#8 中上健次「岬」
地虫が鳴き始めていた。耳をそばだてるとかすかに聞こえる程だった。耳鳴りのようにも思えた。これから夜を通して、地虫は鳴きつづける。彼は、夜の、冷えた土のにおいを想った。
The insects had started to buzz. If he really concentrated he could only just hear them. It might as well have been a ringing in his ears. The insects would buzz all night long. He imagined the smell of the cold night soil.
Vocabulary:
中上健次 なかがみけんじ Nakagami Kenji (author, 1946-1992)
地虫 じむし insect (the type that lives in the soil)
鳴く なく to cry, to buzz
耳 みみ ear
そばだてる to prick up (ears)
かすかに faintly
聞こえる きこえる to be audible, to be able to hear
程 ほど extent
耳鳴り みみなり ringing in one’s ear
夜を通して よるをとおして all night long
冷える ひえる to grow cold
土 つち soil, earth
におい smell (often written as 匂い or 臭い)
想う おもう to imagine, to picture
Grammar:
程
This marker is used to signal a limit and means ‘extent’ or ‘to the extent that…’. Here, it qualifies the softness of the buzzing noise of the insects. It was so soft to the extent that you had to prick up your ears to hear it.
~ように思える
This pattern is often used to make a statement more vague and means ‘it seems’ or ‘it appears’.
想う
Notice that the character used here differs from the usual 思う. By changing the character, a different nuance is given to the sentence. Whereas 思う simply means ‘to think about’, 想う means ‘to imagine’ or ‘to picture’. It is also used in compound words such as 想像 (そうぞう), which also means ‘to imagine’.