Reader's Digest July/Aug号の記事、"Take Me Out to the Blackberry Patch"、野球少年だった筆者が思い出すのは野球の試合の中身ではなく、試合の途中で見つけたブラックベリーを食べたことでした。
As it turns out, the ball had come to rest in plain sight about ten feet past the fence. Out two missing outfielders had seen it. But they had also discovered a blackberry bramble. It was filled with a mother lode of ripe and apparently delicious blackberries.
...
It's always the blackberry moments that stand out when I stop to think about the wide variety of sports I've had the chance to be part of in the winding course of my career.
"mother lode" は以前取り上げているはずと思ったのですが、記録にはありません。そこで改めて辞書の説明を引用します。
・Oxford English Dictionary: A rich source of something.: your portfolio holds a mother lode of opportunities
・Macmillan Dictionary: supply of something that you can use: His vast experience gives him a mother lode of political stories to tell.
元々は鉱脈を示していた表現ですね。
Reader's Digest is a mother lode of English expressions for me.
How Japan got new contract law it neither wants nor needs One possible explanation for the inexplicable change in contract law: It is a giant experiment driven by academic hubris and bureaucratic ambition.
法律は全く勉強したことがなく疎いので、この先生の意見が適切かどうか全く判断できませんが、憲法を含め人間が決めた法律に完璧なものは無いと言うのは私でも断言できます。民法などは時代によって修正の必要が出てきても不思議ではありません。
"op-ed": Denoting or printed on the page opposite the editorial page in a newspaper, devoted to commentary, feature articles, etc.(Oxford English Dictionary)
In a newspaper, the op-ed page is a page containing articles in which people express their opinions about things. (COBUILD Advanced English Dictionary)
The Japan Times September 4の記事 "The key to winning in Afghanistan" からの抜粋です。
Islamabad's proxy jihadis cannot be defeated with half measures. And yet, we have coddled Pakistan as an important ally in the war against al-Qaida and the Taliban, even though it is essentially an enemy that has acted in ways fully inimical to the coalition’s troops, its Afghan allies and the aims of the Afghan state.
"half measures" は中途半端な手段の様な意味だと推測できますが、日本語の中途半端な手段からこの英語は知らないと出てきませんね。一応辞書で確認します。
・Collins Dictionary: inadequate measures or actions: They have already declared their intention to fight on rather than settle for half-measures.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: actions that only achieve part of what they are intended to achieve: I'm not interested in half measures.
記事の後半からも一部を抜粋します。
It is only possible for Pakistan to become a genuine strategic partner to the U.S. if it changes, and eschews its support of proxy terrorists and insurgents. The sine qua non for a win is to shut down the sanctuary and the external support from Pakistan.
"sine qua non" は以前取り上げた気がするのですが、記録がありません。そこで再度辞書の説明を引用します。
・Oxford English Dictionary: An essential condition; a thing that is absolutely necessary.: grammar and usage are the sine qua non of language teaching and learning
・Cambridge English Dictionary: a necessary condition without which something is not possible: An interest in children is a sine qua non of teaching.
The Japan Times Online August 25の記事から引用します。
Toshiba gives chip bid dibs to Western Digital after INCJ gets cold feet
Toshiba taps a consortium led by Western Digital as the favored bidder for the embattled giant’s memory chip business.
"dibs" は 7/10/2009 に取り上げました。
"cold feet" は初めて目にする気がする表現ですが、記事の状況を知っているので、及び腰の様な意味であると推測できます。辞書で確認します。
・Oxford English Dictionary: Loss of nerve or confidence.: some investors got cold feet and backed out
・Farlex Dictionary of Idioms: Nervousness or anxiety felt before one attempts to do something.: I wasn't nervous until the morning of my wedding, but everyone assured me that it was just cold feet. Good luck getting her out on stage—she always gets cold feet before a performance.
前者の辞書の例文は上の記事にピッタリですね。
最寄りの図書館には洋書は置いていないので、本館にある本をネットで予約して、最寄りの図書館では受け取りと返却だけでしたが、つい最近、英語の多読本コーナーができたのに気が付きました。 多読は辞書を引かずに読むのが鉄則だそうで、私の主義とは合わないのですが、とりあえずレベル６の "Crime and Punishment"(by Fyodor Dostoevsky) とレベル３の "Forrest Gump"(Winston Groom) を借りて読みました。 "Crime and Punishment" はさすがに名作で、話の展開も早く、とても気に入りました。但し、多読用に書かれたせいか、難しい単語や慣用句は一つもなく、私でも辞書を引く必要はありませんでした。 もう一冊の "Forrest Gump" も話の展開は早く、まあまあ面白い話でした。読み始めて直ぐに気になる台詞が出てきました。
But one day when he had to change a wheel on the car, I helped him.
'If you're an idiot,' he said, angrily, 'how do you know how to do that?'
'Maybe I am an idiot,' I said, 'but I'm not stupid.'
"idiot" も "stupid" 同じ様なものだと思っていましたが、上の台詞は明らかに両者を区別しています。まず辞書で "idiot" の項を見ます。
・Oxford English Dictionary:
informal A stupid person.
archaic A mentally handicapped person.
・Miller-Keane Encyclopedia and Dictionary of Medicine, Nursing, and Allied Health: old term for profound mental retardation, now considered offensive.: idiot savant a person who is generally mentally retarded, yet has a particular mental faculty developed to an unusually high degree, such as for mathematics or music
なるほど、 "stupid" と同じ様な意味でも使われるが、"profound mental retardation" の意味では今は使わないとあります。恐らく差別用語なのでしょう。
"idiot" の方も辞書で確認します。
・Oxford English Dictionary: Having or showing a great lack of intelligence or common sense.: I was stupid enough to think she was perfect.
・Collins Dictionary: If you say that someone or something is stupid, you mean that they show a lack of good judgment or intelligence and they are not at all sensible.: I'll never do anything so stupid again.
辞書を引かないと読むのは確かに速くなりますね。上記の2冊を4日間の通勤時間と昼食時間で読み終えました。
Reader's Digest July/Aug号の "A Day's Work" コラムからの引用です。
A few years back, stress at work nearly caused my wife to suffer a nervous breakdown. A psychiatrist helped her greatly, and soon she saw him only occasionally to check in. The last time they met, she announced, "I have some good news and some bad news."
"What's the good news?" the doctor asked.
"My company gave me early retirement, so I haven't felt stressed for over a year.
" "That's great! What's the bad news?"
"I don't have a job now, so I can't pay you."
Recently I woke up in a particularly good mood. So much so that I felt compelled to look over at my husband and say, "Honey, I love you."
He returned my gaze and asked, "Why? What's the matter?"
英米人は常に愛人や伴侶に頻繁に "I love you." と言うと聞いていますが、そう言われても "Why? What's the matter?" と感じる英米人もいるのを知り、納得です。
辞書では分からないかも知れませんが一応見ています。
・Collins Dictionary: any of various scorpion fishes of the tropical Pacific genus Pterois, having a striped body and elongated spiny fins
この辞書には珍しくこの魚の図も掲載されていました。(lionfish)
勿論Wikipediaにも魚の図が出ています。
・Wikipedia: Pterois is a genus of venomous marine fish, commonly known as lionfish, native to the Indo-Pacific. Pterois, also called zebrafish, firefish, turkeyfish or butterfly-cod, is characterized by conspicuous warning coloration with red, white, creamy, or black bands, showy pectoral fins, and venomous spiky fin rays.
‘Well, I still say you were lucky, but not many first-years could have taken on a full-grown mountain troll. You each win Gryffindor five points.’
この "take on" が分からないので辞書を見ます。
・Collins Dictionary: If you take someone on, you fight them or compete against them, especially when they are bigger or more powerful than you are.: Democrats were reluctant to take on a president whose popularity ratings were historically high.
・Cambridge Dictionary of American Idioms: to fight or compete against someone: Later today, the World Cup champions take on Chile. When you take a fighter like that on, you could end up in big trouble.
土曜日のサントリーとヤマハのラグビーの試合は接戦で良い試合でしたね。両チームに拍手。
さて、Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stoneを読んでいます。HarryはQuidditchと言うゲームの選手として練習をすることになりました。
Harry had a lot of trouble keeping his mind on his lessons that day.
'I have that problem all the time,' said George seriously.
It kept wandering up to the dormitory where his new broomstick was lying under his bed, or straying off to the Quidditch field where he'd be learning to play that night.
He bolted his dinner that evening without noticing what he was eating, and then rushed upstairs with Ron to unwrap the Nimbus Two Thousand at last.
上に出てきた "bolt" の意味が分からないので辞書を見ます。
・Oxford English Dictionary: (often bolt something down) [with object] Eat or swallow (food) quickly.: ‘it is normal for puppies to bolt down their food’
・Collins Dictionary: If you bolt your food, you eat it so quickly that you hardly chew it or taste it.: Being under stress can cause you to miss meals, eat on the move, or bolt your food.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: (also bolt down) to eat food very quickly: Don't bolt your food like that - you'll get indigestion.
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