レッスン１１

　毎日、不動産ビジネスでは、疲れる。
秋田に行ったとき、部屋から高校時代の教科書を持ってきた。清水書院のものだ。恐らく、高校教科書としては、難易度の高いものだろう。同じ高校にて全国トップクラスの成績を維持した連中も、この教科書で英語を学んだ・・。
　さて、本題に入ろう。

the immortal five
不滅の五人
In 1910 Captain Robert Falcon Scott and his crew set sail（出帆する） in an attempt to discover the South Pole.
Robert Falcon Scott イギリスの海軍将校、探検家
They made their base at Cape Evans（ロス海の小島にある岬） and planned the journey to the Pole in three stages.
First there was the crossing of a great plain of ice for nearly 500 miles.
ほとんど５００マイルちかくの　氷平原の横断　でした。
The motor sledges took them the first 50 miles, then the ponies and dogs and men contined the journy south.
Some of the ponies had to be shot , as food for them was running short(不足する）,but at last the plain was crossed.
Now towering in front of them rose a great range of ice-covered mountains, in parts over 9,000 feet high.
いまや、彼らの前にそびえながら、とてつもない広さで、氷に覆われた山々が立っていた。　ところどころでは９０００フィートの高さがあった。
But through the range flowed a glacier , and to climb this would be the next stage of the journey.
氷河
At the foot of the glacier they killed the remaining ponies. The dogs and some of the men were sent back, but three sleges
(荷物用ソリ）, each pulled by four men, set off (=start)on the next stage.
It was a terrible journey; the snow was so soft that often they sank to their knees in it, and the heavy sledges were very difficult to move.
Scott had decided that the final stage of 150 miles to the South Pole would be covered by four men and himself.
In addition to Scott himself there was Dr. Edward Wilson , surgeon and artist, a deeply learned man of a most lovable nature. とても愛すべき性格を有する、深い学識の男性
Then there was Lieutenant Henry Bowers, small in body but a giant in soul, and Capatain Lawrence Oates, and finally Edgar Evans, a British seaman, a huge fellow, as strong as a horse and always cheerful. These were the immortal five.

　今日はここまで、すこしづづやっていきたい。

On 3rd January , 1912 , the seven men to be left behind said good-by, cheered the five who were to go on, and watched them set off harnessed to their sledges, five who were to go on ,and watched them set off harnessed(馬をつないで） to their sledges, five brave souls who would never again see living faces except their own.
Scott expected to be at the Pole in a fortnight.
For thirteen months nothing was heard of them,but from Scott's diaries we konw all there is to be konwn.
On 18th January they reached the Pole and then they set out on the return journey.
It had taken them seventy-six days to get there from the base at Cape Evans; it would take at least as long to get back.
It was still the Antarctic summer , but the weather was bitter, the blizzards were raging, the ice was rough and food was short.
A month after they left the Pole, Evans collapsed(崩れた）.
When he could no longer walk, he tried to crawl on hands and knees.
Their only hope of success was to go on and leave Ewans. But they did not go on.
They stayed by him and " did not leave him till two hours after his death."
Without Evans's mighty strength it was almost impossible for the others to pull the slegde.
Oates was suffering terribly from frostbite and could hardly walk.
"What shall I do?" he said to Dr. Wilson.
"Keep on, keep on," said Wilson.
But Oates knew he was slowing down the progress(進行） of his friends and making their death certain too.
He said to them , "I am going outside and I may be some time."
They knew he was walking out from the tent to his death in order that they might live.
They tried to dissuade him .
"But ," says Scott, "we knew it was the act of a brave man and an English gentleman.
We all hope to meet the end with a similar spirt, and assuredly, the end is not far."
They came at last to a spot only eleven miles from their "One-Ton Camp," but the blizzard was so fierce that they had to camp where they were with fuel for one hot meal and food for two days only.
Only eleven miles to safety but they could not reach it.
The blizzard blew more fiercely than ever.
Despite the cold and hunger , Scott and his companions lived four days longer, and they died there in their tent, three friends who did not fail one another.
Scott was the last to die. He filled in his diary almost to the last day and wrote a noble last message:
"We are weak , writing is difficult, but for my own sake I do not regret this journey , which has shown that Englishmen can endure hardship, help one another and meet death with a great fortitude.