JSLL #65 - The Spider's Thread, part 13

Sentence:

その上あたりは墓の中のようにしんと静まり返って、たまに聞こえるものと云っては、ただ罪人がつく微な嘆息ばかりでございます。

そのうえあたりははかのなかのようにしんとしずまりかえって、たまにきこえるものといっては、ただざいにんがつくかすかなたんそくばかりでございます。

Vocabulary

• 墓 means "grave, tomb"
• しんと means "silent (as the grave), deadly silent, deathly quiet"
• 静まり返る means "to fall completely silent, to become silent as death"
• ただ means "ordinary, common, usual" but also "only, merely, just, simply"
• つく can be many verbs meaning many things
• 微, often written 微か, is a na-adjective that means "faint, dim, weak etc" or "poor, wretched, meager etc"
• 嘆息 means "sigh (of grief, disappointment), grieving, lamenting, deploring"
• ばかりmeans "only, merely, nothing more than"

Kanji

Kanji	N-level	Occurs in how many common words?
墓	N1	5
静	N3	15
微	N1	16
嘆	N1	3

Translation

The place above fell deathly silent as if inside a grave, and there was only the faint sighs of grief, sighed by common criminals, if you could even call that something that can be heard.