony three years later of intestinal cancer. The last time I saw him, the doctors had hacked him up so badly that he bristled with plastic tubes ferrying fluids in and out of both ends of his body. He was shrunken and his skin had turned reddish brown, so that he resembled a crafty old monkey.
小説というより随筆の様な文章です。ところで "crotch rot" とはかなり恐ろしい病気に思えますが実際はどうでしょうか？ 辞書を見ます。
医学辞書によると "crotch rot" は医学用語では "tinea cru´ris" にあたる様だ。
・Miller-Keane Encyclopedia and Dictionary of Medicine, Nursing, and Allied Health: tinea cru´ris: ringworm of the groin area, starting in the perineal folds and extending onto the inner surface of the thighs; it is more common in males and is caused by Epidermophyton floccosum or species of Trichophyton; called also eczema marginatum, epidermophytosis cruris, and jock itch.
スラングでは性病の意味で使うこともある様だが、中三の少年なのでこの意味ではないでしょう。
・A Dictinary of Slang: General term for a sexual infection of the genitals, or venereal disease.
いわゆる「いんきんたむし」の事でしょうね。
何故かハリーポッターを読む気になって賢者の石を図書館に予約したのですが、他にも予約している人がいたので実際にいつ借りれるか分かりません。そこで、又、村上春樹作品を読むことにしました。村上春樹の作品が好きな訳ではありませんが、氏の多くの作品は英訳されていることと短い小説も多いので、今回は特に短い "Hear The Wind Sing" を借りて読むことにしました。
興味深いことにこの小説が誕生した背景を著者自身が書いていました。
今日取り上げる表現はそのThe Birth of My Kitchen-Table Fictionからの引用です。 Having discovered the curious effect of composing in a foreign language, thereby acquiring a creative rhythm distinctly my own, I returned my Olivetti to the closet and once more pulled out my sheaf of manuscript paper and my fountain pen. Then I sat down and “translated” the chapter or so that I had written in English into Japanese. Well, "transplanted” might be more accurate, since it wasn’t a direct verbatim translation. In the process, inevitably, a new style of Japanese emerged. The style that would be mine. A style I myself had discovered. Now I get it, I thought. This is how I should be doing it. It was a moment of true clarity, when the scales fell from my eyes.
最初にこの小説を英語で書いたと言うのは興味深いですね。ところで子供の頃、目から鱗は日本語の表現で元は中国からだろと思っていましたが、それに対応する英語の "the scales fell from my eyesscales fell from his eyes, and his sight was restored."
前後を読みたい方は次のサイトにActs 9が書かれています。
http://bible.oremus.org/?passage=Acts+9
THE TELOMERE EFFECTを読んでいます。
Each day, we interact with strangers or acquaintances, and we can either feel separate from them--or we can connect with them in a small way that has a positive effect. Give people an "air gaze" (looking past the face, with no eye contact) and they will tend to feel more disconnected from others. Give them a smile and eye contact, and they feel more connected.
"air gaze" の意味は文中に説明がありますが、この表現を載せている辞書は見当たりませんでした。しかし、この表現は一般的に使われていて、次のサイト、 https://www.citylab.com/equity/2012/06/why-you-should-say-hello-strangers-street/2141/ の説明を引用します。
The people who were given an "air gaze" (or no eye contact) felt the most disconnected. On the other hand, the people who received eye contact and a smile felt the least disconnected of anyone studied. I wonder if you add a "hello" to the smile if it would lower the feeling of disconnection even more. Either way, it seems that even the smallest gestures to connect toward strangers can bring about a sense of community. And that's good for human health.
欧米ではアイコンタクトが重要と言っていますが、 "telomere"、つまり寿命と関係があるのが昔から分かっていたのでしょうか？
トータル
