ONCE upon a time, on an uninhabited island on the shores of the Red Sea, there lived a Parsee from whose hat the rays of the sun were reflected in more-than-oriental splendour. And the Parsee lived by the Red Sea with nothing but his hat and his knife and a cooking-stove of the kind that you must particularly never touch. And one day he took flour and water and currants and plums and sugar and things, and made himself one cake which was two feet across and three feet thick. It was indeed a Superior Comestible (that's magic), and he put it on the stove because he was allowed to cook on that stove, and he baked it and he baked it till it was all done brown and smelt most sentimental. But just as he was going to eat it there came down to the beach from the Altogether Uninhabited Interior one Rhinoceros with a horn on his nose, two piggy eyes, and few manners.
once upon a time：昔々。uninhabited island：無人島。Red Sea：紅海。Parsee：パルシー（インドのゾロアスター教徒）。reflected in：〜に映し出される。oriental：東洋の。splendour：輝き（splendourの綴りは主にイギリス）。cooking-stove：調理用焜炉。particularly：特に。currants：スグリ（果実の一種）。plums：スモモ（果実の一種）。and things：〜など。cake：ケーキ／平たくて丸い食べ物（焼き物／揚げ物）。across：幅（直径）。superior comestible：上質の食料品。stove：焜炉。allowed：可能である。sentimental：感情に動かされる。the altogether uninhabited interior：全くの無人の奥地。rhinoceros：サイ（動物の一種）。piggy：（目や鼻が）豚のような。
Illustration
This is the picture of the Parsee beginning to eat his cake on the Uninhabited Island in the Red Sea on a very hot day; and of the Rhinoceros coming down from the Altogether Uninhabited Interior, which, as you can truthfully see, is all rocky. The Rhinoceros's skin is quite smooth, and the three buttons that button it up are underneath, so you can't see them. The squiggly things on the Parsee's hat are the rays of the sun reflected in more-than-oriental splendour, because if I had drawn real rays they would have filled up all the picture. The cake has currants in it; and the wheel-thing lying on the sand in front belonged to one of Pharaoh's chariots when he tried to cross the Red Sea. The Parsee found it, and kept it to play with. The Parsee's name was Pestonjee Bomonjee, and the Rhinoceros was called Strorks, because he breathed through his mouth instead of his nose. I wouldn't ask anything about the cooking-stove if I were you.
truthfully：真に。rocky：岩石の多い。button it up：それを釦で留める。squiggly：波打って捻れた。wheel：車輪。Pharaoh's chariots：ファラオ（古代エジプトの王）の戦車。Pestonjee Bomonjee：ペストンジー・ボモンジー（人名）。Strorks：ストロークス（犀の名前）。
In those days the Rhinoceros's skin fitted him quite tight. There were no wrinkles in it anywhere. He looked exactly like a Noah's Ark Rhinoceros, but of course much bigger. All the same, he had no manners then, and he has no manners now, and he never will have any manners. He said, 'How!' and the Parsee left that cake and climbed to the top of a palm tree with nothing on but his hat, from which the rays of the sun were always reflected in more-than-oriental splendour.
wrinkles：皺。Noah's Ark：ノアの方舟（旧約聖書の『創世記』の物語に出て来る）。all the same：やはり。palm tree：ヤシの木。
And the Rhinoceros upset the oil-stove with his nose, and the cake rolled on the sand, and he spiked that cake on the horn of his nose, and he ate it, and he went away, waving his tail, to the desolate and Exclusively Uninhabited Interior which abuts on the islands of Mazanderan, Socotra, and the Promontories of the Larger Equinox. Then the Parsee came down from his palm-tree and put the stove on its legs and recited the following Sloka, which, as you have not heard, I will now proceed to relate:
upset：引っ繰り返した。oil-stove：石油焜炉。rolled：転がった。spiked：（釘などで）刺した。desolate：荒れ果てた。exclusively：全く〜のみの。abuts：隣接する。Mazanderan：マザンダラン（イランの州／Mazandaranの綴り違い）。Socotra：ソコトラ（インド洋の島）。the Promontories of the Larger Equinox：大分点（架空の場所）の岬。recited：朗唱した。sloka：シュローカ（shloka／インドのサンスクリット語の詩形の一つの変形）。proceed to：〜へ移る。relate：話す。
Them that takes cakes
Which the Parsee-man bakes
Makes dreadful mistakes.
makes dreadful mistakes：恐ろしい間違いを犯す。
And there was a great deal more in that than you would think.
a great deal more：もっと多くの。
Because, five weeks later, there was a heat-wave in the Red Sea, and everybody took off all the clothes they had. The Parsee took off his hat: but the Rhinoceros took off his skin and carried it over his shoulder as he came down to the beach to bathe. In those days it buttoned underneath with three buttons and looked like a waterproof. He said nothing whatever about the Parsee's cake, because he had eaten it all; and he never had any manners, then, since, or henceforward. He waddled straight into the water and blew bubbles through his nose, leaving his skin on the beach.
heat-wave：熱波。waterproof：防水の。henceforward：この後。waddled：（アヒルのように）よたよた歩いた。
Presently the Parsee came by and found the skin, and he smiled one smile that ran all round his face two times. Then he danced three times round the skin and rubbed his hands. Then he went to his camp and filled his hat with cake-crumbs, for the Parsee never ate anything but cake, and never swept out his camp. He took that skin, and he shook that skin, and he scrubbed that skin, and he rubbed that skin just as full of old, dry, stale, tickly cake-crumbs and some burned currants as ever it could possibly hold. Then he climbed to the top of his palm-tree and waited for the Rhinoceros to come out of the water and put it on.
presently：間もなく。came by：立ち寄った。rubbed his hands：彼が（喜びで）揉み手した。camp：野営地。cake-crumbs：ケーキ屑。swept out：掃除した。scrubbed：ゴシゴシ擦った。rubbed：揉んだ（擦った）。stale：（食べ物が）腐りかけた。tickly：むずむずする。(could) possibly：何とか〜できた。
Illustration
This is the Parsee Pestonjee Bomonjee sitting in his palm tree and watching the Rhinoceros Strorks bathing near the beach of the Altogether Uninhabited Island after Strorks had taken off his skin.
The Parsee has put the cakecrumbs into the skin, and he is smiling to think how they will tickle Strorks when Strorks puts it on again. The skin is just under the rocks below the palm-tree in a cool place; that is why you can't see it.
tickle：むずむずさせる。
The Parsee is wearing a new more-than-oriental-splendour hat of the sort that Parsees wear; and he has a knife in his hand to cut his name on palm trees. The black things on the islands out at sea are bits of ships that got wrecked going down the Red Sea; but all the passengers were saved and went home.
cut his name on：（彼が）名前を〜に彫り付ける。bits of：〜の破片（残骸）。got wrecked：難破した。passengers：船客。
The black thing in the water close to the shore is not a wreck at all. It is Strorks the Rhinoceros bathing without his skin.. He was just as black underneath his skin as he was outside. I wouldn't ask anything about the cooking-stove if I were you.
wreck：難破船。
And the Rhinoceros did. He buttoned it up with the three buttons, and it tickled like cake-crumbs in bed. Then he wanted to scratch, but that made it worse; and then he lay down on the sands and rolled and rolled and rolled, and every time he rolled the cake crumbs tickled him worse and worse and worse. Then he ran to the palm-tree and rubbed and rubbed and rubbed himself against it. He rubbed so much and so hard that he rubbed his skin into a great fold over his shoulders, and another fold underneath, where the buttons used to be (but he rubbed the buttons off), and he rubbed some more folds over his legs. And it spoiled his temper, but it didn't make the least difference to the cake-crumbs. They were inside his skin and they tickled. So he went home, very angry indeed and horribly scratchy; and from that day to this every rhinoceros has great folds in his skin and a very bad temper, all on account of the cake-crumbs inside.
tickled：むずむずさせた。scratch：引っ掻く。fold：襞。rubbed (off)：。擦り剥がした。spoiled his temper：彼の機嫌を損なった。horribly：酷く。scratchy：痒がる。
But the Parsee came down from his palm-tree, wearing his hat, from which the rays of the sun were reflected in more-than-oriental splendour, packed up his cooking-stove, and went away in the direction of Orotavo, Amygdala, the Upland Meadows of Anantarivo, and the Marshes of Sonaput.
packed up：荷造りした。Orotavo：オロターヴォ（架空の場所）。Amygdala：アミグダラ（架空の場所）。the upland meadows of Anantarivo：アナンタリーヴォ（架空の場所）の山地草原。the marshes of Sonaput：ソナプット（架空の場所）の沼地。
This Uninhabited Island
Is off Cape Gardafui.
By the Beaches of Socotra
And the Pink Arabian Sea:
But it's hot too hot from Suez
For the likes of you and me
Ever to go
In a P. and O.
And call on the Cake-Parsee!
Cape Gardafui：グアルダフィ岬（ソマリア半島の岬）。Socotra：ソコトラ（インド洋の島）。the Pink Arabian Sea：ピンクのアラビア海（アラビア半島とインドとの海域）。Suez：スエズ（エジプトの都市）。P. and O.：P&O（ペニンシュラ＆オリエンタル汽船航海会社／Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Companyの略称）。call on：訪ねる。
原文の出典：How the Rhinoceros Got His Skin
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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