「先生は癇性ですね」とかつて奧さんに告げた時、奧さんは「でも着物などは、それ程氣にしないやうですよ」と答へた事があつた。それを傍に聞いてゐた先生は、「本當をいふと、私は精神的に癇性なんです。それで始終苦しいんです。考へると實に馬鹿々々しい性分だ」と云つて笑つた。精神的に癇性といふ意味は、俗に神經質といふ意味か、又は倫理的に潔癖だといふ意味か、私には解らなかつた。奧さんにも能く通じないらしかつた。
translation
When I once told Mrs. Oku, "You're hot-tempered, aren't you?", Ms. Okusan replied, "But you don't seem to care about kimonos." Sensei, who was listening beside him, said with a laugh, "To tell you the truth, I'm mentally hot-tempered. That's why I'm always in pain. When I think about it, my personality is really silly." . I didn't understand if what was meant by "psychologically hot-tempered" was, in common terms, "psychic" or "ethically clean-cut". Oku-san didn't seem to be able to get through either.
kanji (pronunciations & definitions)
| 先生: teacher (せんせい), instructor, master, sensei, title or form of address for a teacher, master, doctor, lawyer, etc. | 癇性: irritability (かんしょう), peevishness, irascibility, hot temper | 奧: inner part (おく), interior, back (of a drawer, one’s throat, etc.), depths (e.g. of a forest), recesses (e.g. of a cave) | 着物: kimono (きもの), Japanese traditional clothing (esp. full-length), clothing, clothes, something to wear (きるもの) |
| 事: thing (こと), thing (こん), matter, matter, incident | 傍: near (そく), near (そば), near (はた), close, close | 本當: truth (ほんと), truth (ほんとう), truth (ホント), truth (ホントウ), truth (ホントー) | 私: I (わたし), me, I (あたくし), I (あたし), I (アタシ) |
| 始終: continuously (しじゅう), from beginning to end, from first to last | 苦: pain (く), anguish, suffering, distress, anxiety | 考: thought (こう), report on one’s investigation into …, deceased father | 馬鹿: idiot (ばか), idiot (バカ), moron, moron, fool |
| 笑: laugh (わらい), laughter, smile, sneer, sex aids (e.g. dildos, pornographic books, erotic woodblock prints, etc.) | 意味: meaning (いみ), significance, sense | 俗: layman (esp. as opposed to a Buddhist monk) (しょく), layman (esp. as opposed to a Buddhist monk) (ぞく), laity, laity, man of the world | 又: again (また), once more, once again, another time, some other time |
| 潔癖: fastidiousness (けっぺき), love of cleanliness | 解: solution (of an equation, inequality, etc.) (かい), root (e.g. of a polynomial), solution (to a given problem), answer, explanation | 能: talent (のう), gift, function, noh (theatre) | 通: authority (つう), expert, connoisseur, well-informed person, counter for messages, letters, notes, documents, etc. |