資料No.001ペイシェンス・ワースとのテーブルトーク

資料室

以下ペイシェンス・ワースと夫人たちの会話。
原文では『Mrs. C』『Mrs P』『Mrs. H』『P. W』とあるが、なんだか面倒なので該当人物に変換。
『Mrs. C』＝パール・カラン
『Mrs P』＝ポラード夫人 パールの母
『Mrs. H』＝エミリー・ハッチングス
『P. W』＝ペイシェンス・ワース


ポラード: That seems to be a rebuke. I wonder if she is particularly fond of Mrs. C., and if that is the reason for coming always to her.
ペイシェンスワース: To brew a potion, needs must have a pot.
パール: I wonder what she thinks of the women of this day?
ペイシェンス: A good wife keepeth the floor well sanded and rushes in plenty to burn. The pewter should reflect the fires bright glow. Clip the wings of the goose. ‘Twill teach thee clever tricks and brush the dust of long standing away. [Undoubtedly a reflection on Mrs. C.’s housekeeping. Ed.]
ポラード: I wish we could get something besides sarcasm. I wish—
ペイシェンス: From constant wishing the moon may tip for thee!
ポラード: I don’t wish for anything, but I do want a lot of things.
ペイシェンス: The swine cry “Want, want, want.”

ポラード: I yield to Patience. She’s cleverer than all three of us.
ペイシェンス: Some folk, like the bell without a clapper, go clanging on in good faith, believing the good folk can hear.
ポラード: I hardly think I needed that scolding.
ペイシェンス: Nor does the smock need the wimple.
ハッチングス: Just what do you think of Mrs. P?
ペイシェンス: The men should stock her.
ポラード: She should not select me for her sarcasm. It’s you two who interrupt and laugh at her. It’s that that makes her angry.
ハッチングス: Do you mean that Mrs. P should be put in the stocks?
ペイシェンス: Aye, and leave a place for two.
ポラード: I knew she didn’t mean all that solely for me. I wish, though, that she would give us something nice.
ペイシェンス: Mayhap thou wouldst have a pumpkin tart?
ポラード: If she cannot forego sarcasm, then I wish she would stop altogether.
ペイシェンス: Then beat the hound.
パール: We ought to be satisfied with what is given us.
ポラード: Well, I don’t feel as though I am to blame. I have been trying all evening to encourage you to be nice to her so that she would give us a nice message.
ペイシェンス: Gadzooks, hear her!

パール: You’ve been listening to what we’ve been saying, Patience.
ペイシェンス: A whip in time saves nine. Get thou thy kettle of brass and burnish bright its sides, so she may see herself therein.
パール: Whom do you mean?

ペイシェンス: She of the peppery tongue.
パール: She wants you to see yourself as others see you.
ペイシェンス: A look around would not be amiss.
パール: She means it for each one of us.

ハッチングス: She is caustic, but what she says is full of homely wisdom.
ペイシェンス: Oh, then hast thou looked beneath the goose’s feathers and discovered the down?

ペイシェンス: Dost thou know what war is? Hell.
パール: That is the first thing she has ever said that was out of keeping with her time. That expression originated during our own Civil War.
ペイシェンス: Dost thou flatter thyself that today’s thoughts and deeds were born today, by [of] such a fledgling as thou?
ハッチングス: Whew! She must have been wonderful at repartee when she was young?
ペイシェンス: Young? Am I not young?

ハッチングス: Then just what is your age, Patience?

ペイシェンス: Seven is odd. ‘Tis so my age. ‘Tis odd; I forget it.
ポラード: She will not betray her age. It is when we begin to get old that we are touchy about it.
ペイシェンス: Let the cat have her nine lives.
ハッチングス: Tell us something of conditions when you were here on earth, Patience. You told us once than men were a farthing-worth to you.
ペイシェンス: A man loveth his wife, but ah, the buckles on his knee-breeks!
The sitters clamored for more.

ペイシェンス: Over-feeding will kill the Yuletide goose.

---

時間があるときにちょくちょく訳していこうと思います。「私がやってあげよう！」いう殊勝な方がおられたらオカクロ運営部が泣いて喜びます。