2012年2月号『誤訳の構造』を読む 第15回 No.121〜130
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時間をかけて、英文読解指導書の白眉である『誤訳の構造』(中原道喜、聖文新社)を点検してゆく。
実に難しい本で、私も最初自分の出来の悪さを棚に上げ「重箱の隅をほじくるような品のない本だ」と思い、途中で放り投げた。あるとき気になって再読し始めると、これが何ともすばらしい。自分が知らなかったこと、教わらなかったこと、がどんどん出てきて、完読したらそれまで曖昧な理解であったものも、目から鱗が落ちるようにくっきり見えるようになった。
是非当コラムの読者にも読んでいただきたいが、奥が深く、一人で読み通すには相当な忍耐力がいる。そこで主に、著者が自明として端折っていそうなことで、英語中級者以上に裨益するであろうと思われる事柄を、補足する形で筆を執ってゆく。
構成は、原文、既存訳(下線部が主な間違い)、柴田の補足、の順。『誤訳の構造』を手元において、読みながら本補足を参照して下さると、学習の効果が一層上がるだろう。
The greater the threat posed by a test, the less it can measure, far less encourage learning.
[柴田の補足]
I 単語
measure:(自)測定する
II 文法
it:test
far less:劣等比較。measure (できにくい) > encourage (もっとできにくい)
In the west too it was assumed that marriage was more than a personal affair. The alliance might be made for a variety of reasons, sentiment the least of them, and the parties involved had no cause to complain so long as their partner was suitable in age, rank, health and fortune.
[柴田の補足]
I 単語
affair:問題、事柄
alliance:縁組
a variety of:いろいろな
reason:(c)理由 (u)理性
sentiment:(c)主に複数で「感情」 (u)感傷
party:側
involved:関係させる
cause:理由
so long as:…の限り
II 文法
assume:SVで「ふりをする」「装う」。SVOで①「憶測する」②「責任を引き受ける」③(to be Cで)「…とみなす」。+that節で「(根拠なく)決めてかかる」
If you are forced, on careful self-examination, to admit that you do not always show that regard for the feelings of others which you would wish shown to you, why not begin now to try to form a habit of ‘feeling with’ them, and of ‘putting yourself in their place’? There is little to lose by it, except some small selfish pleasure in putting them in the wrong. There is much to be gained―not least, an all-round increase of goodwill.
[柴田の補足]
I 単語
regard:心遣い
feel with:同情する
put O in the wrong:悪いのをOのせいにする
all-around:多方面にわたる
II 文法
that 〜 which ―:このthatは指示性がない。「あの」でなく、次から先行詞がはじまり、そのあと関係詞が来るのを予告する印。theの強調形。
He became aware that the world about him was absolutely silent. It was as still as it was dark.
[柴田の補足]
I 単語
なし
II 文法
なし
The good point was that he was dressed in a week-end way, and not as if he were planning to go anywhere. I liked his clothes, too―better than the suit in which I’d seen him before.
[柴田の補足]
I 単語
point:問題点
II 文法
なし
According to some of the most distinguished and thoughtful students of the mind, one of the most devastating and damaging things that can happen to anyone is to fail to fulfill his potential. A kind of gnawing emptiness, longing, frustration, and displaced anger takes over when this occurs.
The six year old is about the best example that can be found of that type of inquisitiveness that causes irritated adults to exclaim, “Curiosity killed the cat.”
[柴田の補足]
I 単語
distinguished:すぐれた
thoughtful:思慮に富んだ
student:研究者
devastated:破壊的な
fulfill:実現する
potential:可能性
gnawing:食い入るような
displaced:正当な場所から置き換えられた
take over:広まる
type:類型
inquisitiveness:詮索
II 文法
that 〜 that ― :これも先行詞を予告するthatと、関係詞の組み合わせ。
People are liable to confuse leisure with pleasure and pleasure with idleness. They show little discretion in the use of their increasing freedom from work. Often the best use the working man can make of his spare time is to spend his money in it.
[柴田の補足]
I 単語
discretion:思慮分別
II 文法
confuse A and B:「AとBを混同する」。confuse A withでも「AとBを混同する」の意
味になるからやっかい。このwithは「…に対する、…のついた」の意。
it:spare time
Most children do not like to hear stories about when they were younger. Infancy is not a blessed state to them, but something to be grown out of and escaped from as quickly as possible. To them, their littleness, helplessness, and clumsiness is not cute, but humiliating, and they want to be reminded of it as little as possible. (1)They don’t mind, once in a while, if we don’t overdo it, our telling them that they were very nice when they were little, but that is about as much about it as they want to hear. (2)Whatever mistakes they have made, in their growing and learning, are best forgotten.
[柴田の補足]
I 単語
be grown out of: …から脱皮する
clumsiness:不器用
cute:かわいい
humiliating:屈辱的な
once in a while:ときどき
overdo:やりすぎる
II 文法
なし
The wife knows that she is capable, as a woman, of two major experiences: marriage and childbirth. To have had both makes her the equal, in this respect, of any other woman, but to have had only the one may leave her dissatisfied; more so, perhaps, than if she had neither.
[柴田の補足]
I 単語
equal:対等物
II 文法
perhaps:ここでは頻度をいうのでなく、「そういう事もありうる」という意味。
I should tell you that though you have your freedom to go in and out as you like you have no more chance of getting away from Thonon than if you were chained by the leg in a prison cell.
[柴田の補足]
I 単語
cell:独房
II 文法
なし
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