Question

たこ

He would say that God had given him a tail to keep the flies off, but that he would sooner have had no tail and no flies.
soonerは「すぐに」って訳でいいんですか？それとも特殊な用法とかあったりしますか？
こんな感じの文章の流れでこの文（赤線）が出てきたんですけど、この文は仮定法ですか...？よくわからなくなってきました...
animal farmって本なんですけどまだ話の最初の方で、人間いなくなったから豚が動物集めて、その動物たちがワラワラ集まってきてるシーンで、赤線はBenjaminってロバの紹介文です。

2
Animal Farm
pig, with a wise and benevolent appearance in spite of the fact
that his tushes had never been cut. Before long the other
animals began to arrive and make themselves comfortable after
Jessie and Pincher, and then the pigs, who settled down in the
their different fashions. First came the three dogs, Bluebell,
themselves on the window-sills, the pigeons fluttered up to the
straw immediately in front of the platform. The hens perched
rafters, the sheep and cows lay down behind the pigs and
began to chew the cud. The two cart-horses, Boxer and Clover,
came in together, walking very slowly and setting down their
vast hairy hoofs with great care lest there should be some small
animal concealed in the straw. Clover was a stout motherly
mare approaching middle life, who had never quite got her
figure back after her fourth foal. Boxer was an enormous beast,
nearly eighteen hands high, and as strong as any two ordinary
horses put together. A white stripe down his nose gave him a
somewhat stupid appearance, and in fact he was not of first-
rate intelligence, but he was universally respected for his steadi-
ness of character and tremendous powers of work. After the
horses came Muriel, the white goat, and Benjamin the donkey.
Benjamin was the oldest animal on the farm, and the worst
tempered. He seldom talked, and when he did it was usually
to make some cynical remark - for instance he would say that
God had given him a tail to keep the flies off, but that he
would sooner have had no tail and no flies. Alone
animals on the farm he never laughed. If asked why, he would
among the
say that he saw nothing to laugh at. Nevertheless, without
openly admitting it, he was devoted to Boxer; the two of them
usually spent their Sundays together in the small paddock
beyond the orchard, grazing side by side and never speaking.
The two horses had just lain down when a brood of duck-

Answer 1

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ののののの

would sooner 〜は、would rather〜と同じような意味です
むしろ〜したい　みたいな感じの。
文法としては確かに仮定法の表現になります。
実現してないから「〜したい」と言ってるわけなので

むしろしっぽもいらなかったしハエもいらなかったな
とBenjaminは言ったんですね。

たこ

いつも分かりやすく教えてくださってありがとうございます😊
感謝です🙇‍♀️✨