p155: 「胃拡張なの」と彼女は言った。 Gastric dilation, she said. [The Japanese language used to be lacking third person pronouns. 「彼」 (he) and 「彼女」 (she) were introduced in the 明治 period specifically to translate Western writing. Now the pronouns are used in typical Japanese writing.] 「だからいくら食べても太らないことになってるの」 Therefore, no matter how much I eat, I don't become fat. [That is still her speech: the sentence ends in a female-speech particle の。Literally the sentence says that `I have reached the state so that no matter how much I eat I don't become fat']. 「ふうん」と私はうなった。 A bummer, I groaned. 「ずいぶん食費がかかりそうだなあ」 Food expenses must be enormous, I wonder. 実際彼女私の翌日の昼食のぶんまで一人で食べてしまったのだ。 The practical girlfriend has eaten up (by herself) everything but my share for the next day's lunch. 「そりゃすごいわよ」と彼女は言った。 `Come on, it's great!' she said. 「外食するときはふつう二軒つづけてはしごするのよ。 When I eat out, I hop from place to place. [「梯子酒」 means bar-hopping. But alcohol is dropped because she is talking about eating rather than drinking. I think 「ふつう二軒つづけ て」 must be a set phrase; literally it means go from door to any other door.] まずラーメンとキョーザかなんかで軽くワーミングアップしてから、ちゃんと したごはんを食べるの。 First, I do the light warming-up with ramen or 「キョーザ」 (according to the dictionary, this word is borrowed from Chinese and means dumpling). Then I eat the proper [or, well-prepared, full] dinner. お給料のほとんどは食費に消えちゃうんじゃないかしら」 I wonder, almost the entire salary goes up for food [again, the indication of female speech at the end, with the meaning `I wonder'] 私はもうー度彼女に酒をすすめた。 I suggested a drink to her one more time. ビールを欲しいと彼女はいった。 I want beer, she said. [Interesting, I read that 「欲しい」 is not used with a direct object. 「欲しい」is like intransitive or passive verb. I read one should say: 「ビールが欲しい」. Perhaps this is again the influence of English.] 私はビールを冷蔵庫から出し、ためしにフランクウルト ソーセジを両手にいっ ぱいフライパンで炒めてみた。 I took the beer out of the refrigerator. For test, I tried [or, decided] to stir-fry, with both hands, the full frying pan of Frankfurt sausages. [I like ふりがな for 「炒」.] まさかとは思ったが、私が二本食べた他はぜんぶ彼女がたいらげた。 Although I thought `Never again', I ate two pieces [two cylinders] of sausages. She ate up all of the rest. [Grammar here is fascinating: `I ate two pieces' is a relative clause explaining `the rest'.] 重機関銃で納屋をなぎ倒すような、すさまじい勢いの食欲だった。 The force of the appetite was terrific, like a machine gun cutting down supplies in a barn. 私がー週間ぶんとして買いこんできた食料は目に見えて減っていった。 The food that I have bought for a week and a half was disappearing before my eyes. [「買いこんできた」 The auxiliary 来る means the action of buying was continuing until the present moment. In 「減っていった」 the auxiliary 「行く」 shows that disappearing will be going from this moment on.] 私はそのフランクウルト ソーセジで、おいしいザワークラウト ソーセジを 作る積りだったのだ。 I actually wanted to make tasty sausages-and-sauerkraut with these Frankfurt sausages. 私ができあいのポテト サラダにわかめとツナをまぜたものを出すと、彼女は それも二本めのビールとともにぺろりとたいらげた。 I took out [from the refrigerator] the ready-made potato salad with mixed-in tuna [tuna is in kana!] and seaweed; she ate it up, while sticking out her tongue and bolting down the second beer. 「ねえ、私とても幸せよ」と彼女は私にいった。 Ahh, I'm totally happy, she told me. 私はほとんど何も食べずに、オールドクロウのオン ザ ロックを三杯飲んでいた。 Without eating hardly anything, I have drank three glasses of Old Crow on the rocks. [「オンザロック」 is literally the English phrase `On the rocks' phonetically spelled in kana.] 彼女の食べる姿に見とれていて、まるで食欲なんてわかなかったのだ。 Fascinated by her eating, I had no appetite at all. 「よかったらデザートにチョコレートケーキもあるけれど」とわたしはいって みた。 `If you like, there is a chocolate cake for desert...', I tried to say.