Near the end of Chapter 6, in Arrowsmith (page 69 in my Signet Classic edition), Martin and Madeline have met Leora at the Grand Hotel for lunch.
Shortly he will surprise them both, but for now they're sizing each other up, and Madeline is asking nurse-to-be Leora if she knows a certain doctor at her hospital...
"'No, I don't think I've met him yet,' Leora bleated."
I wasn't sure I liked the word used in the translation for 'bleated.' It generally means 'wince,' but can also be taken to mean 'falter.'
I set out to find an alternative, but the problem is that these kinds of words, describing either animal cries or human voice varieties, tend to be onomatopoeic in Japanese, and my study of both English and Japanese thesauruses doesn't leave me with anything I like better than the original translation.
I do find this general question interesting. Exactly what did Lewis mean by 'bleat?' I grew up on a farm and am plenty familiar with the bleats of sheep. But I really don't think Leora's voice sounded like that so much as it sounded sheepish. Even then, the Japanese approximations denoting meekness, shyness, embarrassment, docility, humility and so forth, seem to assume too much. Which leaves us back at 'falter,' at least for now.
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