IN the days when everybody started fair, Best Beloved, the Leopard lived in a place called the High Veldt. 'Member it wasn't the Low Veldt, or the Bush Veldt, or the Sour Veldt, but the 'sclusively bare, hot, shiny High Veldt, where there was sand and sandy-coloured rock and 'sclusively tufts of sandy-yellowish grass.
fair：定期市（特定の場所で聖人祭日の前後に定期的に開かれるもの、または娯楽本位の見せ物や飲食店など／イギリス英語）。Best Beloved：諸賢。leopard：豹。High Veldt：ハイヴェルド（南アフリカ内陸部の高原／High Veldの古い表現）。'member：覚えておけ（rememberの短縮形）。Low Veldt：ローヴェルド（南アフリカ内陸部の標高の低い草原／Low Veldの古い表現）。Bush Veldt：ブッシュヴェルド（南アフリカ北東部の亜熱帯森林地帯／Bush Veldの古い表現）。Sour Veldt：サワーベルド（南アフリカの低湿の雑木林／Sour Veldの古い表現）。'sclusively：専ら（exclusivelyの短縮形）。bare：何もない。shiny：日照りの。tufts：茂み。
The Giraffe and the Zebra and the Eland and the Koodoo and the Hartebeest lived there; and they were 'sclusively sandy-yellow-brownish all over; but the Leopard, he was the 'sclusivest sandiest-yellowish-brownest of them all a greyish-yellowish catty-shaped kind of beast, and he matched the 'sclusively yellowish-greyish-brownish colour of the High Veldt to one hair. This was very bad for the Giraffe and the Zebra and the rest of them; for he would lie down by a delusively yellowish-greyish-brownish stone or clump of grass, and when the Giraffe or the Zebra or the Eland or the Koodoo or the Bush-Buck or the Bonte-Buck came by he would surprise them out of their jumpsome lives. He would indeed!
eland：エランド（レイヨウの一種）。Koodoo：クーズー（レイヨウの一種）。hartebeest：ハーテビースト（レイヨウの一種）。'sclusivest：最もかぎられた（exclusivestの短縮形）。catty-shaped ：猫のような姿の。beast：獣。matched (to)：〜に合った（同じだった）。delusively：紛らわしく（騙すように）。clump of grass：草むら。bush-buck：ブッシュバック（レイヨウの一種）。bonte-buck：ボンテバック（レイヨウの一種）。came by：〜（のそば）を通り過ぎた。surprise (out of)：〜から不意打ちを食らわす。jumpsome：跳び跳ねる。
And, also, there was an Ethiopian with bows and arrows (a delusively greyish-brownish-yellowish man he was then), who lived on the High Veldt with the Leopard; and the two used to hunt together—the Ethiopian with his bows and arrows, and the Leopard 'sclusively with his teeth and claws—till the Giraffe and the Eland and the Koodoo and the Quagga and all the rest of them didn't know which way to jump, Best Beloved. They didn't indeed!
Ethiopian：エチオピア人。quagga：クアッガ（シマウマの一種）。
After a long time—things lived for ever so long in those days—they learned to avoid anything that looked like a Leopard or an Ethiopian; and bit by bit—the Giraffe began it, because his legs were the longest—they went away from the High Veldt. They scuttled for days and days and days till they came to a great forest, 'sclusively full of trees and bushes and stripy, speckly, patchy-blatchy shadows, and there they hid: and after another long time, what with standing half in the shade and half out of it, and what with the slippery-slidy shadows of the trees falling on them, the Giraffe grew blotchy, and the Zebra grew stripy, and the Eland and the Koodoo grew darker, with little wavy grey lines on their backs like bark on a tree trunk; and so, though you could hear them and smell them, you could very seldom see them, and then only when you knew precisely where to look.
things：動物たち。ever so：大変。bit by bit：徐々に。scuttled：急いで行った。stripy：縞のある。speckly：斑のある。patchy-blatchy：ぼつぼつの（斑状の染みのある／blatchyはblotchyの変形と思われる）。hid：隠れた。the shade：陰。slippery-slidy：つるつるの（良く滑って滑り易い）。blotchy：斑のある。wavy：波形の。bark：樹皮。trunk：幹。very seldom：殆ど滅多に〜しない。
They had a beautiful time in the 'sclusively speckly-spickly shadows of the forest, while the Leopard and the Ethiopian ran about over the 'sclusively greyish-yellowish-reddish High Veldt outside, wondering where all their breakfasts and their dinners and their teas had gone. At last they were so hungry that they ate rats and beetles and rock-rabbits, the Leopard and the Ethiopian, and then they had the Big Tummy-ache, both together; and then they met Baviaan—the dog-headed, barking Baboon, who is Quite the Wisest Animal in All South Africa.
speckly-spickly：ぽちぽちの（斑のある斑のある／spicklyはspecklyの変形と思われる）。ran about：走り回った。 had gone：消えた。beetles：甲虫（のような昆虫）。rock-rabbits：ハイラックス（動物の一種）。tummy-ache：腹痛。baviaan：バフィアン（baboon／ヒヒのオランダ語）。barking：吠える。baboon：ヒヒ（猿の一種）。South Africa：南アフリカ（大陸）。
Illustration
This is Wise Baviaan, the dog-headed Baboon, Who is Quite the Wisest Animal in All South Africa. I have drawn him from a statue that I made up out of my own head, and I have written his name on his belt and on his shoulder and on the thing he is sitting on.
I have written it in what is not called Coptic and Hieroglyphic and Cuneiformic and Bengalic and Burmic and Hebric, all because he is so wise. He is not beautiful, but he is very wise; and I should like to paint him with paint-box colours, but I am not allowed.
coptic：コプト語の。hieroglyphic：象形文字の。cuneiformic：楔形文字の。bengalic：ベンガル語の。Burmic：ビルマ語の。Hebric：ヘブライ語の（Hebraicの綴り違いか）。should like：〜したい。paint-box：絵の具箱。allowed：できなかった。
The umbrella-ish thing about his head is his Conventional Mane.
umbrella-ish thing：傘のようなもの。conventional mane：様式化された鬣。
Said Leopard to Baviaan (and it was a very hot day), 'Where has all the game gone?'
game：獲物。
And Baviaan winked. He knew.
winked：目配せした。
Said the Ethiopian to Baviaan, 'Can you tell me the present habitat of the aboriginal Fauna?' (That meant just the same thing, but the Ethiopian always used long words. He was a grown-up.)
habitat：生息地。aboriginal fauna：土着動物。grown-up：大人。
And Baviaan winked. He knew.
Then said Baviaan, 'The game has gone into other spots; and my advice to you, Leopard, is to go into other spots as soon as you can.'
has gone into other spots：他の場所へと入って行った／斑点を持つようになった（二つの意味がかかっている）。go into other spots：他の地点へと入って行く／斑点を持つようになる（二つの意味がかかっている）。
And the Ethiopian said, 'That is all very fine, but I wish to know whither the aboriginal Fauna has migrated.'
all very fine：大変に結構。whither：どこへ。has migrated：移り住んだ。
Then said Baviaan, 'The aboriginal Fauna has joined the aboriginal Flora because it was high time for a change; and my advice to you. Ethiopian, is to change as soon as you can.'
aboriginal flora：土着植物。it was high time for：もうそろそろ〜の時間（するべき時）だった。
That puzzled the Leopard and the Ethiopian, but they set off to look for the aboriginal Flora, and presently, after ever so many days, they saw a great, high, tall forest full of tree trunks all 'sclusively speckled and sprottled and spottled, dotted and splashed and slashed and hatched and cross-hatched with shadows. (Say that quickly aloud, and you will see how very shadowy the forest must have been.)
puzzled：困惑させた。set off：出発した。presently：間もなく。speckled：斑のある。sprottled：斑点のある。spottled：（多く）斑点のある。dotted：点のある。splashed：斑模様のある。slashed：切れ込みのある。hatched：細かい線のある。cross-hatched：斜めの細かい線のある。shadowy：影の多い。
'What is this,' said the Leopard, 'that is so 'sclusively dark, and yet so full of little pieces of light?'
'I don't know,' said the Ethiopian, 'but it ought to be the aboriginal Flora. I can smell Giraffe, and I can hear Giraffe, but I can't see Giraffe.'
'That's curious,' said the Leopard. 'I suppose it is because we have just come in out of the sunshine. I can smell Zebra, and I can hear Zebra, but I can't see Zebra.'
curious：奇妙な。
'Wait a bit,' said the Ethiopian. 'It's a long time since we've hunted 'em. Perhaps we've forgotten what they were like.'
'em：彼ら（themの短縮形）。
'Fiddle!' said the Leopard. 'I remember them perfectly on the High Veldt, especially their marrow-bones. Giraffe is about seventeen feet high, of a 'sclusively fulvous golden-yellow from head to heel; and Zebra is about four and a half feet high, of a 'sclusively grey-fawn colour from head to heel.'
fiddle：馬鹿らしい（古い表現）。marrow-bones：髄入りの骨。seventeen feet：17フィート（5.182メートル）。fulvous：朽葉色の。four and a half feet：4.5フィート（1.372メール）。grey-fawn：灰色の淡黄褐色。
'Umm,' said the Ethiopian, looking into the speckly-spickly shadows of the aboriginal Flora-forest. 'Then they ought to show up in this dark place like ripe bananas in a smokehouse.'
umm：うーん。show up：姿を見せる。ripe：熟した。smokehouse：燻製所。
But they didn't. The Leopard and the Ethiopian hunted all day; and though they could smell them and hear them, they never saw one of them.
'For goodness' sake,' said the Leopard at tea-time, 'let us wait till it gets dark. This daylight hunting is a perfect scandal.'
for goodness' sake：お願いだから。at tea-time：お茶の時間に。daylight hunting：日中の狩り。a perfect scandal：完璧な恥晒し。
So they waited till dark, and then the Leopard heard something breathing sniffily in the starlight that fell all stripy through the branches, and he jumped at the noise, and it smelt like Zebra, and it felt like Zebra, and when he knocked it down it kicked like Zebra, but he couldn't see it. So he said, 'Be quiet, O you person without any form. I am going to sit on your head till morning, because there is something about you that I don't understand.'
sniffily：ふんふんと（鼻であしらうように）。branches：枝。knocked it down：それを打ち倒した。
Presently he heard a grunt and a crash and a scramble, and the Ethiopian called out, 'I've caught a thing that I can't see. It smells like Giraffe, and it kicks like Giraffe, but it hasn't any form.'
grunt：唸るような声。crash：打つかる音。scramble：争い（大慌て）。
'Don't you trust it.' said the Leopard. 'Sit on its head till the morning—same as me. They haven't any form—any of 'em.'
So they sat down on them hard till bright morning-time, and then Leopard said, 'What have you at your end of the table, Brother?'
The Ethiopian scratched his head and said, 'It ought to be 'sclusively a rich fulvous orange-tawny from head to heel, and it ought to be Giraffe; but it is covered all over with chestnut blotches. What have you at your end of the table, Brother?'
scratched：掻いた。
And the Leopard scratched his head and said, 'It ought to be 'sclusively a delicate greyish-fawn, and it ought to be Zebra; but it is covered all over with black and purple stripes. What in the world have you been doing to yourself, Zebra? Don't you know that if you were on the High Veldt I could see you ten miles off? You haven't any form.'
delicate：（色が）仄かな。stripes：縞。 in the world：一体。ten miles：10マイル（16.093 キロメートル）。
'Yes,' said the Zebra, 'but this isn't the High Veldt. Can't you see?'
'I can now,' said the Leopard. 'But I couldn't all yesterday. How is it done?'
'Let us up,' said the Zebra, 'and we will show you.'
They let the Zebra and the Giraffe get up; and Zebra moved away to some little thorn-bushes where the sunlight fell all stripy, and Giraffe moved off to some tallish trees where the shadows fell all blotchy.
moved away：立ち去った。thorn-bushes：有刺低木林。moved off：立ち去った。tallish：高めの。
'Now watch,' said the Zebra and the Giraffe. 'This is the way it's done. One—two—three! And where's your breakfast?'
Leopard stared, and Ethiopian stared, but all they could see were stripy shadows and blotched shadows in the forest, but never a sign of Zebra and Giraffe. They had just walked off and hidden themselves in the shadowy forest.
stared：じっと見た。blotched：斑のある。a sign of：〜の痕跡。
'Hi! Hi!' said the Ethiopian. That's a trick worth learning. Take a lesson by it, Leopard. You show up in this dark place like a bar of soap in a coal-scuttle.'
hi：やぁ（イギリス英語）。trick：術策。take a lesson：教えを受けろ。coal-scuttle：石炭バケツ。
'Ho! Ho!' said the Leopard. 'Would it surprise you very much to know that you show up in this dark place like a mustard-plaster on a sack of coals?'
ho：ほぉ。mustard-plaster：辛子泥（軟膏）。a sack of：一袋の〜。 coals：石炭。
'Well, calling names won't catch dinner,' said the Ethiopian. 'The long and the little of it is that we don't match our backgrounds. I'm going to take Baviaan's advice. He told me I ought to change; and as I've nothing to change except my skin I'm going to change that.'
calling names：相手を罵ること。the long and the little of it：それを端折っていえば（要するに）。take Baviaan's advice：バフィアンの助言に従って行動する（倣う）。
'What to?' said the Leopard, tremendously excited.
tremendously：大いに。
'To a nice working blackish-brownish colour, with a little purple in it, and touches of slaty-blue. It will be the very thing for hiding in hollows and behind trees.'
touches of：〜気味。slaty：石版色（鼠色）の。the very thing：（それに対して）その物。hollows：（木や岩の）虚。
So he changed his skin then and there, and the Leopard was more excited than ever; he had never seen a man change his skin before.
then and there：直ぐ様。
'But what about me?' he said, when the Ethiopian had worked his last little finger into his fine new black skin.
had worked (into)：（手を加えて）〜へと加工した。little finger：小指。
'You take Baviaan's advice too. He told you to go into spots.'
'So I did,' said the Leopard. 'I went into other spots as fast as I could. I went into this spot with you, and a lot of good it has done me.'
'Oh,' said the Ethiopian, 'Baviaan didn't mean spots in South Africa. He meant spots on your skin.'
'What's the use of that?' said the Leopard.
'Think of Giraffe,' said the Ethiopian. 'Or if you prefer stripes, think of Zebra. They find their spots and stripes give them per-fect satisfaction.'
per-fect：完璧な（perfectの変形）。
'Umm,' said the Leopard. 'I wouldn't look like Zebra—not for ever so.'
not for ever so：ずっとそうではなく。
'Well, make up your mind,' said the Ethiopian, 'because I'd hate to go hunting without you, but I must if you insist on looking like a sun-flower against a tarred fence.'
make up your mind：（貴方は）決心しろ。sun-flower：ヒマワリ（花の一種）。tarred：タールを塗られた。
I'll take spots, then,' said the Leopard; 'but don't make 'em too vulgar-big. I wouldn't look like Giraffe—not for ever so.'
vulgar：低俗な。
'Til make 'em with the tips of my fingers,' said the Ethiopian. 'There's plenty of black left on my skin still. Stand over!'
the tips of my fingers：私の指先。stand over：（そばに立って）じっとしていろ。
Then the Ethiopian put his five fingers close together (there was plenty of black left on his new skin still) and pressed them all over the Leopard, and wherever the five fingers touched they left five little black marks, all close together. You can see them on any Leopard's skin you like, Best Beloved. Sometimes the fingers slipped and the marks got a little blurred; but if you look closely at any Leopard now you will see that there are always five spots—off five fat black finger-tips.
blurred：ぼやけた。
Illustration
This is the picture of the Leopard and the Ethiopian after they had taken Wise Baviaan's advice and the Leopard had gone into other spots and the Ethiopian had changed his skin.
The Ethiopian was really a negro, and so his name was Sambo. The Leopard was called Spots, and he has been called Spots ever since.
negro：黒人。Sambo：サンボ（人名）。Spots：スポッツ（豹の名前）。
They are out hunting in the spickly-speckly forest, and they are looking for Mr. One-Two-Three-Where's-your-Breakfast. If you look a little you will see Mr. One-Two-Three not far away.
spickly-speckly：ぼつぼつの。
The Ethiopian has hidden behind a splotchy-blotchy tree because it matches his skin, and the Leopard is lying beside a spickly-speckly bank of stones because it matches his spots.
splotchy-blotchy：ぽちぽちの（斑点のある斑のある）。
Mr. One-Two-Three-Where's-your-Breakfast is standing up eating leaves from a tall tree. This is really a puzzle-picture like 'Find the Cat.'
puzzle-picture：謎々絵。
'Now you are a beauty!' said the Ethiopian. 'You can lie out on the bare ground and look like a heap of pebbles. You can lie out on the naked rocks and look like a piece of pudding-stone. You can lie out on a leafy branch and look like sunshine sifting through the leaves; and you can lie right across the centre of a path and look like nothing in particular. Think of that and purr!'
a heap of pebbles：小石の山。naked：剥き出しの。pudding-stone：礫岩（構成する粒の大きさが2mm以上の堆積岩）。leafy：葉の多い。sifting：移ろう。right across：真向かい。purr：（気持ち良さそうにゴロゴロと）喉を鳴らせ。
'But if I'm all this,' said the Leopard, 'why didn't you go spotty too?'
'Oh, plain black's best for a nigger,' said the Ethiopian. 'Now come along and we'll see if we can't get even with Mr. One-Two-Three-Where's-your-Breakfast!'
plain：無地の。nigger：黒人。see if：〜かどうかを確かめる。get even with：〜に仕返しする。
So they went away and lived happily ever afterward, Best Beloved. That is all.
afterward：その後。
Oh, now and then you will hear grown-ups say, 'Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the Leopard his spots?' I don't think even grown-ups would keep on saying such a silly thing if the Leopard and the Ethiopian hadn't done it once—do you? But they will never do it again, Best Beloved. They are quite contented as they are.
now and then：時折。keep on saying：いい続ける。silly thing：愚かなこと。
I am the Most Wise Baviaan, saying in most wise tones,
'Let us melt into the landscape—just us two by our lones,'
People have come—in a carriage—calling. But Mummy is there. . .
Yes, I can go if you take me—Nurse says she don't care.
Let's go up to the pig-sties and sit on the farmyard rails!
Let's say things to the bunnies, and watch 'em skitter their tails!
Let's—oh, anything, daddy, so long as it's you and me,
And going truly exploring, and not being in till tea!
Here's your boots (I've brought 'em), and here's your cap and stick.
And here's your pipe and tobacco. Oh, come along out of it—quick.
melt into：〜に溶け込む。by our lones：私たちそれぞれで（loneは一人という意味か）。carriage：四輪馬車。mummy：母さん。nurse：保母。pig-sties：豚小屋。farmyard rails：農場構内の柵。say things：とやかくいう（囃し立てる）。bunnies：兎。skitter：（表面を素早く）掠める。daddy：父さん。exploring：探検。boots：ブーツ。stick：棒。pipe：パイプ。tobacco：煙草。
原文の出典：How the Leopard Got His Spots
単語や熟語の意味は文意に相応しいものを一つだけ選んだ。作品の趣向に合うかどうか、つまり訳語として充分かどうかはさほど考慮しない。英語で理解するための最低限の意味が分かるように努めた。
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