IN the High and Far-Off Times the Elephant, O Best Beloved, had no trunk. He had only a blackish, bulgy nose, as big as a boot, that he could wriggle about from side to side; but he couldn't pick up things with it. But there was one Elephant a new Elephant an Elephant's Child who was full of 'satiable curtiosity, and that means he asked ever so many questions. And he lived in Africa, and he filled all Africa with his 'satiable curtiosities.
the high and far-off times：良い遠い時。best beloved：諸賢。trunk：（象の長い）鼻。blackish：黒っぽい。bulgy：膨らんだ。boot：ブーツ。wriggle about：くねらせてやる。'satiable：飽きない（insatiableの短縮形）。curtiosity：好奇心（curiosityの変形と思われる）。
He asked his tall aunt, the Ostrich, why her tail-feathers grew just so, and his tall aunt the Ostrich spanked him with her hard, hard claw. He asked his tall uncle, the Giraffe, what made his skin spotty, and his tall uncle, the Giraffe, spanked him with his hard, hard hoof. And still he was full of 'satiable curtiosity!
ostrich：ダチョウ（鳥の一種）。spanked：（罰として）尻を叩いた。claw：爪。giraffe：キリン（動物の一種）。spotty：斑点がある。hoof：蹄。
He asked his broad aunt, the Hippopotamus, why her eyes were red, and his broad aunt, the Hippopotamus, spanked him with her broad, broad hoof; and he asked his hairy uncle, the Baboon, why melons tasted just so, and his hairy uncle, the Baboon, spanked him with his hairy, hairy paw. And still he was full of 'satiable curtiosity!
hippopotamus：カバ（動物の一種）。hairy：毛深い。baboon：ヒヒ（猿の一種）。melons：メロン（果物の一種）。paw：（動物の爪のある）足。
He asked questions about everything that he saw, or heard, or felt, or smelt, or touched, and all his uncles and his aunts spanked him. And still he was full of 'satiable curtiosity!
One fine morning in the middle of the Precession of the Equinoxes this 'satiable Elephant's Child asked a new fine question that he had never asked before. He asked, 'What does the Crocodile have for dinner?' Then everybody said, 'Hush!' in a loud and dretful tone, and they spanked him immediately and directly, without stopping, for a long time.
precession of the equinoxes：分点歳差。crocodile：クロコダイル（鰐の一種）。hush：静かにしろ。dretful：恐い（dreadfulの古い表現）。immediately：直ぐに。directly：直ちに。
By and by, when that was finished, he came upon Kolokolo Bird sitting in the middle of a wait-a-bit thorn-bush, and he said, 'My father has spanked me, and my mother has spanked me; all my aunts and uncles have spanked me for my 'satiable curtiosity; and still I want to know what the Crocodile has for dinner!'
by and by：やがて。came upon：出会した。kolokolo bird：鳴き鳥（コッコと良く鳴く雌鳥か何かの造語と思われる）。thorn-bush：有刺低木林。
Then Kolokolo Bird said, with a mournful cry, 'Go to the banks of the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo River, all set about with fever-trees, and find out.'
mournful：悲しげな。cry：叫び。greasy：滑った（油の多い）。Limpopo River：リンポポ川（アフリカ大陸南部でインド洋へ注ぐ）。set about with：〜で囲まれた。fever-trees：熱病の木（Acacia xanthophloea／アカシアクサントフロエア／フィーヴァーツリー：発熱のあるマラリア感染を引き起こすと誤って信じられた）。
That very next morning, when there was nothing left of the Equinoxes, because the Precession had preceded according to precedent, this 'satiable Elephant's Child took a hundred pounds of bananas (the little short red kind), and a hundred pounds of sugar-cane (the long purple kind), and seventeen melons (the greeny-crackly kind), and said to all his dear families, 'Good-bye. I am going to the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo River, all set about with fever-trees, to find out what the Crocodile has for dinner.' And they all spanked him once more for luck, though he asked them most politely to stop.
had preceded：前進した。according to precedent：先例に従って。a hundred pounds：100ポンド（45.4キログラム）。sugar-cane：サトウキビ。greeny-crackly：緑色でカリカリの。politely：丁寧に。
Then he went away, a little warm, but not at all astonished, eating melons, and throwing the rind about, because he could not pick it up.
warm：熱くなる（軽く汗をかくくらいぽかぽかする）。astonished：驚いた。throwing (about)：投げ散らかす。rind：（硬い）皮。
He went from Graham's Town to Kimberley, and from Kimberley to Khama's Country, and from Khama's Country he went east by north, eating melons all the time, till at last he came to the banks of the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo River, all set about with fever-trees, precisely as Kolokolo Bird had said.
Graham's Town：グラハムズタウン（南アフリカ共和国の都市のマカンダの旧称）。Kimberley：キンバリー（南アフリカ共和国の都市）。Khama's Country：ボツワナ（国名、Khama／カーマはボツワナの初代大統領の名前）。east by north：東微北。
Now you must know and understand, O Best Beloved, that till that very week, and day, and hour, and minute, this 'satiable Elephant's Child had never seen a Crocodile, and did not know what one was like. It was all his 'satiable curtiosity.
The first thing that he found was a Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake curled round a rock.
bi-coloured：二色の。python：錦蛇。rock-snake：（熱帯や南アフリカの非常に大型の）錦蛇。
''Scuse me,' said the Elephant's Child most politely, 'but have you seen such a thing as a Crocodile in these promiscuous parts?'
'scuse me：済みません（excuse meの短縮形）。promiscuous：雑然とした。
'Have I seen a Crocodile?' said the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake, in a voice of dretful scorn. 'What will you ask me next?'
scorn：嘲り。
''Scuse me,' said the Elephant's Child, 'but could you kindly tell me what he has for dinner?'
Then the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake uncoiled himself very quickly from the rock, and spanked the Elephant's Child with his scalesome, flailsome tail.
uncoiled：塒を解いた。scalesome：鱗状の。flailsome：殻竿状の。
'That is odd,' said the Elephant's Child, 'because my father and my mother, and my uncle and my aunt, not to mention my other aunt, the Hippopotamus, and my other uncle, the Baboon, have all spanked me for my 'satiable curtiosity—and I suppose this is the same thing.'
odd：おかしい。not to mention：〜に加えて（いうまでもなく）。
So he said good-bye very politely to the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake, and helped to coil him up on the rock again, and went on, a little warm, but not at all astonished, eating melons, and throwing the rind about, because he could not pick it up, till he trod on what he thought was a log of wood at the very edge of the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo River, all set about with fever-trees.
coil：塒を巻く。went on：行き続けた。trod on：〜を踏んだ。log of wood：木の丸太。
But it was really the Crocodile, O Best Beloved, and the Crocodile winked one eye—like this!
winked one eye：片目で目配せした（ウインクした）。
''Scuse me,' said the Elephant's Child most politely, 'but do you happen to have seen a Crocodile in these promiscuous parts?'
happen to：偶然〜する。
Then the Crocodile winked the other eye, and lifted half his tail out of the mud; and the Elephant's Child stepped back most politely, because he did not wish to be spanked again.
stepped back：後退った。
'Come hither, Little One,' said the Crocodile. 'Why do you ask such things?'
hither：こちらへ。
'Scuse me,' said the Elephant's Child most politely, 'but my father has spanked me, my mother has spanked me, not to mention my tall aunt, the Ostrich, and my tall uncle, the Giraffe, who can kick ever so hard, as well as my broad aunt, the Hippopotamus, and my hairy uncle, the Baboon, and including the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake, with the scalesome, flailsome tail, just up the bank, who spanks harder than any of them; and so, if it's quite all the same to you, I don't want to be spanked any more.'
and so：その故に。
'Come hither, Little One,' said the Crocodile, 'for I am the Crocodile,' and he wept crocodile-tears to show it was quite true.
wept：拭った。crocodile tears：クロコダイル／ワニの涙（ワニが獲物を食べながら涙を流すという古来の伝承から偽りの悲しみを表す）／空涙。
Then the Elephant's Child grew all breathless, and panted, and kneeled down on the bank and said, 'You are the very person I have been looking for all these long days. Will you please tell me what you have for dinner?'
breathless：息も吐けない。panted：喘いだ。kneeled down：跪く。
'Come hither, Little One,' said the Crocodile, 'and I'll whisper.'
Then the Elephant's Child put his head down close to the Crocodile's musky, tusky mouth, and the Crocodile caught him by his little nose, which up to that very week, day, hour, and minute, had been no bigger than a boot, though much more useful.
musky：刺々しい（muskellunge／アメリカカワカマス／魚の一種が疎らに鋭い歯を持っていることの造語と思われる）。tusky：牙のある。
'I think,' said the Crocodile—and he said it between his teeth, like this—'I think to-day I will begin with Elephant's Child!'
At this, O Best Beloved, the Elephant's Child was much annoyed, and he said, speaking through his nose, like this, 'Led go! You are hurtig be!'
annoyed：苛立った。led go：放せ（let goの変形）。hurtig be：私に痛みを与える（hurting meの変形）。
Then the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake scuffled down from the bank and said, 'My young friend, if you do not now, immediately and instantly, pull as hard as ever you can, it is my opinion that your acquaintance in the large-pattern leather ulster' (and by this he meant the Crocodile) 'will jerk you into yonder limpid stream before you can say Jack Robinson.'
scuffled down：慌てて走り降りた。instantly：即座に。acquaintance：知り合い。the large-pattern leather ulster：大きな模様の革のアルスター（厚手のコート）。jerk：ぐいっと引く。yonder limpid stream：彼処の澄んだ流れ。before you can say Jack Robinson：思ったよりも速く（ジャック・ロビンソンという前に：Jack Robinson／ジャック・ロビンソンは十七世紀後半にロンドン塔の副官や市長を務めた人物で、とても早口だったと見做されているために使われるいい回し）。
This is the way Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snakes always talk.
Then the Elephant's Child sat back on his little haunches, and pulled, and pulled, and pulled, and his nose began to stretch. And the Crocodile floundered into the water, making it all creamy with great sweeps of his tail, and he pulled, and pulled, and pulled.
sat back：じっと座った。haunches：（主に動物の）尻。floundered：のたうった。creamy：クリームのような。sweeps：振り。
And the Elephant's Child's nose kept on stretching; and the Elephant's Child spread all his little four legs and pulled, and pulled, and pulled, and his nose kept on stretching; and the Crocodile threshed his tail like an oar, and he pulled, and pulled, and pulled, and at each pull the Elephant's Child's nose grew longer and longer—and it hurt him hijjus!
threshed：殻竿で打った。oar：櫂（オール）。hijjus：恐ろしいほどに（hideouslyの変形短縮）。
Illustration
This is the Elephant's Child having his nose pulled by the Crocodile. He is much surprised and astonished and hurt, and he is talking through his nose and saying, 'Led go! You are hurtig be!' He is pulling very hard, and so is the Crocodile; but the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake is hurrying through the water to help the Elephant's Child. All that black stuff is the banks of the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo River (but I am not allowed to paint these pictures), and the bottly-tree with the twisty roots and the eight leaves is one of the fever trees that grow there.
stuff：もの。allowed：できる。bottly-tree：瓶のような木。twisty roots：捩れた根。
Underneath the truly picture are shadows of African animals walking into an African ark. There are two lions, two ostriches, two oxen, two camels, two sheep, and two other things that look like rats, but I think they are rock-rabbits. They don't mean anything. I put them in because I thought they looked pretty. They would look very fine if I were allowed to paint them.
African ark：アフリカの方舟。oxen：雄牛（動物の一種）。camels：駱駝（動物の一種）。things：動物たちrock-rabbits：ハイラックス（動物の一種）。
Then the Elephant's Child felt his legs slipping, and he said through his nose, which was now nearly five feet long, 'This is too butch for be!'
slipping：滑る。five feet：5フィート（1.524 メートル）。too butch for be：私には長過ぎる（butchはmuch、beはmeの変形）。
Then the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake came down from the bank, and knotted himself in a double-clove-hitch round the Elephant's Child's hind legs, and said, 'Rash and inexperienced traveller, we will now seriously devote ourselves to a little high tension, because if we do not, it is my impression that yonder self-propelling man-of-war with the armour-plated upper deck' (and by this, O Best Beloved, he meant the Crocodile), 'will permanently vitiate your future career.'
knotted himself：（彼が）結び目になった。double-clove-hitch：二重の巻き結び。hind legs：後ろの脚。rash and inexperienced traveller：向こう見ずな経験の浅い旅人。devote ourselves to：（私たちが）〜に専念する。self-propelling man-of-war：自己推進の軍艦（man-of-warは十六から十九世紀の軍艦のイギリス英語）。the armour-plated upper deck：装甲した上甲板。permanently：永久に。vitiate：損なう。future career：将来の仕事（行く末）。
That is the way all Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snakes always talk.
So he pulled, and the Elephant's Child pulled, and the Crocodile pulled; but the Elephant's Child and the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake pulled hardest; and at last the Crocodile let go of the Elephant's Child's nose with a plop that you could hear all up and down the Limpopo.
let go of：〜から手を放す（離れる）。with a plop：ドボンと。
Then the Elephant's Child sat down most hard and sudden; but first he was careful to say 'Thank you' to the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake; and next he was kind to his poor pulled nose, and wrapped it all up in cool banana leaves, and hung it in the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo to cool.
careful to：抜かりなく〜する。poor：哀れな。wrapped (up)：包み上げた。
'What are you doing that for?' said the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake.
''Scuse me,' said the Elephant's Child, 'but my nose is badly out of shape, and I am waiting for it to shrink.'
out of shape：形崩れ。shrink：縮む。
'Then you will have to wait a long time,' said the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake. 'Some people do not know what is good for them.'
some people do not know：分からない者もいる（ある者は分からない）。
The Elephant's Child sat there for three days waiting for his nose to shrink. But it never grew any shorter, and, besides, it made him squint. For, O Best Beloved, you will see and understand that the Crocodile had pulled it out into a really truly trunk same as all Elephants have to-day.
squint：目を細めて見る。
At the end of the third day a fly came and stung him on the shoulder, and before he knew what he was doing he lifted up his trunk and hit that fly dead with the end of it.
fly：ハエ（昆虫の一種）。stung：刺した。end：端。
''Vantage number one!' said the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake. 'You couldn't have done that with a mere-smear nose. Try and eat a little now.'
'vantage：利点（advantageの短縮形）。mere-smear：全くの悪評に過ぎない。
Before he thought what he was doing the Elephant's Child put out his trunk and plucked a large bundle of grass, dusted it clean against his fore-legs, and stuffed it into his own mouth.
plucked：引き抜いた。bundle：束。dusted (against)：〜で埃を取った。fore-legs：前脚。stuffed：詰めた。
''Vantage number two!' said the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake. 'You couldn't have done that with a mere-smear nose. Don't you think the sun is very hot here?'
'It is,' said the Elephant's Child, and before he thought what he was doing he schlooped up a schloop of mud from the banks of the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo, and slapped it on his head, where it made a cool schloopy-sloshy mud-cap all trickly behind his ears.
schlooped up：（泥を）引っかけた。a schloop of：〜の（泥の）バシャン（という音）。slapped (on)：（帽子などを）ぽいと被った。schloopy-sloshy：バシャバチャ。trickly：滴り落ちて（ポタポタ）。
''Vantage number three!' said the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake. 'You couldn't have done that with a mere-smear nose. Now how do you feel about being spanked again?'
'Scuse me,' said the Elephant's Child, 'but I should not like it at all.'
should not like：気に入らない。
'How would you like to spank somebody?' said the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake.
'I should like it very much indeed,' said the Elephant's Child.
'Well,' said the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake, 'you will find that new nose of yours very useful to spank people with.'
people：動物たち。
'Thank you,' said the Elephant's Child, I'll remember that; and now I think I'll go home to all my dear families and try.'
Illustration
This is just a picture of the Elephant's Child going to pull bananas off a banana-tree after he had got his fine new long trunk. I don't think it is a very nice picture; but I couldn't make it any better, because elephants and bananas are hard to draw. The streaky things behind the Elephant's Child mean squoggy marshy country somewhere in Africa. The Elephant's Child made most of his mud-cakes out of the mud that he found there. I think it would look better if you painted the banana-tree green and the Elephant's Child red.
streaky：一様ではない（斑がある）。squoggy：泥の多い。marshy：沼地の。cake：ケーキ／平たく固めた食べ物。
So the Elephant's Child went home across Africa frisking and whisking his trunk. When he wanted fruit to eat he pulled fruit down from a tree, instead of waiting for it to fall as he used to do. When he wanted grass he plucked grass up from the ground, instead of going on his knees as he used to do. When the flies bit him he broke off the branch of a tree and used it as a fly-whisk; and he made himself a new, cool, slushy-squshy mud-cap whenever the sun was hot. When he felt lonely walking through Africa he sang to himself down his trunk, and the noise was louder than several brass bands. He went especially out of his way to find a broad Hippopotamus (she was no relation of his), and he spanked her very hard, to make sure that the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake had spoken the truth about his new trunk. The rest of the time he picked up the melon rinds that he had dropped on his way to the Limpopo—for he was a Tidy Pachyderm.
frisking：跳ね回る。whisking：素早く振る。broke off：引き千切った。fly-whisk：ハエ払い。slushy-squshy：べちゃぐにゃ（泥濘んでぐにゃぐにゃの）。noise：音。brass bands：吹奏楽団。no relation of：〜の親戚ではない。tidy pachyderm：綺麗好きな厚皮動物。
One dark evening he came back to all his dear families, and he coiled up his trunk and said, 'How do you do?' They were very glad to see him, and immediately said, 'Come here and be spanked for your 'satiable curtiosity.'
coiled up：（ぐるぐる）巻き上げた。
'Pooh,' said the Elephant's Child. 'I don't think you peoples know anything about spanking; but I do, and I'll show you.'
pooh：ふーん。
Then he uncurled his trunk and knocked two of his dear brothers head over heels.
uncurled（巻いたもの）解いた。head over heels：真っ逆さまに。
'O Bananas!' said they, 'Where did you learn that trick, and what have you done to your nose?'
bananas：馬鹿な（気が狂ったか）。trick：術策。
'I got a new one from the Crocodile on the banks of the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo River,' said the Elephant's Child. 'I asked him what he had for dinner, and he gave me this to keep.'
gave (to keep)：託した。
'It looks very ugly,' said his hairy uncle, the Baboon.
'It does,' said the Elephant's Child. 'But it's very useful,' and he picked up his hairy uncle, the Baboon, by one hairy leg, and hove him into a hornets' nest.
hove (into)：〜へ投げ込んだ。hornets' nest：スズメバチ（蜂の一種）の巣。
Then that bad Elephant's Child spanked all his dear families for a long time, till they were very warm and greatly astonished. He pulled out his tall Ostrich aunt's tail-feathers; and he caught his tall uncle, the Giraffe, by the hind-leg, and dragged him through a thorn-bush; and he shouted at his broad aunt, the Hippopotamus, and blew bubbles into her ear when she was sleeping in the water after meals; but he never let any one touch Kolokolo Bird.
dragged：引き摺った。
At last things grew so exciting that his dear families went off one by one in a hurry to the banks of the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo River, all set about with fever-trees, to borrow new noses from the Crocodile. When they came back nobody spanked anybody any more; and ever since that day, O Best Beloved, all the Elephants you will ever see, besides all those that you won't, have trunks precisely like the trunk of the 'satiable Elephant's Child.
one by one：一匹ずつ。in a hurry：急いで。
I keep six honest serving-men;
(They taught me all I knew)
Their names are What and Where and When
And How and Where and Who.
I send them over land and sea,
I send them east and west;
But after they have worked for me,
I give them all a rest.
honest：正直な。serving-men：（男の）召し使い。
I let them rest from nine till five,
For I am busy then,
As well as breakfast, lunch, and tea,
For they are hungry men:
But different folk have different views:
I know a person small—
She keeps ten million serving-men,
Who get no rest at all!
She sends 'em abroad on her own affairs,
From the second she opens her eyes—
One million Hows, two million Wheres,
And seven million Whys!
different folk：異なる人々。ten million：一千万。sends (abroad)：海外へ送る。'em：彼ら（themの短縮形）。on her own affairs：（彼女の）私用で。from the second：二番目から（次から）。
原文の出典：The Elephant's Child
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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