Your quotation is wrong -- "time" should read "tide" (人生に潮時あり).

This is a quotation from Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar. "Flood" means "flood tide", which is when the water level rises.

For a better translation, look up act 4 scene 3 in a Japanese version of the play.

満潮 and 干潮 are the turning points. What Shakespeare had in mind was the current flowing in.

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Note added at 2004-01-28 11:23:38 (GMT) Post-grading
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Oops! 満潮 can also be read 満ち潮. The opposites are easier to keep apart: 干潮 and 引き潮.

スレッド的に尾を引くので考えてみましたが、Daikoku-san の answer を言い換え、「満潮に乗る」でもよいですが「大波に押し流される」というニュアンスでも（もちろん個人的に）よいのではないかと思われました。あくまでご参考、よい訳出の参考にされてください。-


Responses to Daikoku-san：

>agree Minoru Kuwahara: I'm always surprised to find how ignorant I am about English. I was having an image of "sea" from the Cristie's story title without knowing the background. May be great to pick up the name of the translator. Tnk u for committment.-
>> The best way to fully understand English literature for us, Japanese, is to read The Bible (There're lots of illustrated version in modern English available and Shakespeare, famous poems and learn nursery rhymes. -

I was rather inferring that you would pick up the name of the translator whose translation you picked up as a classic for reference.

As to the Bible, of course, that is the most important 'book' in the western civilization and many western literary works quote verses from there or have strong backgrounds in relation to the Christian hisory or ethics written or explicit in it, which I mean is applicable to works of any other western cultures than British naturally. Definitely, it would be a good idea to learn a bit of the Bible if you should prepare yourself with your paper on Shakespeare or Christie, what writer s/he may be, no matter how reputable their works might be among people, and mostly if you are truly interested in the Chistian background as a non-Christian. However, ok, just personally and honestly, I am reluctant in its "reading" by myself unless I may need to know something specific and quite extensive about the English literature. If you have just academic or cultural concerns towards all those writers and their works, referring to the Bible would certainly give you ways for your better understanding of the background of your study. That is, I think enough as far as interests as a Japanese in the Bible (if you name it) are concerned. Reading it is a different matter, and moreover, in that sense, it would not always be a very good way of practicing your English! I respect the western cultures and their Christian backgrounds..and I'm interested in their history and literature, while I am not a Christain myself and I know reading something like the Bible in a naive manner would not be a good thing to do like you would do the same thing regarding Koran. In any case, I'm not so religious even as a Buddhist and never regard myself as an avid reader of the Buddhism teachings (!), though I would tell a westerner I am a Buddhist. Irony? Not sure.

>To Minoru,
Quite a large chunk of Christie's novel came from came from old English literature, and nursery rhymes. It could be a bit controversial comment to those who love her novel (I'm one of them), but she isn't regarded as a good writer, and is often referred to "a paperback writer". Another example: The theme song "Song of Babylon" from the popular Japanese film, "Lupin the III", came from the nursery rhyme. It's worth learning history of English literature. Then you'll enjoy art and culture more than you do now.

Thank you for your clarification. As to Christie's reputation, I may have once heard somewhere that she's not regarded as an "excellent" writer at home (maybe, "paper back writer" was the word I heard of), but as yourself, I was a simple mistery story fan and started out reading her stories at a younger age. I think I have not yet read through all her stories, but yes, I did watch dramas and movies based on some of them, which I found are quite 'fun' (and possibly interesting as well.) I definitely agree with you that learning the history of the English literature would reward you with new knowleadge and insight into the English language itself. I once tried to do that withe French and sure, it was quite a good learning of thecultural background. On the other hand, I was not so luckily starting with the English literature history. aybe, worth trying as we assume a strong tie with the art and culture as you comment.-

I'm just expressing my stance on the topic and I would not like to argue with you about this, while you may have your views naturally as all beliefs differ from person to person and you can express it here, but this is not a personal space, so if you are interested, you may contact me via my address.-

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Note added at 2004-02-08 05:25:39 (GMT) Post-grading
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A Cuban Canada friend advised me that reading Christie was a very good practice of English when he escaped from his communist home country to land on USA before immigrating to Canada, and coping with the English environment. I hope he¥'s a medical professional, but not always so well with his vocational situation. I¥'m recommending him that he would be trained as a frelance translator. Not a silly matter. Sorry for personal comment.-