swoon

Osam Dazaiの小説 "No Longer Human" を読んでいます。

People speak also of a "sense of wrongdoing," a term that appearently refers to wretched losers and rogues. I feel I have been an outcast since the day i was born. Whenever I encounter someone whom society has branded an outcast, my heart softens, becomes so tender and mild that I could swoon.

"swoon" を調べます。

・Oxford English Dictionary: swoon (over somebody) to feel very excited, emotional, etc. about somebody that you think is sexually attractive: He's used to having women swooning over him.
・Collins Dictionary: If you swoon, you are strongly affected by your feelings for someone you love or admire very much.: Virtually every woman in the '20s swooned over Valentino.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: to feel a lot of pleasure, love, etc. because of something or someone: The audience swooned with delight.

cutup

Osam Dazaiの小説 "No Longer Human" を読んでいます。

I was living away from home for the first time, and life felt much easier. Perhaps this was because being a cutup had become second nature to me.

"cutup" を調べます。

・Cambridge English Dictionary: someone who behaves in an active and silly way in order to make people laugh:　It's hard to believe Ella was a cutup in school - she's so polite now.
・Merriam-Webster: a person who clowns or acts boisterously: In school he was always a cutup, telling jokes and acting silly.
・Wiktionary: Someone who cuts up; someone who acts boisterously or clownishly, for example, by playing practical jokes.: I've got a brother who's a real cut-up too.

小中学生にはそう言う子、特に男の子がいますね。自分もその頃はその傾向があった覚えがあります。

protean

Osam Dazaiの小説 "No Longer Human" を読み始めました。

太宰治の人間失格を最初に英訳したのは有名なDonald Keenだそうですが、私が読むのはJuliet Winters Carpenterという方で、最初にそのTranslator's Introductionからの文を引用します。

He feels superior to others, yet at the same time he deeply fears them. To mask his fear and also to gain love and acceptance, he adopts the persons of a clown, always trying to make others laugh with his shenanigans. The pervasive gloom in the novel is lightened by Yozo's ironic self-awareness as well as by Dazai's genius for storytelling and his protean, fluid style.

"protean" の意味を調べます。

・Oxford English Dictionary: able to change quickly and easily: a protean character
・Collins Dictionary: If you describe someone or something as protean, you mean that they have the ability to continually change their nature, appearance, or behaviour.: He is a protean stylist who can move from blues to ballads and grand symphony.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: easily and continuously changing: the protean talents of this comedian

頑固者の正反対ですね。

string bean

Yoko Ogawaの短編 "Dormitory" を読んでいます。

"Do you remember how the river crabs used to come into the garden while we were sitting on the porch helping Grandmother clean string beans? He seemed to be wandering back to a summer afternoon in the country.

"string beans" は細長い豆の様ですが、推測できるのはインゲンだけですが、辞書を見ます。

・Oxford English Dictionary: a type of bean that is a long thin green pod, cooked and eaten whole as a vegetable
・Collins Dictionary: String beans are long, very narrow green vegetables consisting of the cases that contain the seeds of a climbing plant.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: UK also French bean),US also string bean or green bean: Other crops which contribute to the economy are potatoes, carrots, corn, sweetpeas, string beans and herbs.

最後に引用した辞書には写真も載っているのでリンクを付けました。

quadrangle

今日は台風が近づいてきているので毎週金曜日の午前中に行っている卓球クラブの練習は珍しく休みにしました。午後のテニスの練習はどうするかまだ未定です。テニスクラブまで自転車で20分はかかるのでこの雨では厄介です。
さて、Yoko Ogawaの "Pregnancy Diary" を読んでいます。

I remembered a meeting that some fellow students had dragged me to a few months earlier. The title of the program was "Pollution: Our Earth, Our Bodies." There weren't many people there, but they seemed a sincere little group. As an outsider, I sat at a desk in the corner and stared out the window at a row of poplars lining the quadrangle.

"quadrangle" は４に関係ある言葉の様ですが辞書を見ます。

・Oxford English Dictionary: an open square area that has buildings all around it, especially in a school or college: It has a large central quadrangle entered from the south side.
・Collins Dictionary: A quadrangle is an open square area with buildings round it, especially in a college or school.:
Developers want to replace faded quadrangles with glass and concrete towers.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: a flat shape with four straight sides: Squares and rectangles are forms of quadrangles.

四角い中庭のことですね。