In addition to the study units, I have now started to publish full-length bilingual texts as Kindle books. These ebooks are available through Amazon.com and the localized websites.

The first book features the complete short story The Red Candle by Niimi Nankichi. You can find it here: Amazon.com, Amazon.co.jp, and any other Amazon store.

I have also set up a new page here at Reajer that lists my Kindle ebooks. There is only one as of now, but more are on the way!

This the third part of the bilingual text of The Adventure of the Empty House by Arthur Conan Doyle.

​The original and the translation are posted without changes or additions, other than being aligned sentence by sentence.

​To study these bilingual texts more in depth, you can request custom-made coaching and ask me an unlimited number of questions about anything in the text.

The Adventure of the Empty House (3)
Arthur Conan Doyle
Translated by Mikami Otokichi

​空家の冒険 (3)
コナン・ドイル
三上於莵吉訳

The Honourable Ronald Adair was the second son of the Earl of Maynooth, at that time governor of one of the Australian colonies. 

ロナルド・アデイアは、当時濠洲殖民地の、一知事であった、メイノース伯爵の次男であった。

Adair's mother had returned from Australia to undergo the operation for cataract, and she, her son Ronald, and her daughter Hilda were living together at 427 Park Lane. 

そしてアデイアの母は、白内障の手術を受けるために帰国して、息子のロナルドと、娘のヒルダと一緒に、レーヌ公園の第四百二十七番に住んでいた。

The youth moved in the best society—had, so far as was known, no enemies and no particular vices. 

この青年ロナルド・アデイアは、貴族階級の中に往来し、見受けるところ、別に敵と云うようなものもなく、また取り立てて、不徳義であると云ったようなこともないようであった。

He had been engaged to Miss Edith Woodley, of Carstairs, but the engagement had been broken off by mutual consent some months before, and there was no sign that it had left any very profound feeling behind it.

彼はカーステイアスの、エディス・ウードレー嬢と婚約の間柄であったのを、つい数ヶ月前に破棄となったのであったが、しかしこれも両方の和解の上にやったことであって、別に深い意趣をのこしたと思われるようなことも無いことであった。

For the rest {sic} the man's life moved in a narrow and conventional circle, for his habits were quiet and his nature unemotional.

その他彼の私生活を見れば、それはごく狭い通俗な範囲であった。この青年は元来、性格もごく静かで、決して激情的な若者ではなかった。

Yet it was upon this easy-going young aristocrat that death came, in most strange and unexpected form, between the hours of ten and eleven-twenty on the night of March 30, 1894.

こうしたごく平凡な無難な生活をしている貴族の青年に、全く突然に、奇怪極まる死が襲いかかったと云うのであるから、全く不可思議千万であったのである。この不可解な兇行は、一八九四年三月三十日の夜の、十時から十一時二十分までの間に行われたのであった。

This the second part of the bilingual text of The Adventure of the Empty House by Arthur Conan Doyle. The first part is here.

Other than aligning each sentence with its translation, the text is presented as is, without furigana or other additions.
​
​To study these bilingual texts more in depth, you can request custom-made coaching and ask me an unlimited number of questions about anything in the text.


The Adventure of the Empty House (2)
Arthur Conan Doyle
Translated by Mikami Otokichi

​空家の冒険 (2)
コナン・ドイル
三上於莵吉訳

It can be imagined that my close intimacy with Sherlock Holmes had interested me deeply in crime, and that after his disappearance I never failed to read with care the various problems which came before the public.

私はシャーロック・ホームズと親友であったと云うことから、自然犯罪と云うものに対して、特殊な興味を持つようになり、そして彼の失踪後も、世間に現われた種々の問題には、注意深く目を向けるようになったことは、諸君にも想像されることであろう、

And I even attempted, more than once, for my own private satisfaction, to employ his methods in their solution, though with indifferent success. There was none, however, which appealed to me like this tragedy of Ronald Adair.

――私は一再ならず、ただ自分自身の満足のために、こうした問題の解決に、彼一流の解決法を適用してみた。しかしもちろん決して、彼のような素晴らしい結果は得られなかったが、――ともあれ、――このロナルド・アデイアの事件だけは、私にとっては全く何物にも比較されない、大悲劇であった。

As I read the evidence at the inquest, which led up to a verdict of willful murder against some person or persons unknown, I realized more clearly than I had ever done the loss which the community had sustained by the death of Sherlock Holmes.

私は予審調書を読んで、この事件は何者かあるいは、数人の謀殺であると知った時は、シャーロック・ホームズの死は、社会にとってはどんなに大きな損失であるかと云うことを、以前にもましてしみじみと痛感させられたのであった。

There were points about this strange business which would, I was sure, have specially appealed to him, and the efforts of the police would have been supplemented, or more probably anticipated, by the trained observation and the alert mind of the first criminal agent in Europe.

私はこの事件にこそ、彼の敏腕に俟ものが、多々あると確信した。大に警察の探査を補助し得たことはもちろん、更にあるいは、この欧羅巴最初の犯罪取扱業者の、精錬された観察と、周到な活動は、警察力以上もの偉力を発揮したかもしれなかった。

All day, as I drove upon my round, I turned over the case in my mind and found no explanation which appeared to me to be adequate. At the risk of telling a twice-told tale, I will recapitulate the facts as they were known to the public at the conclusion of the inquest.

私はこの事件に、一日一ぱい心身を傾倒して考えてみたが、しかし結局、何等の首肯される解釈も、発見することは出来なかった。このもう旧聞である、物語を繰返すことは、あるいは興味索然とするかもしれないがしかし審理の結果得られた事実を基もといとして、ここに概括してみようと思うのである。

The most effective way to learn to read Japanese (or any language) is to use aligned bilingual texts, where the source appears next to a translation in a parallel or interlinear format. In the study units this is done with other helpful additions - furigana, language notes, and more. But the most important thing is having both the original and the translation.

The study units feature original Japanese literature with my English translations. But to get familiar with the advantages of bilingual texts, it's also possible to start in reverse: work with an original text in English and its Japanese translation, which will help you learn written Japanese in a more familiar setting.

This is one more thing we'll start doing here on the blog. I'll post short stories in English and align them with their corresponding Japanese translations. Each story will be posted in installments, so that by the end of series you'll have read the entire text.

We'll begin with The Adventure of the Empty House, a Sherlock Holmes story by (Sir!) Arthur Conan Doyle. The translation is by Mikami Otokichi (三上於菟吉), and is reproduced from Aozora Bunko.

Other than aligning each sentence with its translation, the text is presented as is, without furigana or other additions.This means that you may face difficult words and grammar - so I recommend using a popup dictionary such as Rikaisama for easy lookup. To make faster progress, read the English before the Japanese.

Note that translations of/from Japanese, including this one, don't always have a one-to-one match between sentences. In such cases I have only aligned larger parts of the texts.

​To study these bilingual texts more in depth, you can also request custom-made coaching and ask me an unlimited number of questions about anything in the text.

The Adventure of the Empty House
Arthur Conan Doyle

​空家の冒険
コナン・ドイル
三上於莵吉訳

It was in the spring of the year 1894 that all London was interested, and the fashionable world dismayed, by the murder of the Honourable Ronald Adair under most unusual and inexplicable circumstances.

​一八九四年の春、――ロナルド・アデイア氏が全く不可解な、奇怪極まる事情の下に惨殺されたのは、当時はなはだ有名な事件で、ロンドン市民は一斉に好奇の目を睜り、殊に社交界の驚愕は大変なものであった。

The public has already learned those particulars of the crime which came out in the police investigation,

警察側の探査に得られた、犯罪の詳細については、世間はもう知悉ちしつしてしまった形であるが、

but a good deal was suppressed upon that occasion, since the case for the prosecution was so overwhelmingly strong that it was not necessary to bring forward all the facts.

しかしこの事件の発生当時は、その犯罪の大部分は、秘密に附されたのであった。そしてまた起訴のためにも、その事実の詳細などは、世間に発表する必要などはないほど、圧倒的な大事件であったのである。

Only now, at the end of nearly ten years, am I allowed to supply those missing links which make up the whole of that remarkable chain.

さてその後十年、――私はようやくこの驚異すべき大事件の、散乱した記憶を集めて、精細に発表する機会を得たわけである。​

The crime was of interest in itself, but that interest was as nothing to me compared to the inconceivable sequel, which afforded me the greatest shock and surprise of any event in my adventurous life.

この事件では、事件そのものも、確たしかに大おおいに興味あるものであったが、しかし私はその事件そのものよりも、むしろ全く想いもよらなかった結末に、絶大の衝動と驚異を感じさせられたのであった。この衝動と驚異はたしかに、私の冒険生活の中でも、断然異数とするものであったと思っている。

Even now, after this long interval, I find myself thrilling as I think of it, and feeling once more that sudden flood of joy, amazement, and incredulity which utterly submerged my mind.

その後もうかなりの長い時日が経っているのであるが、それにもかかわらずこの事件だけは、今思い出してみても、ぞくぞくと身振いを感じ、今更に盛り返して来る快感、驚異、懐疑と云ったような、かつて私の心を浸しつくした、いろいろの感懐が再燃して来るのを、しみじみと感ずる。

Let me say to that public, which has shown some interest in those glimpses which I have occasionally given them of the thoughts and actions of a very remarkable man, that they are not to blame me if I have not shared my knowledge with them, for I should have considered it my first duty to do so, had I not been barred by a positive prohibition from his own lips, which was only withdrawn upon the third of last month.

私の折に触れて提供する、特異な人物の思想や行動に対して、多少の興味を持ってくれる読者諸君におことわりしなければならないが、私がこれほどの大事件に対して持っていた知識を、早速読者諸君に披瀝しなかったことを、非難しないようにお願いする。私はもちろん何事にかかわらず知り得たことは、早速読者諸君の前に提供することを、私の光栄ある本務と信じているが、しかし本件だけは、彼から固い緘口令が布しかれてあったのであった。その緘口令の解除となったのは、つい先月の三日のことである​。

➔​ To be continued!

食っとけ

The underlying verb form is 食っておけ, which is the imperative of 食っておく (くう = to eat). The form ておく is often contract as とく in casual speech.

Textbooks usually describe ておく as a marker for doing something in advance or in preparation, but like here, it's commonly used in a sense of "do it first and think about the rest later". 

食える時に

The potential form of くう with the conjunction 時に "when". 食う is a masculine-speech word. This male character is telling another male character to make good use of his (rare) free time and eat whenever he can.

The に is added because the emphasis is on the preceding words (食える時). Without に the emphasis would have been on what follows.

Reajer has undergone a major upgrade today, with a whole new section added: Freesources. It currently includes free links for self-study, and my new free ebook: Step Zero - a Walkthrough of Japanese.

You can read the ebook online and also download it for free in the complete PDF version, which includes detailed tables for grammar and other features of the language. 

To learn more, visit the Step Zero contents page.

バイト

Short for アルバイト. The short form is very common in all daily circumstances - note how it is used here even in a formal setting and with extra-polite speech.


に

Marking the purpose of having come (やってきました). The purpose is バイト.


やってきました

Verb forms with the auxiliary ます normally appear only at the end of sentences. But when the speaker wishes to be extra polite, ます can be used in the noun-qualifying position as well, with the final verb of that noun's subordinate clause.

In this case, 当直のバイトにやってきました is the subordinate clause of 永大の斉藤.


永大 (えいだい)

Eiroku Univeristy. Abbreviation of 永禄大学 (えいろくだいがく).

Travelers from afar; I'll join them for a little while to dig for shellfish.

(Taneda Santōka)


Original poem:

旅人わたしもしばしいつしよに貝掘らう

tabibito watashi mo shibashi issho ni kai horō


Notes:

The poet sees travelers digging in the wet sand for shellfish, and decides to join them in this activity.

しばし
An older equvialent of しばらく.

貝掘らう
= 貝を掘ろう. The postposition を was dropped, as commonly happened in the older literary language and is still common practice in modern spoken Japanese. 貝 is a general word for shellfish, clams, etc.

> Print (detail) by Tomioka Eisen (富岡英泉).

(From p. 13, vol. 1)

初日

The reading is しょにち.

という事で

A phrase marking the circumstances of / grounds for what follows. Like most words that have a grammatical function, it is usually written only with hiragana, as ということで.

The reason こと was spelled 事 here is probably to save space inside the speech bubble: こと is two characters long, and using it would have pushed all the following words forward, resulting in an unsightly separation between them and their particles.

Space constraints and layout considerations are a common reason for alternating between different ways of spelling the same word in Japanese.

訊いて

This kanji is usually associated with the verb たずねる, to inquire. たずねる is more of a written word, whereas きく (normally written 聞く) is a spoken, casual word.

Remember that people don't "speak kanji": in speech there is only one きく, and it was the manga artist who chose to represent this with 訊 instead of 聞, in order to reinforce the inquisitive nuance.

くれ

~てくれ is the familiar, masculine-speech version of ~てください.