急いだためでもありませうが、我々は歸り路には殆んど口を聞きませんでした。宅へ歸つて食卓へ向つた時、奥さんは何うして遲くなつたのかと尋ねました。私はＫに誘はれて上野へ行つたと答へました。奥さんは此寒いのにと云つて驚ろいた樣子を見せました。御孃さんは上野に何があつたのかと聞きたがります。私は何もないが、たゞ散歩したのだといふ返事丈して置きました。平生から無口なＫは、いつもより猶默つてゐました。奥さんが話しかけても、御孃さんが笑つても、碌な挨拶はしませんでした。それから飯を呑み込むやうに掻き込んで、私がまだ席を立たないうちに、自分の室へ引き取りました。
translation
Perhaps because we were in a hurry, we hardly heard anything on the way home. When I got home and sat down to eat, my wife asked me why I was late. I replied that I had been invited by K to go to Ueno. Okusan looked surprised, saying that it was so cold. The daughter wants to ask what happened to Ueno. I replied that there was nothing, but that I was just taking a walk. The normally taciturn K was quieter than usual. Even when Okusan spoke to me, or when the daughter laughed, I didn't give a proper greeting. Then he shoveled the food into his mouth, and before I had even left my seat, he took me to my room.
kanji (pronunciations & definitions)
| 急: sudden (きゅう), abrupt, unexpected, urgent, pressing | 我々: we (われわれ) | 路: road (みち), path, street, lane, passage | 殆: quite (ほとほと), utterly, really, completely |
| 宅: house (たく), home, one’s house, one’s home, one’s husband | 食卓: dining table (しょくたく) | 何: what (なに), what (ナニ), you-know-what, you-know-what, that thing | 尋: fathom (じん), fathom (ひろ) |
| Ｋ: K (ケイ), K (ケー), k, k, kilo- | 上野: Kōzuke (former province located in present-day Gunma Prefecture) (こうずけ) | 行: line (of text) (ぎょう), row, verse, carya (austerities), samskara (formations) | 答: answer (こたえ), reply, response, answer, solution |
| 見: looking (み), viewing, (please) try (to), view (of life, etc.) (けん), outlook | 散歩: walk (さんぽ), stroll | 返事: reply (へんじ), answer, response | 丈: only (だけ), just, merely, simply, no more than |
| 無口: taciturn (むくち), reticent, quiet, silent, untalkative | 話: talk (はなし), speech, chat, conversation, topic | 笑: laugh (わらい), laughter, smile, sneer, sex aids (e.g. dildos, pornographic books, erotic woodblock prints, etc.) | 碌: satisfactory (ろく), decent, good, proper, worthy |
| 飯: cooked rice (めし), meal, food, one’s living, livelihood | 席: seat (せき), location (of a gathering, etc.), place, position, post | 自分: myself (じぶん), yourself, oneself, himself, herself | 室: room (しつ), wife (of someone of high rank), scabbard, Chinese “Encampment” constellation (one of the 28 mansions), greenhouse (むろ) |
| 取: taking (とり), taker, collecting, collector, remover |