「私が兩親を亡くしたのは、まだ私の廿歳にならない時分でした。何時か妻があなたに話してゐたやうにも記憶してゐますが、二人は同じ病氣で死んだのです。しかも妻が貴方に不審を起させた通り、殆んど同時といつて可い位に、前後して死んだのです。實をいふと、父の病氣は恐るべき腸窒扶斯でした。それが傍にゐて看護をした母に傳染したのです。
translation
“I lost both of my parents when I was not yet 10 years old. What's more, just as your wife has made you suspicious, they died almost at the same time. That was how it was passed on to my mother, who nursed him by his side.
kanji (pronunciations & definitions)
| 私: I (わたし), me, I (あたくし), I (あたし), I (アタシ) | 亡: death (ぼう), the late, the deceased | 時分: time (じぶん), hour, season, time of the year | 何時: when (いつ), at what time, how soon, normal times, ordinary days |
| 話: talk (はなし), speech, chat, conversation, topic | 記憶: memory (きおく), recollection, remembrance, memory, storage | 二人: two persons (ににん), two persons (ふたり), two people, two people, pair | 同: the same (どう), the said, likewise |
| 死: death (し), death (ﾀﾋ), decease, decease, (an) out | 貴方: your home (きほう), your residence, you (referring to one’s equal; epistolary style), you (あなた), dear | 不審: doubt (ふしん), suspicion, question, strangeness | 起: source (おこり), origin, cause, beginning, genesis |
| 殆: quite (ほとほと), utterly, really, completely | 同時: simultaneous (どうじ), concurrent, same time, synchronous, together | 可: acceptable (か), satisfactory, allowed, permitted, approval | 位: throne (くらい), crown, (nobleman’s) seat, government position, court rank |
| 父: father (あて), father (かそ), father (かぞ), father (しし), father (ちち) | 恐: frightening (こわ), terrifying, yours sincerely (かしく), yours sincerely (かしこ), respectfully yours | 窒扶斯: typhoid fever (チフス), typhoid fever (チブス), typhoid fever (チプス), typhus, typhus | 傍: near (そく), near (そば), near (はた), close, close |
| 母: mother (あも), mother (いろは), mother (おも), mother (かか), mother (はは) |