英文の和訳
先日、英の著名作家がキャサリン妃を「不自然なマネキン」と酷評したことに関する会話形式の英文をできるだけ直訳に近い文で和訳して頂けないでしょうか。
Author Hilary Mantel：
Kate Middleton, as she was, appeared to have been designed by a committee, and built by
craftsmen, with the perfect, plastic smile, and the spindles of her limbs hand-turned and glossvarnished.
A: We hear a number of interesting phrases here: Kate is "designed by a committee" – which means designed by a group of people who all have an interest in the outcome.
B: Yes, it's a negative phrase. She is then "built by craftsmen" with the "perfect, plastic
smile".
A: And it goes on to say that the "spindles of her limbs are hand-turned and gloss varnished".
A spindle is a thin, wooden rod – and so this is a description you would expect of a beautiful doll: lovingly hand-made and then covered in shiny, protective varnish.
B: Indeed – the language used is quite imaginative, as we'd expect from an awardwinning novelist, and it uses the vocabulary of craft or craftsmanship.
It is what we might call an extended metaphor, we might say, – a long comparison.
A: But when the long comparison is to a doll – to an object – you can see why it has caused controversy.
B: That's right, which is the interesting point: by comparing Kate Middleton to an object, Hilary Mantel is really describing how she is portrayed by the media.
A: We call this process objectification – becoming an object.
B: Let's listen to a bit more of the speech.
Author Hilary Mantel:
Machine-made, precision-made: so different from Diana, whose human awkwardness and emotional incontinence showed in every gesture.
B: Again we hear the language of manufacture – Kate is "precision-made", "machinemade" – made according to precise plans, as if by machine.
A: Unlike Diana who was very human. She talks about Diana's "emotional incontinence".
Incontinence is when you can't control yourself when you need the toilet.
B: So emotional incontinence is when you can't stop your emotions from showing – they showed "in her every gesture" – in each gesture or movement of her body.
A: Although Mantel says she may have had more personality, as we know, things ended badly for Diana:
Author Hilary Mantel:
We don't cut off the heads of royal ladies these days but we do sacrifice them, and we did
memorably drive one to destruction a scant generation ago.
A: Hilary Mantel suggests that the media and public drove Diana to destruction – the constant attention on her private life was what caused Diana's death.
B: And this happened "a scant generation ago" - which means "barely a generation ago" – not long at all.
A: Now, as I'm sure many people will know Diana died in a car crash, but many royals in history died by one particular means – as Mantel says – they had their heads cut off.
長くなりましたが宜しくお願いします。
お礼
有難うございます。 ＞つまり、ここでbut thenを挿入することによって、 しかし（待てよ）、そうするとこう思えないか という期待が対照的に述べられ話題を明確にすることができるわ けです。 と、いうことは、本来はbut then以降の内容が先行している、ということで宜しいのでしょうか？ならば、「人間→脳が大きい」という事実に対して、「確かにそうだけど、しかし実際は像の方が大きいのは明確」ということを述べ、結果的にだから、勿論人間の脳が一番大きい訳では無い。という論理展開でしょうか？それならば筋が通っていて分かるのですが。 要は、英語独特の最初に結論を持ってくる、という手法が使われているだけなのでしょうか？