中1/公文：公文英語LI41からのDaddy-Long-Legs（アシナガグモ）
2022年5月1日（日）。
明日から公文英語はLI41のDaddy-Long-Legsに入ります。邦題『あしながおじさん』です。
プリントの原文を読んでいて最後に衝撃を受けました。なんと、daddy-long-legsは「アシナガグモ」だそうな。「足が長い叔父さん」ではではないか！「あしながおじさん」だと好意を感じますが、「アシナガグモ」には悪意しか感じられない。
僕も遠い昔（おそらく小学生時代）に『あしながおじさん』を読んだことがありますが、アシナガグモと訳されていたのかどうか、記憶がありません。娘の読書記録を見ても、読んだ形跡がありません。
気になったので、原文を読んでみました。
=quote=
・出所：publicbookshelf
The long lower hall had not been lighted, and as she came downstairs, a last Trustee stood, on the point of departure, in the open door that led to the porte-cochere. Jerusha caught only a fleeting impression of
the man–and the impression consisted entirely of tallness. He was waving his arm towards an automobile waiting in the curved drive. As it sprang into motion and approached, head on for an instant, the glaring headlights threw his shadow sharply against the wall inside. The shadow pictured grotesquely elongated legs and arms that ran along the floor and up the wall of the corridor. It looked, for all the world, like a huge, wavering daddy-long-legs.
Jerusha’s anxious frown gave place to quick laughter. She was by nature a sunny soul, and had always snatched the tiniest excuse to be amused. If one could derive any sort of entertainment out of the oppressive fact of a Trustee, it was something unexpected to the good. She advanced to the office quite cheered by the tiny episode, and presented a smiling face to Mrs. Lippett. To her surprise the matron was also, if not exactly smiling, at least appreciably affable; she wore an expression almost as pleasant as the one she donned for visitors.
'Sit down, Jerusha, I have something to say to you.’ Jerusha dropped into the nearest chair and waited with a touch of breathlessness. An automobile flashed past the window; Mrs. Lippett glanced after it.
'Did you notice the gentleman who has just gone?’
'I saw his back.’
'He is one of our most affluential Trustees, and has given large sums of money towards the asylum’s support. I am not at liberty to mention his name; he expressly stipulated that he was to remain unknown.’
Jerusha’s eyes widened slightly; she was not accustomed to being summoned to the office to discuss the eccentricities of Trustees with the matron.
=unquote=
「grotesquely elongated legs and arms 」とありました。やはり、不気味というか、クモに絡めとられるような雰囲気。そして、それすらも明るく受け入れるJerusha。邦訳でどうなっているのか、興味を持ちました。
原文で読もうかな。
★現時点の立ち位置：
①公文：英語LI、数学K、国語J
②英単語：パス単準1級までを熟成中
