Before I Say Good-Byeを読んでいます。 この小説には死者とコミュニケーションが取れる人がいるとか、私にとっては非常に怪しげに思える話が何度も出てきます。
Nell noted that in some of the books the author wrote about a person’s “aura.” That last day, she thought, the day of the explosion, when I saw Winifred, there seemed to be a kind of blackness around her. According to what I’ve read here, I was seeing her aura. That blackness, according to these books, is a symbol of death.
“aura”は日本語にもなっていて、特別に何かに秀でた人とか、有名な俳優などにオーラを出している人がいると言うのを聞いた事があります。残念ながら私はそんな人にあったことはありませんが。オーラーは褒め言葉として使われ、上の引用文に出てくる様なネガティブな意味はないと思っていましたので、辞書にこのようなネガティブなオーラの説明があるか確認します。
・Oxford English Dictionary: A supposed emanation surrounding the body of a living creature, viewed by mystics, spiritualists, and some practitioners of complementary medicine as the essence of the individual, and allegedly discernible by people with special sensibilities.: She started by telling me how she could see my aura was full of negative energy and that she could rid me of it.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: a feeling or character that a person or place seems to have: There's an aura of sadness about him.
確かに、ネガティブなオーラもあるのですね。
Dr. Megan surprised him, though. She didn’t seem to want to talk about the snake. She asked him about school, and he told her he was in the third grade. And then she asked about sports, and he told her he liked wrestling best, and he told her how the other day he won his match because he pinned the other kid in thirty seconds. Then they talked about music class, and he said he knew he didn’t practice enough, and he told her that he hit a real clinker when he was playing the recorder today.
リコーダを演奏している時に "hit a real clinker" とは何でしょうか？ "clinker" を辞書で見ます。
・Oxford English Dictionary: A wrong musical note.: Suddenly, I hit an obvious clinker with my right hand - a wrong note that had never happened before and that sounded pretty stupid.
・American Heritage Dictionary: A sour note in a musical performance: hit a clinker.
動詞は ""hit" が使われるようなので、"hit a clinker" で覚えると良さそうだ。
She remembered that when married Adam, Mac had warned her to file income tax returns separately. “Nell,” he had said at the time, “you intend to have a career in government service. That means the vultures will be circling around you every inch of the way, looking for some misstep on your part.
...
“Yes, Mac, I filed separately,” she said tightly. “So stop worrying.” She started once more to step outside, then turned back again. “But level with me. Is there anything you know--hear me out--and I mean know that would suggest Adam wasn’t on the up and up?”
“No,” he said somewhat reluctantly, shaking his head. “Nothing.”
慣用句に違いない "on the up and up" の意味を調べます。
・Collins Dictionary: If someone is on the up and up, they are honest and sincere. [US , informal]: I'm a pretty good judge of men. If you're honest and on the up and up, I'll be able to tell it.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: Someone who is on the up (and up) is honest and can be trusted.
・Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary: an honest or respectable course--used in the phrase on the up-and-up
政治家をこころざす人は配偶者の行動・言動等にも注意しなければならないことは最近の日本のニュースを聞いていても良く分かります。
They sat stiffly across from each other in the small but pleasant living room. Jack made a point of studying the large framed family portrait that was hanging over the couch.
“That was taken in happier times,” he observed. “Jimmy looks as though he’s got the world by the tail, every inch the proud husband and father.”
"got the world by the tail" は世界を支配している様な成功者を連想させますが、どうでしょうか？ 辞書で確認します。辞書には "has/have the world by the tail" の慣用句が載っていました。
・McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs: has destiny under control. The young businessman had the world by the tail with a downhill drag. He had made a million dollars before he was twenty-five. She's got the world by the tail now, but her fame won't last forever.
・Wiktionary: (idiomatic) To possess great influence and opportunity.: Usage notes: Also appears in such similar phrases as grab the world by the tail, got the world by the tail.
Often used in describing a situation in which a person possesses great, and perhaps excessive, self-confidence.
I was relaxing on a recent Saturday when the doorbell ring. Two pleasant grade-school children, a girl and a boy, were standing at my front door. Each held a few pieces of paper and an envelop stapled together. "Hello," said the girl. "We are raising money for a jogathon for Weldon Elementary. Would you like to donate?"
"Maybe," I responded. "Just where is this money you are collecting going to go?" They answered in unison, "Oh, it goes in this envelope." I smiled and handed each a five-dollar bill.
Before I Say Good-Byeを読んでいます。Nellの夫、Adam、が死んだボートの爆発事故にどうもこの女性、Winifred、が関係しているような雰囲気です。
She walked to the table and studied the pictures. Most of them showed a young Winifred, wearing a bathing suit and receiving an award. In a more recent photograph, she seemed to be in her early twenties, a thin, eagerly smiling, waiflike creature. “These have to be the pictures her mother said she wants,” she told Mac. “I’ll collect them on the way out.”
"waiflike" はOnelookの検索では何も出てきませんでしたが、"waif-like" では次の辞書のみが引っかかりました。
・Cambridge English Dictionary: very thin and delicate in appearance: waif-like supermodels
"waif" で引くと多くの辞書に説明があります。
・Collins Dictionary: If you refer to a child or young woman as a waif, you mean that they are very thin and look as if they have nowhere to live.: The director wants a waif-like, teenage girl with long, dark hair for the role.
・Macmillan Dictionary: a person, especially a child, who is thin and pale and looks as if they need to be taken care of
“What has oozing charm got to do with our snooping around in Winifred’s apartment?” Mac asked as they stepped off the elevator. “Come on, Nell. We used to be honest with each other. You’re not a Girl Scout doing a good deed. If there was bribery going on at Walters and Arsdale, you’re hoping to find something that will tie Winifred to the problem and leave Adam as clean as the driven snow.”
"as clean as the driven snow" は「～雪の様にきれい」の意味だろうと推測しますが、"driven snow" が分かりません。"driven snow" でOnelook検索すると、次の辞書しかリストされませんでした。
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms: (meteorology)Snow which has been moved by wind and collected into snowdrifts.
なるほど意味は分かりました。"driven" で辞書を引き直すとほとんどの辞書に "driven" の説明があります。
・Oxford English Dictionary: (of snow) piled into drifts or made smooth by the wind.: figurative ‘she was as pure as the driven snow’
・Collins Dictionary: moved along and piled up by the wind: ・driven snow
雪国ではない東京に住んでいるので、"driven snow" では残念ながらせいぜい泥で汚れた "snowdrifts" しか連想できません。
Before I Say Good-Byeを読んでいます。Nellが祖父のMacに結婚相手のAdamの話をした時の事です。
"Who the hell is this guy? Nell. You hardly know him. Okay, so he’s an architect from North Dakota who came to New York with a lousy starter job. What else do you know about him?” Mac--being Mac--had him checked out. “That college he attended is a cockamamie factory, Nell. Trust me, this guy is no Stanford White. And the places he’s worked at are mom-and-pop operations, small-time builders of shopping centers, senior-citizen housing. That kind of stuff.”
"cockamamie factory" は何でしょう？ "cockamamie" を辞書で調べます。
・Oxford English Dictionary: Ridiculous; implausible.: ‘a cockamamie theory’ ・Collins Dictionary: If you describe something as cockamamie, you mean that it is ridiculous or silly. [US , informal]: ...some cockamamie story about being late.
やはりこの "cockamamie" の語源も気になります。次の説明はMerriam-Webster's Online Dictionaryからの抜粋です。
Supposedly, cockamamy is an altered form of the term decalcomania, which denotes a process of transferring pictures and designs from specially prepared paper to surfaces such as glass or porcelain. The word decalcomania comes from the combination of French décalquer, meaning "to copy by tracing," and -manie, meaning "mania." In the 1940s, painted strips of paper with images capable of being transferred to the skin were called "decals" or "cockamanies." They were naturally regarded by many as silly novelties. Hence, in time, the variant cockamamie came to be used as an adjective meaning "ridiculous."
Before I Say Good-Bye by Mary Higgins Clarkを読んでいます。Nellの祖父Macは国会議員で引退を決めていますが、その選挙地盤をNellに引き継いでもらいたいと考えています。
Mike Powers, for example, had confided, “Nell, to say it straight, Bob Gorman hasn’t accomplished diddley-squat in the two years he’s had Mac’s seat. We’re glad he’s going to go work for one of those dot-com Internet outfits. Good riddance to him, I say. With you on the ticket, we can win.”
議員の席で（在任中に）"diddley-squat" を成し遂げなかったとの意味で、席なので "squat" の入っているこの表現が選ばれた気がしますが、どんな意味でしょうか？ 辞書を見ます。
・Oxford English Dictionary: [usually with negative] Anything.:‘She didn't care diddly-squat about what Darryl thought.
・Collins Dictionary: US and Canadian informal (usually used with a negative) anything: That doesn't mean diddly-squat.; Also : diddly, diddley
何もしなかったと言うことですね。どこかの元知事のように、無責任だったり、税金をやたらに無駄使いするよりはましだとは思います。さて、語源が気になります。前者の辞書に次の説明がありました。
1960s: probably from US slang doodle ‘excrement’+ squat in the sense ‘defecate’.
Reader's Digest Feb, 2017の記事 'In Case of Blizzard, Do Nothing' から引用します。
In the winter of 1985, my hometown, Buffalo, was engulfed in a blizzard--not an uncommon occurrence for the region, which is justly famed for epic snows. But this was a big one, and the city's blustery Irish American mayor, Jimmy Griffin, was at pains to persuade people to stop trying to go about their business as conditions deteriorated. He urged Buffalonians to "relax, stay inside, and grab a six-pack," which must be the best advice any elected official ever gave the public in an emergency situation.
"six-pack" と言うと "abs" ("A set of well-developed abdominal muscles." [as modifier] 'six-pack abs') を直ぐに連想しますが、ここでは明らかに別物です。ここでは次の意味ですね。
・Macmillan Dictionary: six bottles or cans (=metal containers) of a drink that are sold together; a six-pack of beer
トータル
