原文
"It's just STAYING, that's what," she said as she stepped along the deep-rutted, grassy lane bordered with wild rose bushes. "It's no wonder Matthew and Marilla are both a little odd, living away back here by themselves. Trees aren't much company, though dear knows if they were there'd be enough of them. I'd ruther look at people. To be sure, they seem contented enough; but then, I suppose, they're used to it. A body can get used to anything, even to being hanged, as the Irishman said."
With this Mrs. Rachel stepped out of the lane into the backyard of Green Gables. Very green and neat and precise was that yard, set about on one side with great patriarchal willows and the other with prim Lombardies. Not a stray stick nor stone was to be seen, for Mrs. Rachel would have seen it if there had been. Privately she was of the opinion that Marilla Cuthbert swept that yard over as often as she swept her house. One could have eaten a meal off the ground without overbrimming the proverbial peck of dirt.
語彙など
- rutted:轍のできた
- dear knows:誰にも分からない
- contented:満足した
- hang:の首を吊る
- precise:緻密な
- set about:手を付ける
- patriarchal:長老の
- willow:柳
- prim:整った
- Lombardy poplar:セイヨウハコヤナギ
- stray:散在する
- be of the opinion that:と考えている
- overbrim:こぼれさせる
- proverbial:諺にある
ruther→ratherだと思うが、ミススペル
なのか、発音を重視してわざとこう書いた
のか不明。
We must eat a peck of dirt before we die.原典はA Bushel and a Peck
誰だって生きてるうちに一度はごみを食べなければならない(人生において一度は屈辱を受ける)
