sap 復習
化学兵器が使用されたシリアでは、今まで以上に多くの命が奪われました。
Father loses 9-month-old twins in Syrian chemical attack
Abdel Hameed al-Youssef sat in a car, cradling his 9-month-old twins wrapped in white.
Their faces were sapped of life, victims of a chemical attack in Syria on Tuesday that took the lives at least 72 civilians, including at least 20 children, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
"I was right beside them. I took them outside with their mother," al-Youssef, 29, told The Associated Press. "They were conscious, but 10 minutes later, we could smell [the gas], and my children couldn't handle it anymore. I left them to the medics and went to find my family."
He told the AP that he lost other family members in the horrific attack, which was just one in a series of chemical attacks in war-torn Syria.
"My brother Yasser is dead. I couldn't save him. So is my brother Abdel Kareem. My nephew Yasser Mohammad, I couldn't save. Ammar my nephew, I couldn't save. Shaimaa my niece, I couldn't save. My sister-in-law, they all died. Two of our workers, 11 of another family died in their own land. Khaled and his wife, Abounajib, his wife and his daughter," al-Youssef told the AP.
取り上げる単語は"sap"です。LDOCEで確認してみると、"the watery substance that carries food through a plant"や"a stupid person who is easy to deceive or treat badly"とあり、動詞では"to make something weaker or destroy it, especially someone’s strength or their determination to do something"という意味がありました。『ジーニアス英和辞典』第４版（大修館）では、「樹液、お人よし、まぬけ」という意味のほかに、「（活力など）を（…から）次第になくす、弱める、（体力などを徐々に）奪う」と定義されていました。
猛毒のサリンが空爆の際に使用され、今回の記事は、そのサリンのせいで双子の子供を失くした父親について述べられています。「二人の顔は次第に活力がなくなっていった」と訳せるかと思います。(Akim)
