原文
It has in its park a martello tower, autographed all over by tourists,
a dismantled old French fort on the hills beyond the town, and several
antiquated cannon in its public squares. It has other historic spots
also, which may be hunted out by the curious, and none is more quaint
and delightful than Old St. John's Cemetery at the very core of the
town, with streets of quiet, old-time houses on two sides, and busy,
bustling, modern thoroughfares on the others. Every citizen of Kingsport
feels a thrill of possessive pride in Old St. John's, for, if he be of
any pretensions at all, he has an ancestor buried there, with a queer,
crooked slab at his head, or else sprawling protectively over the grave,
on which all the main facts of his history are recorded. For the most
part no great art or skill was lavished on those old tombstones. The
larger number are of roughly chiselled brown or gray native stone, and
only in a few cases is there any attempt at ornamentation. Some are
adorned with skull and cross-bones, and this grizzly decoration is
frequently coupled with a cherub's head. Many are prostrate and in
ruins. Into almost all Time's tooth has been gnawing, until some
inscriptions have been completely effaced, and others can only be
deciphered with difficulty. The graveyard is very full and very bowery,
for it is surrounded and intersected by rows of elms and willows,
beneath whose shade the sleepers must lie very dreamlessly, forever
crooned to by the winds and leaves over them, and quite undisturbed by
the clamor of traffic just beyond.
語彙など
- Martello tower:マーテロ塔(19世紀に大英帝国によってイギリスおよび植民地の海岸地帯に建造された円形の要塞)
- autograph:署名
- dismantle:解体する
- fort:要塞
- antiquated:旧式の
- cannon:大砲
- public square:公共広場
- quaint:面白い,古風で趣のある
- bustling:騷がしい,活気のある
- thoroughfare:大通り,通り抜け道
- possessive:所有の
- pretension:自負,気取り
- queer:奇妙な
- crook:曲げる
- slab:石板
- sprawl:不規則に広がる
- lavish:〜を気前良く使う
- chiselled:のみで彫刻した
- ornamentation:装飾
- adorn:装飾する
- skull:頭がい骨
- cross:十字形
- grizzly:灰色の
- cherub:美しい子供
- prostrate:倒れた
- in ruins:荒廃して
- gnaw:腐食する,かじる
- inscription:碑文
- efface:こすり消す,ぬぐい去る
- decipher:解読する
- bowery:木陰の多い
- intersect:交差する
- elm:エルム,ニレの木
- willow:柳
- shade:陰
- croon:口ずさむ,甘くささやくように歌う
- clamor:喧騒
- traffic:交通,往来