a shambles

Kazuo Ishiguroの "The Unconsoled" を読んでいます。

His wife stopped but did not turn, and Hoffman and I stared at her back view as she stood there quite still in the low light of the corridor. Then Hoffman took a few steps towards her.
'The evening. It's a shambles. Why pretend it's anything else? Why continue to tolerate me? Year after year, blunder after blunder. After the Youth Festival, your patience with me was surely at its end. But no, you put up with me further. Then Exhibition Week. Still you put up with me. Still you give me another chance. Very well, I begged you, I know. Implored you for one further chance. And you didn't have the heart to refuse me. In a word, you gave me tonight. And what have I to show for it? The evening is a shambles.

上の引用箇所に2度出てきた "shambles" は複数形に見えますが不定冠詞の "a" が付いています。辞書で意味を確認します。

・Oxford English Dictionary: a situation in which there is a great lack of order or understanding: The press conference was a complete shambles.
・Collins Dictionary: If a place, event, or situation is a shambles or is in a shambles, everything is in disorder.: The economy is in a shambles.
・Vocabulary.com: Originally a word for a slaughterhouse, shambles now usually means "one heck of a mess," as in "You were supposed to clean your room, but it's still a shambles!"
When the job market is in a shambles, people have trouble finding work. When a supermarket is in a shambles, there might be melons and milk spilled all over the floor. If everyone in a classroom is talking and yelling at once, the class is a shambles because no one can hear each other or get any work done. People say things are "in shambles" or "a shambles" — they mean the same thing. However you say it, a shambles is chaotic, disorderly, out of hand, and off the hook — a major, five-alarm mess.

語源についてはONLINE ETYMOLOGY DICTIONARYから抜粋を紹介します。
In English, the sense evolved from "place where meat is sold" to "slaughterhouse" (1540s), then figuratively "place of butchery" (1590s), and, generally, "confusion, mess" (1901, usually in plural).


やっと "The Unconsoled" を読み終えました。主人公のMr Ryderがピアノ演奏の為に訪れたあるヨーロッバの都市での三日間の出来事はまさに "a shambles" であり、今まで読んだKazuo Ishiguro作品では私にとって唯一イラつく内容の小説でした。

could ill afford

Kazuo Ishiguroの "The Unconsoled" を読んでいます。

There were certain parts of the hall I could not see no matter how much I craned forward, and I realised I would sooner or later have to go down into the auditorium itself. Then, even if I were still unable to find my parents, I could at least dig out Hoffman or Miss Stratmann and demand to know of my parents' whereabouts. Either way, I saw I could ill afford to spend further time watching proceedings from my present vantage point and, turning carefully, began to make my way out of the cupboard.

"The Unconsoled" は読んでいてイライラする話が多いのですが、上記引用個所も睡眠中に見る夢で何故か話がうまく進まずグルグル回って迷路に入ったような経験と同じ印象を感じるところです。
さて、"can/cannot afford" は良く知っていますが、"ill afford" は初めてです。　"ill"なので "cannot afford" に近い意味でしょうね。

・Cambridge English Dictionary: If you cannot afford to do something, you must not do it because it would cause serious problems for you: He can ill afford to fail any of his exams.
・Merriam-Webster: to be unable to afford : to be unable to do (something) without having problems or being seriously harmed: She bought a new car, which she could ill afford.
・Oxford English Dictionary: (usually used with can or could, especially in negative sentences and questions)
if you say that you can’t afford to do something, you mean that you should not do it because it will cause problems for you if you do: (formal) They could ill afford to lose any more staff.

やはり否定的な意味でしたね。

zimmer

Kazuo Ishiguroの "The Unconsoled" を読んでいます。

For the next few moments, Brodsky continued to stand crouched over the ironing board, not moving, his gaze fixed on the conductor's podium. I realised he was measuring the distance to the podium, and indeed, the next instant, he began his journey. He proceeded by lifting the entire frame of the ironing board and banging it down again in the manner of a zimmer, dragging his single leg after it.

"zimmer" の意味を調べます。

・Free Dictionary: a light enclosing framework (trade name Zimmer) with rubber castors or wheels and handles; helps invalids or the handicapped or the aged to walk; [syn: walker, Zimmer, Zimmer frame]
・Vocabulary.com: a light enclosing framework (trade name Zimmer) with rubber castors or wheels and handles; helps invalids or the handicapped or the aged to walk
・Dictionary.com: trademark another name for walker; Also called: Zimmer frame

足の不自由の人のための歩行補助器で、固有名詞からの英国英語ですね。

liveried coachman

Kazuo Ishiguroの "The Unconsoled" を読んでいます。

And my mother and my father would be peering out of the carriage window, on their faces the first traces of excited anticipation, but also something guarded and reserved, a reluctance to give in completely to the hope that the evening would turn out a glittering triumph. And then, as the liveried coachman hurried to help them down, and a line of dignitaries formed to greet them, they would adopt the wilfully calm smiles I recalled from my childhood, from those rare occasions when my parents invited guests to the house for lunch or dinner.

"liveried" の意味を調べます。
・Collins Dictionary: A liveried servant is one who wears a special uniform.: The tea was served to guests by liveried footmen.
・Wiktionary: dressed in livery, uniformed, especially of a servant or a chauffeur.
・Dictionary.com: clad in livery, as servants: a liveried footman.

一種の制服ですね。