以下は Kazuo Ishiguro の When We were Orphans の一節。読み返してみて、ふと目がとまったのが下線部です。「It’s time he looked forward.」の「he looked forward.」の部分は文法的には所謂「仮定法過去」。「仮定法過去」とは「現在の事実と異なることを仮定する場合に使われる」ことは知っています。しかし、ここでの使い方は「現在の事実と異なることを仮定する場合に使われる」ということを知っているだけでは不十分だと思います。‘It’s time’ の後に文が来る時は「もう〜していてもよい時だ」の意味になることを知っている必要があります。文法解説書には「（実際にはしていないが）」の注がついていますが、著者にはピンときません。以下の文では最初「He has to start looking ahead.」と言う表現があり同じことを言っています。著者は「仮定法過去」は「現在の事実と異なることを仮定する場合に使われる」だけでなく、話者の「心の揺らぎ」がある場合にも使われると理解しています。即ち、ここでは「もう前を向いていてもよさそうなものなのに」のイメージかと思います。このようなことを頭に入れて次を読むと「It’s time he looked forward.」がより生き生きとイメージ化されるでしょう。
Such precautions, however, had proved inadequate. For one morning I had overheard from the little attic room I had been given, my aunt talking with some friends down the drawing room. It was the sudden lowering of their voices that had first aroused my curiosity, and I soon found myself creeping out on to the landing and leaning over the rail.
‘He’s gone for hours,’ I could hear her saying. ‘It’s hardly healthy, a boy his age, sunk in his own world like that. He has to start looking ahead.’
‘But it’s only to be expected, surely,’ someone said. ‘After everything that’s happened to him.’
‘He has nothing at all to gain by brooding,’ my aunt said. ‘He’s been well provided for, and in that sense he’s been lucky. It’s time he looked forward. I mean to put a stop to all this introspection.’
「It’s time」は「単純不定詞」を伴うこともありますが、この場合は「単に・・・する時だ」の意味で「心の揺らぎ」はありません。映画 RIO BRAVO の主題歌「My Rifle, My Pony, And Me」の中に「It’s time for a cowboy to dream」という箇所がりますが「カーボーイが夢見る時だ」の意。
Such precautions, however, had proved inadequate. For one morning I had overheard from the little attic room I had been given, my aunt talking with some friends down the drawing room. It was the sudden lowering of their voices that had first aroused my curiosity, and I soon found myself creeping out on to the landing and leaning over the rail.
‘He’s gone for hours,’ I could hear her saying. ‘It’s hardly healthy, a boy his age, sunk in his own world like that. He has to start looking ahead.’
‘But it’s only to be expected, surely,’ someone said. ‘After everything that’s happened to him.’
‘He has nothing at all to gain by brooding,’ my aunt said. ‘He’s been well provided for, and in that sense he’s been lucky. It’s time he looked forward. I mean to put a stop to all this introspection.’
「It’s time」は「単純不定詞」を伴うこともありますが、この場合は「単に・・・する時だ」の意味で「心の揺らぎ」はありません。映画 RIO BRAVO の主題歌「My Rifle, My Pony, And Me」の中に「It’s time for a cowboy to dream」という箇所がりますが「カーボーイが夢見る時だ」の意。
