英文をいかに読むか
第2編5 Somerset Maugham
No more stupid apology*1 for pain has ever been devised than that it elevates*2. It*3 is an explanation due to*4 the necessity of justifying pain from the Christian point of view. Pain is nothing more than the signal given by the nerves that*5 the organism*6 is in circumstances hurtful to*7 it*8; it*9 would*10 be as reasonable to assert that a danger signal*11 elevates*12 a train*13. But one would have thought that*14 the ordinary observation of life was enough*15 to show that in the great majority of cases, pain, far from refining*16, has an effect which is merely brutalising*17. An example in point is the case of hospital in-patients*18: physical pain makes them self-absorbed*19, selfish, querulous*20, impatient, unjust*21 and greedy; I could*22 name*23 a score*24 of petty*25 vices*26 that it*27 generates, but not one virtue. Poverty also is pain. I have known well men who suffered from that grinding*28 agony*29 of poverty which befalls*30 persons who have to live among those richer than themselves; it makes them grasping*31 and mean*32, dishonest and untruthful. It*33 teaches them all sorts of detestable*34 tricks*35. With*36 moderate means*37 they would have been honourable men, but ground down*38 by poverty they have lost all sense of decency*39.
A Wirter's Notebook by Somerset Maugham
27の頃の文章。トピックセンテンスが押さえられれば、後はスムーズにわかってきます。trainの件はorganismであるべきだと思うのですが･･･
第2編6 Somerset Maugham
It is salutary*40 to realise the fundamental isolation*41 of the individual mind. We have no certain knowledge of any consciousness but our own*42. We can only know the world through our own personality. Because the behaviour of others is similar to our own*43, we surmise*44 that they*45 are like us; it is a shock to discover that they are not*46. As I grow older I am more and more amazed to discover how great are the differences between one man and another. I am not far from believing*47 that everyone is unique.
A Wirter's Notebook by Somerset Maugham
27の頃の文章
第2編7 Somerset Maugham
I wonder how anyone*48 can have the face*49 to condemn others when he reflects upon*50 his own thoughts. A great part of our lives is occupied in reverie*51, and the more imaginative we are, the more varied and vivid this*52 will be. How many of us could*53 face*54 having our reveries automatically registered*55 and set before*56 us? We should*57 be overcome*58 with shame. We should cry that we could not really be as mean*59, as wicked*60, as petty*61, as selfish, as obscene*62, as snobbish, as vain*63, as sentimental, as that*64. Yet surely our reveries are as much part of us as our actions, and if there were a being to whom our inmost*65 thoughts were known we might just as well be held responsible for them as for our deeds*66. Men forget the horrible thoughts that wander through their own minds, and are indignant*67 when they discover them in others.
The Summing Up by Somerset Maugham
第2編8 Somerset Maugham
I discovered that beauty was a full stop*68. When I considered*69 beautiful things I found that there was nothing for me to do but to gaze and admire. The emotion they gave me was exquisite*70, but I could not preserve it*71, nor could I indefinitely repeat it; the most beautiful things in the world finished by boring me. I noticed that I got a more lasting satisfaction from works*72 of a more tentative*73 character. Because they*74 had not achieved complete success they gave more scope*75 for the activity of my imagination. In the greatest of all works of art everything had been realized, I could give nothing, and my restless*76 mind tired*77 of passive contemplation*78. It seemed to me that beauty was like the summit of a mountain peak; when you had reached it there was nothing to do but to come down again. Perfection is a trifle*79 dull. It is not the least*80 of life's ironies that this*81, which*82 we all aim at, is better not quite achieved*83.
The Summing Up by Somerset Maugham
*1:apology: 弁明、正当性を主張すること。No + [more stupid apology]
*2:elevate: 品性を向上させる。that以下は基準となるstupid apologyの内容。than apology that it(pain) elevates
*3:the stupid apology
*4:born of
*5:以下、signalの内容
*7:hurtful toを傷つける
*8:organism
*9:to assert...
*10:仮定。If pain elevates, it would...
*11:danger signal: 赤信号
*12:elevate: の品位を高める
*13:as the stupid apology above
*14:人は･･･と考えたであろう。Maughamはwould thinkよりもwould have thoughtを好んで使っていた
*15:that...を示すには日常の観察だけで十分である
*16:refine: 上品にする。elevateの言い換え
*17:brutalize: 獣にする、残忍にする
*18:in-patients:入院患者。out-patients:外来患者
*19:self-absorbed: absorbed in oneself, 自分のことに夢中な、自分のことしか考えない
*20:querulous: 不満の多い
*21:unjust: 不正な、理にかなっていない
*22:仮定。やろうと思えばできる
*23:name: 理由などを述べる･挙げる
*24:score: 20
*26:vice: 悪徳
*27:pain
*28:grinding: 虐げる、身心を押しひしいでしまいそうな
*29:苦痛
*30:befall: に(悪いことが)起こる。fall upon
*31:grasping: 貪欲な。greedy
*32:mean: 卑劣な、さもしい
*33:it=poverty
*34:detestable: 憎悪すべき
*36:仮定のwith
*37:means: 財力、財産
*38:grind down: すり減らす、虐げる
*39:decency: 上品さ
*40:salutary: 有益な。wholesome, useful, resulting in good
*41:fundamental isolation: 根本においては孤立したものであること
*42:our own concisousness
*43:our own behaviour
*44:surmise: 推測する
*45:they=others
*46:like usの省略
*47:not far from doing...: ･･･から遠くない、･･･しかかっている
*48:特に誰ということではなく、誰にもせよ
*50:reflect upon: のことを思案する、回顧する
*51:reverie: 夢想、物思い
*52:this=reverie
*53:仮定法
*54:face: 耐える
*55:register: 記録する
*56:set something before someone: 物を人に提供する
*57:仮定法
*58:overcome: 打ち勝つ。デモのスローガンとして、we shall overcome「勝利をわれらの手に｣(W-S-O)が使われることがある
*59:mean: 卑劣な、さもしい
*60:wicked: 邪悪な、不道徳な
*62:obscene: わいせつな、みだらな
*63:vain: 虚栄心の強い
*64:前にある各asと対応し、仮定されている、その「目の前に置かれたもの｣をさす
*65:inmost: 最も内部の、心の奥底にある
*66:might as well A as B: BするのはAするのと同じだ
cf: You might as well expect the river to flow backward as expect to change my opinion.
私に意見を変えさせようとするのは、川の水が逆流するのを期待するようなものだ。
*67:indignant: 怒った、憤慨した
*68:full stop: 終止符、終始点
*69:consider: 熟視する、つくづく眺める
*70:exquisite: 非常に美しい
*71:it=emotion
*72:works: 作品
*73:tentative: 試験的な
*74:they=works of...
*75:scope: (能力などを発揮する)場、余地
*76:restless: 落ち着きのない
*77:tire of: に飽きる。他動詞として使うのが普通
*78:contemplation: 熟考、じっと見つめること
*79:a trifle: (副詞的に)少し
*80:not the least: 最小ならざるもの
*81:this=perfection
*82:which=this
*83:better not quite achieved: 比較的よく成就しない
