compunction

村上春樹のUndergroundを読んでいます。
I had no compunction about making my doubts known to people. One thing I found strange was that a lot of Aum followers died in car accidents. I asked a woman I knew well -- Ms Takahashi -- about it. "Don't you think it's unusual that this many believers have died?" I asked her. "No, it's all right," she replied, "because four billion years in the future the Master will return as the Maitreya Buddha as will raise up the souls of those died. "What rubbish!" I thought.
"compunction" も既に2度（と）も取り上げていますが忘れているので復習です。
・Oxford English Dictionary: [usually with negative] A feeling of guilt or moral scruple that prevents or follows the doing of something bad.: spend the money without compunction
・Collins Dictionary: If you say that someone has no compunction about doing something, you mean that they do it without feeling ashamed or guilty.: He has no compunction about relating how he killed his father.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: a slight guilty feeling about something you have done or might do: I wouldn't have any compunction about telling him to leave.

off-the-wall

村上春樹のUndergroundを読んでいます。
Such was the narrative offered by Aum, by "their" side. Stupid, you might say. And surely it is. Most of us laughed at the absurd off-the-wall scenario that Asahara provided. We laughed at him for concocting such "utter nonsense" and we ridiculed the believers who could be attracted to such "lunatic-fodder".
"off-the-wall" は過去に2度（10/4/2010 と 9/27/2011）取り上げているので復習です。
・Collins Dictionary: If you say that a person, their ideas, or their ways of doing something are off-the-wall, you are critical of them because you think they are mad or very foolish.: It can be done without following some absurd, off-the-wall investment strategy.
・Wiktionary: Wildly unconventional; bizarre; absurd.: She is a very off-the-wall character.

Etymology: Perhaps from baseball or other games played with a ball, alluding to unpredictable bounces.

how quiet it was up there

Reader's Digest 5月号の記事 'Your True Stories' からの引用です。
Enjoying the Quiet
Parasailing had been on my husband's bucket list, and he finally decided to try it. I agreed to go along and watch. I stood on the pier and held his belongings while he was harnessed in over his swimsuit and T-shirt. Sitting in the back of the speedboat, I saw him lift off and soar 400 feet above the ocean. When he returned, he told me about the incredible view.
The thing that surprised him most was how quiet it was up there. We laughed as he remembered that I had been holding his hearing aids.

sotto voce

村上春樹のUndergroundを読んでいます。
He remembers thinking afterwards. "Won't it be great to do something different with my life instead of the typical office grind?" -- and he decided to make a go of it, despite the fact that he lacked any spirit to rally to the nation's defence. According to Mr. Ishino (sotto voce); "There aren't actually that many in Defence Academy with the kind of spirit."
多分注釈の意味で使われている "sotto voce" は英語らしくないので外国語だと思いますが何でしょう？　"voce" は声の意味に違いありません。
・Oxford English Dictionary: (of singing or a spoken remark) in a quiet voice, as if not to be overheard.: ‘“It won't be cheap,” he added sotto voce’
Origin: From Italian sotto ‘under’ + voce ‘voice’.
・Collins Dictionary: If you say something sotto voce, you say it in a soft voice.

bin liner

村上春樹のUndergroundを読んでいます。
The bags were clear plastic bin liners. We closed them as best we could, but then we were thinking about where to take the stuff, so we probably forgot to tie them.

"plastic bin liners" はいわゆる "plastic bags" と同じだと思います。私は "bin" で大型のゴミ箱を連想してしまいます。"bin liner" を辞書で調べます。
・Oxford English Dictionary: British A plastic bag used for lining a rubbish bin.: The pair of pistols were sealed inside a plastic lunchbox with a green lid, bundled up in plastic bags and a bin liner.
・Collins Dictionary: (British) A bin liner is a plastic bag that you put inside a waste bin or dustbin.: We put the rubbish in bin liners and the council collect it.
なるほど、 "plastic bags" と "bin liner" の関係が分かりました。
それにしても翻訳者のBirnbaum氏は米国生まれなのにBritish Englishが好きなようです。

problem solver

The Answer written by Allan & Barbara Peaseからの引用です。
My therapist placed half a glass of water in front of me. He said that if the glass was half full, I was an optimist. If it was half empty I was a pessimist. So I drank the water and told him I was a problem solver.

tannoy

Haruki MurakamiのUndergroundを読み始めました。オーム真理教が引き起こした地下鉄サリン事件をモデルにした小説と思っていましたが、村上春樹が事件後被害者にインタビューしたドキュメンタリーの様です。
I left the Chiyoda Line platform and headed for the Hibiya Line as usual. When I reached the platform at the bottom of the stairs I heard the emergency alarm go off: Bee-ee-eep! I knew immediately from my time working for Japan Railway there'd been an accident. That's when an announcement came over the station tannoy.
...
Around this time they announced over the station tannoys that the Hibiya Line had been shut down.

"station tannoy" は文脈から "station PA system/public-address system" の意味と同じだと思いますが、辞書で調べます。
・Oxford English Dictionary: British; trademark: A type of public address system.: Even festive songs are being played over the tannoy.
・Collins Dictionary: A Tannoy is a system of loudspeakers used to make public announcements, for example at a fair or at a sports stadium. [British, trademark]
Tannoyはイギリス製なので翻訳者のAlfred Birnbaum氏は英国人かと思いましたが、米国生まれで五歳の時からの日本育ち、早稲田大学卒とありました。