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> いま誰かが窓の外をのぞいても、 **ビーズのように光る目** のダーズリー夫人でさえ、何が起こっているのか、この暗闇ではまったく見えなかっただろう。  
>  If someone were to peer out of the window now, even Mrs Dursley (whose eyes
> shone like beads) probably wouldn't be able to see what was happening at all
> in this darkness.

Clearly ビーズのように光る目 was beady-eyed in the original English. As a native English
speaker when someone says beady-eyed I don't think of this literal meaning but
something more like
[this](https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/beady-eye).

Is ビーズのように光る目 a natural phrase in Japanese or is it just a poor, literal
translation.

If it isn't natural is there a better translation?
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2019-11-17T17:38:05.047
73122
2019-11-18T00:23:00.463
7944
question
translation set-phrases
Translation of beady-eyed
「ビーズのように光る目」, to me, sounds like a mediocre direct translation because it is a
fairly ambiguous expression. Frankly, not having seen beads up close in
decades, I do not even know exactly what 「ビーズのように光る」 could mean.

I could not say it is such a natural phrase, either. I feel like the
translator went for a "safe or harmless" phrase choice there.

Not that I am or ever was a translator of any kind, I might opt to use:

・「悪意{あくい}に満{み}ちた目」

・「猜疑心旺盛{さいぎしんおうせい}な目」
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-11-18T00:23:00.463
73130
2019-11-18T00:23:00.463
73122
answer