원서읽기 공부법 (C. S. Lewis, A Grief Observed, Reading) (if nothing else 뜻)

And how or why did such a reality blossom (or fester) here and there into the terrible phenomenon called consciousness?
-fester: become rotten/worse

Why did it[the reality] produce things like us who can see it[the reality] and, see­ing it, recoil in loathing?
-recoil: suddenly spring or flinch back in fear, horror, or disgust.
-loathing: a feeling of intense disgust; hatred
-things: 맥락상 things를 어떻게 이해하고 해석해야 하는지에 대해 질문을 종종 받는다. 여기서는 그저, 현실을 보게 되는(보고 힘들어하는) 우리와 같은 존재들을 뜻한다.

Who (stranger still) want to see it and take pains to find it out, even when no need compels them and even though the sight of it makes an incurable ulcer in their hearts?
-ulcer: 궤양

Death only reveals the vacuity that was always there. What we call the living are simply those who have not yet been unmasked.
-vacuity: emptiness
-우리가 살아 있는 사람들(the living: the+형용사)이라고 부르는 것은 그저 아직 가면을 벗지 않은 사람들이다.

Someone said, I believe, 'God always geom­ etrizes.' Supposing the truth were 'God always vivisects'?
-geometrize: 기하학적으로 행동하다
-supposing: if
-vivisection: the practice of performing operations on live animals for the purpose of experimentation or scientific research

Sooner or later I must face the question in plain language.
-“단도직입적으로“를 영어로? In plain language. “명료한 언어로”의 의미에서.

Doesn't all the prima facie evidence suggest exactly the opposite?
-prima facie: based on the first impression; accepted as correct until proved otherwise. “일단 진실인 것으로 받아들이는“ 진실.

What chokes every prayer and every hope is the memory of all the prayers H. and I offered and all the false hopes we had.
-what chokes: 내 목을 매게 하는 것
-every prayer and every hope 기도하고 소망할 때마다

Time after time, when He seemed most gracious He was really preparing the next torture.
-time after time: often; on many occasions; repeatedly. 흔히 ’종종‘ 이라고 하지만 그와는 어감이 다르다는 점.
-time after time 뜻
-예문: Time after time she gets involved in relationships with the wrong men.

Anyway, in a God so bad as all that? The Cosmic Sadist, the spiteful imbecile?
-(앞선 맥락과 결부하여) 저렇게 악한 신을 믿는 것이?(합리적인가?) 우주적 사디스드이자 악의로 가득한 멍청이를?

I think it is, if nothing else, too anthropomorphic.
-내 생각에 이건, 다른 건 몰라도, 너무 (신을) 의인화한 거다.
-if nothing else 뜻이나 어감을 확인하기 쉬운 예문.