原文
Through Anne's mind drifted an intrusive recollection of a funny story
she had heard Philippa Gordon tell--the story of some old man who had
said very much the same thing about the world to come. It had sounded
funny then--she remembered how she and Priscilla had laughed over it.
But it did not seem in the least humorous now, coming from Ruby's pale,
trembling lips. It was sad, tragic--and true! Heaven could not be what
Ruby had been used to. There had been nothing in her gay, frivolous
life, her shallow ideals and aspirations, to fit her for that great
change, or make the life to come seem to her anything but alien and
unreal and undesirable. Anne wondered helplessly what she could say
that would help her. Could she say anything? "I think, Ruby," she began
hesitatingly--for it was difficult for Anne to speak to any one of the
deepest thoughts of her heart, or the new ideas that had vaguely begun
to shape themselves in her mind, concerning the great mysteries of life
here and hereafter, superseding her old childish conceptions, and it
was hardest of all to speak of them to such as Ruby Gillis--"I think,
perhaps, we have very mistaken ideas about heaven--what it is and what
it holds for us. I don't think it can be so very different from life
here as most people seem to think. I believe we'll just go on living, a
good deal as we live here--and be OURSELVES just the same--only it will
be easier to be good and to--follow the highest. All the hindrances
and perplexities will be taken away, and we shall see clearly. Don't be
afraid, Ruby."
語彙など
- intrusive:立ち入った,出しゃばりの
- recollection:思い出
- humorous:ユーモアのある,滑稽な
- trembling lips:震える唇
- gay:陽気な
- frivolous:うわついた
- shallow:浅はかな
- ideal:理想
- aspiration:強い願望
- anything but:〜とは程遠い
- alien:縁もゆかりもない
- unreal:非現実的な
- hesitatingly:ためらいがちに
- vaguely:漠然と
- concerning:〜に関して
- hereafter:これから先
- supersede:〜にとって代わる
- conception:考え
- mistaken idea:間違った考え,誤解
- a good deal:ずいぶん
- hindrance:障害
- perplexity:紛糾,難局