hyaluronic acid

Mieko Kawakamiの 'Breasts and Eggs' を読んでいます。
At first Makiko and all the other hostesses treaded lightly, since no one had the nerve to bring it up, but pretty soon the girl was telling everyone about the place she had her eyelids done and what it cost, or where she went to have the hyaluronic acid treatment for her chin, or where she went to have her nose remodeled.

"hyaluronic acid" はヒアルロン酸の事だと思いますが、スペルが日本語のヒアルロンとはかなり違っているので辞書で確認します。

・Collins Dictionary: a viscous polysaccharide with important lubricating properties, present, for example, in the synovial fluid in joints
・Wiktionary: (organic chemistry, biochemistry) A mucopolysaccharide (a kind of polymer) that forms a gel-like substance within animal connective tissue.
・Vocabulary.com: a viscous mucopolysaccharide found in the connective tissue space and the synovial fluid of movable joints and the humors of the eye; a cementing and protective substance

英語の発音は次の辞書（Merriam-Webster）で聴けますのでリンクを付けて置きました。日本語のヒアルロン酸はドイツ語から来たのでしょうか？

be on call

Mieko Kawakamiの 'Breasts and Eggs' を読んでいます。
What about Aizawa? I wondered what he was up to. I guess he'd be on call, working the night shift. He'd told me once that when he did house calls after dark, he almost always found the patient dead.

Aizawaは医者なので、"be on call" は電話での呼び出しに待機している状態を示していると思いますが、辞書で確認します。

・Oxford English Dictionary: (of a doctor, police officer, etc.) available for work if necessary, especially in an emergency: on-call doctors
・Collins Dictionary: If someone is on call, they are ready to go to work at any time if they are needed, especially if there is an emergency.: In theory I'm on call day and night.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: If a worker such as a doctor is on call, he or she is available to work or make official visits at any time when needed: She's a doctor, so she's often on call at the weekend.

top me off

Mieko Kawakamiの 'Breasts and Eggs' を読んでいます。

Rika drank hers in one go, then grinned and held her glass out for more. I drank mine too and had her top me off.

"top me off" の意味が分かりません。　色々と辞書を見たのですが、それでも分かりません。　そこで最近覚えた必殺技を使いました。　CharGPTに訊きました。　瞬間で次の説明がありました。

In the context of the sentence you provided, "had her top me off" likely means that the speaker asked or signaled to Rika to refill their glass. "Top me off" is a colloquial expression often used in the context of refilling a drink, especially when it comes to pouring more of a beverage into a glass or container. In this case, the speaker drank their initial serving, and then asked Rika to pour them more of the same drink.

なるほど納得です。

normcore

Mieko Kawakamiの 'Breasts and Eggs' を読んでいます。

"Hey, I'm all for it. Under this coat, I'm wearing gym clothes, so..."
"Haha, in this light, it's like, is that Jil Sander? That's what they call normcore." Sengawa laughed and took a sip of whisky "At least that's what my friend at a fashion magazine told me."

"normcore" はSengawaの着ている 'gym clothes' を指しているようですが、どんな服でしょうか？

・Wiktionary: (fashion) A unisex fashion trend characterized by average-looking, unpretentious clothing.: That means he's normcore. Dangerously regular. Dresses only in T-shirts an' jeans, uses slang appropriated from other sub cultures, but only 3 years after it's[sic – meaning its] first use, an' only after it's been used in a sitcom.
・Wikipedia: Normcore is a unisex fashion trend characterized by unpretentious, average-looking clothing. Normcore fashion includes jeans, T-shirts, sweats, button-downs, and sneakers.

ユニクロの服を連想しますね。　"normcore" なのかどうかは私には分かりませんが。

menarche - sequel

先日気になった下記の個所に相当する日本語を調べて見ました。　'Breasts and Eggs' の日本語版は川上未映子の「乳と卵」ではなく「夏物語」と分かったので、「夏物語」を調べることにしました。　英語版の'Breasts and Eggs'で気になった個所を再度引用します。

I was wondering about the "men" in "menarche." Turns out it's the same as the "men" in "menstruation." It means "month," which comes from "moon," and has to do with women and their monthly cycle. Moon has all kinds meanings. In addition to being the thing orbiting the earth, it can involve time, or tides, like the ebb and flow of the ocean. So "menarche" has absolutely nothing to do with "men." So why spell it that way? What happened to the "o"?

上記の段落に相当する原文は、主人公夏の姉（巻子）の娘、緑子の日誌（原文では、〇で始まり、緑子で終わる、形式になっている、翻訳版では Dear Journal,で始まり、--Midorikoで終わる形式。）の最後の段落で次の場面でした。

「それでちょっと気になって、初潮って言葉を調べて見た。初潮の初、は、それは初めて、ということで分かるけど、うしろにある潮っていうのがようわからん。
...
...さっぱりわからん。むかつく。」

となっていました。　やはり、漢字で出来ている言葉を分解する日本語の個所をそのまま英語には出来ないので翻訳者は大分苦労した結果の英訳でしたね。　
もう一つ前の緑子の日誌も次のように漢字を話題にしている個所です。

〇　卵子にはなぜ、子という字がつくのかというと、それは精子、に子という字がついているから、それにあわせただけなのです。これは、今日いちばんのわたしの発見。
...
いや、という字には厭と嫌があって、厭のほうがほんまにいやな感じがあるので、厭を練習。厭、厭。

緑子

この個所に当たる翻訳は次の様になっています。
Dear Journal,
Okay, So I've been eating eggs for my whole life. But today I learned that women have "ova," as in "ovals," which literally means eggs. How is it possible I knew about sperm first? That doesn't seem fair.
...
You can call it disgusting, repellent, revolting. I looked up "disgusting," in the dictionary. The "dis" part means undo, and the "gust" part means taste. I guess that makes sense.
--Midoriko

これは通常の英訳の域を外れて、意訳とでもいうのでしょうか？　言葉のしゃれと同様に漢字を話題にすると翻訳者は訳すのに苦労しますね。

king of the hill

Mieko Kawakamiの 'Breasts and Eggs' を読んでいます。

"For every reason." Rie emptied her sake cup. "Let's start off with how she saw my dad. He was your typical king of the hill. We couldn't say anything growing up. I was a kid. and a girl on top of that, so he never saw me as a real person. I never even heard him call my mother by her name.

"king of the hill" の意味は文脈から分かりますが、辞書で確認します。

・Wiktionary: (idiomatic, by extension) A person who has achieved a measure of success and is considered to be a leader in his field.: He was considered a renegade in journalism until he won the Pulitzer Prize, but now he is the king of the hill.
・Farlex Dictionary of Idioms: The most powerful, successful, or authoritative person in a group or organization.: After years of slowly moving up the ranks, Joe finally became king of the hill in his office.

"King of the Hill" はゲームやTVのアニメの題名にもなっているとWikipediaに書かれています。

band shirt

Mieko Kawakamiの 'Breasts and Eggs' を読んでいます。

I sat there with my coat on but felt like I was never going to be warm again. Still, I swallowed the glass of ice water in front of me and asked for another. The shop was long and narrow. The front was a cafe, but the back was stocked with clothes and trinkets. The walls were decorated in band shirts, all of them black.

"band shirts"　どんなシャツでしょうか？

・Urban Dictionary: A shirt bearing the name and/or logo of a band or musician.: Woah look at that guy, he's 'coz he's wearing a ____ band shirt.
この俗語辞典にだけ掲載されていました。

nap

Mieko Kawakamiの 'Breasts and Eggs' を読んでいます。

I couldn't tell where we were going. There weren't that many people, and the nap of the seat fabric scratched at the backs of my thighs.

"nap" は以前(7/6/2017)取り上げましたが忘れていました。　簡単な単語で知っている単語でもありますが、この意味は中々覚えられません。

I owe Maki the world

Mieko Kawakamiの 'Breasts and Eggs' を読んでいます。

ferris wheelに乗っている間の主人公とMidorikoとの会話です。もっともMidorikoはしゃべらないのでもっぱら主人公が昔のことを一方的に話ているだけですが。

"I owe Maki the world," I said. "After Mom and Komi died, when it was just the two of us, Maki took care of everything. Everything. She got me a job washing dishes and brought food back from the restaurant. The food kept us alive."

Makiは話し手（Natsu）の姉で、Komiは祖母を指しています。姉妹の母と祖母が他界した時、話し手はまだ幼く、姉とはかなり歳が離れていたので、姉の世話になったことを姉の娘(Midoriko)に話している場面です。　そんな場面なので "I owe Maki the world" の意味はだいたい分かりますが、この場合の "the world" を説明している辞書を探します。

・Oxford English Dictionary:
1. a way of life where possessions and physical pleasures are important, rather than spiritual values: monks and nuns renouncing the world
2. a person’s environment, experiences, friends and family, etc.: When his wife died, his entire world was turned upside down.
・Merriam-Webster: all that is important : everything: I would give my children the world if I could.
・The American Heritage Dictionary: All that relates to or affects the life of a person: He saw his world collapse about him.

Merriam-Websterの説明が簡単で一番合っているかなと思います。　つまり、"I owe Maki every thing" とも言い換えられますから。

what it takes

Mieko Kawakamiの 'Breasts and Eggs' を読んでいます。

"It took a lot of blood, sweat, and tears to get us here," the mother sobbed. She put her handkerchief up to her nose. "I know my son has what it takes. I want him to go all the way." The cameraman asked her something.

"what it takes" を辞書で調べます。

・Merriam-Webster: the skills and personality needed: She has (got) what it takes to do the job.
・Wiktionary: Everything that is required, especially skill or endurance.: You don't know what it takes to succeed at competitive frisbee.
・Farlex Dictionary of Idioms: The skill, ability, or wherewithal to do something.: She's pretty talented—I think she might have what it takes to make it in Hollywood.