「English」カテゴリーアーカイブ

April Come She Will

追記)この記事を投稿してもう長くなった。改めてネットを調べてみたら以下で指摘した誤訳が減り、正しく「倒置」を踏まえた訳や解説を多く見るようになっている。この中高生でもわかるような「三単現のS」の欠落を見つけたのは僕が高校の頃だから、半世紀以上も発っていることになる。少しずつ時代は変わってる。


ポール・サイモンの曲「April Come She Will」は僕の高校時代のお気に入りだった。季節の移ろいに儚い恋が滅びてしまうという内容は青くさい高校生だった僕にはなかなか実感の湧かないものだったが、、、。

今の歳になって振り返ると、歌詞中の”she”がやがて死んでしまう恋人ではなく、とおの昔に失った僕の青春そのものに重ね合わさり、切なくほろ苦い。加えてアート・ガーファンクルの甘い歌声がもうたまらない。。。

ところで、日本語のタイトルでは「四月になれば彼女は」と訳される。しかし、僕はこれが気に入らない。いや、完全に誤訳とは言い切れないのだけど、、、

まず、Aprilは本来なら名詞だがここでは副詞的(= in April)に使われている。だから「四月に(なれば)」というのもあながち間違いとは言えない。しかしそれに続くcome she willを「彼女は・・・」と余韻を残して動詞を切り捨てたと見るのはどうかと思う。(もっとも、それくらい訳者の裁量だろ、という考えもあるかもしれないが、、、)

“April come she will” を “(When) April comes, she will ・・・”と解釈するのだったらそれでもいいかもしれない。しかし、comeには三人称単数現在形の「s」が付いていないのでその主語にsheはありえない(うわっ、「三単現のS」って言葉を何十年ぶりに思い出してしまった!)。つまり、このcomeは本来ならshe willに続く原形の動詞で、行頭のAprilと行末のwillが韻を踏むようにかなり強引に倒置されたものだ。ちゃんと書くならIn April, she will come、すなわち「四月、彼女は来るだろう」となる。

おそらく、日本語のタイトルを訳した人はこの倒置法に気付かず、またAprilの副詞的な用法にも頭が回らなかったのだろう。そのため頭から ”(When) April comes, she will ・・・”と見て「四月になれば彼女は」という思わせぶりな尻切れトンボのタイトルにしてしまったのだと僕は思う。

昔、僕が持っていた歌本には”April come she will”だったが、改めて歌詞をネットで調べてみたら”April, come she will”とカンマを入れてAprilはcomeの主語ではないことを強調しているものが多く見られる。(実際にP. Simonがどう書いたかは定かではないのだが、、、)


以下追記:

更に言うと、この”she will come”(来る)は1番の中の次の段で同じ主語の”she will stay”(留まる)に繋がる。ちなみに、以降の2番、3番でも関連のある動詞が対として使われている。2番では”change”(変化させる)と”fly”(飛び去る)、3番では”die”(死ぬ)に対し、一転して主語を”I”に替えつつ”remember”(思い出す)と。しかも、それらに続く文や節や語句も注意深く選りすぐられている。(そして全体を通して見れば見事に「序破急」を成しているのだ)

April come she will
When streams are ripe and swelled with rain
May she will stay
Resting in my arms again

四月はあの女(ひと)が訪れるだろう
雨に潤うせせらぎが水満ちるころ
五月には憩うだろう
ふたたび我が腕に安らぎながら

June she’ll change her tune
In restless walks she’ll prowl the night
July she will fly
And give no warning to her flight

6月になるとその女(ひと)は心もそぞろ
おろおろと歩き夜をさまよい
7月には飛び去るだろう
その飛揚に何の前ぶれもないままに

August die she must
The autumn winds blow chilly and cold
September I remember
A love once new has now grown old

8月にその人は命果てる定め
秋風が凍えるほどに冷ややかに吹き
9月になるといつも私は思い起こす
かつて新しかった恋も今や古びているのだと

Lyrics by Paul Simon


Day XX / 1019

It’s been already ten days since I stumbled out from a boarding bridge of the Boeing 787 that brought me back to Japan. However, my heart still remains wandering on the Kungsleden trail up on the northern Swedish fells… Thanks to jet lag, I cannot shake off a feeling that the scenery in which I am now is of an unreal daydream, and all these Kungsleden dreams– that I have been continually having during the nights since my return home– seem so real.

I miss Kungsleden, but at the same time I love the weird feeling as if I were living in an “exotic land”,  though I AM acturally back in my home country– hey, it’s a free trip to Japan that lasts forever! say I to myself.

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When getting off the trans-Siberian train, Akbar, my new friend left me some food including candies, which I would eat on the trekking trail. Last week, I just found two of them still left in the backpack…
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The candy tasted good after all those days.
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I sent back the Eurail Pass cover on which I recorded my boardings on the trains I took in Scandinavia.
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The dusk view of the Kamogawa river looks unreal to me and makes me feel as if I am still traveling abroad.
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It’s fall (autumn). A fallen chest nut’s burred case will make me know it’s real, if I step on it.
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Setaria viridis, I prefer to call them green foxtails, especially when they become brown in the fall.
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The sky is full of autumnal clouds but the phoenix tree and the crisscrossed power lines remind me of foreign countries in the South… like Mexico or Thailand or somewhere out there– this is my house’s neighborhood. though.
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Chocolate cake and a Chinese meat bun… and of course Japanese bancha tea.
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Hey, my bedroom is really a “room with a view”!

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A tiny torii gate situated on a rock on the riverbed of Hanase district.
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A rice drying rack in Kuta village. The drying racks of this type– with the bored posts– were seen everywhere in Kuta when I was a kid but rarely found today.
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And of course, the thatched roof is also hard to find anymore. Glad to know that this house has got a newly thatched roof if just a part of it.

 


Reflection on the day I leave Oslo (actually posted a week later, on the day I’m back to Gothenburg, Sweden)

Until just ten days ago, I was walking on the path down in the U-valleys of Kungsleden up on the northern Swedish fells.

Thereafter, sitting on a shore, gazing at the sea, rowing a tiny boat and taking a cruise ship, I have been here in Norway with countless fjords, another U-valleys that are drawn in the North Sea.

I have enjoyed both.

On one of the Lofoten islands the other day, the old host of a hostel I  had been staying in– finding out I was doing nothing but sticking to my iPad all day– told me to go offshore in his little boat, which I would row all by myself. “It’s NOW for you to go out there as the weather is fine and the sea is perfectly calm. What else can your ask for? What are you waiting for?” said he.

I had been sick and tired of rowing since, at one part of Kungsleden, I had to row across a one-km-wide lake back and forth three times in order to secure at least one boat on each side of the lake after my crossing; the first time in a hurry to tell the hut warden that there were shivering old people waiting for the motorboat, the second time with an extra boat towed behind and to tell the people that the motor boat won’t come, and the third time with two of the old people and their backpack in the vessel; in a cross wind and rolling waves. When I finally reached ashore and landed, I had little grip power left in my both hands barely enough to grab and pick up my backpack on the beach, and swore I would never ever row any more for a while if not the rest of my life.

Nevertheless, I took the advice, or rather an order, from this old man who knows of everything about the beautiful (and sometimes treacherous) sea in front of us– how could I resist it?– and immediately set off… well, not too far off, though. Only for an hour or so around the harbor, I tried to make it just far enough to see the tip of Lofoten.

A couple of days later, I found myself on a cruise ship, one of the “Hurtigruten (Coastal Express)” fleet. I heard about the spectacular landscape of Trollfjord and the captains’ amazingly superb maneuvers (which I have already written about in Facebook). They never had me regret that I had taken this ship even if it’s a bit too luxurious for my trip standard and if only on the short legs partially of the week-long journey along the coast of Norway.

I have spent three nights in Oslo. I originally wanted stay here only for a day or so because everything is so expensive, but I extended my stay, like I did so on the Lofoten islands, for it turned out it would take me at least two days to cover what I really wanted to see in the museums here: the polar ship Fram, the Kon-Tiki raft, the Viking ships, Munch’s paintings in the Munch Museum and in the Natioal Gallery.

Beside Munch, my interest lied mainly in ships, since during my stay on the Lofoten islands I saw many local vessels– boats, yacht, ship, big or small, old or new, most of which were built in traditional styles (or classical, if you will) and retained a “smell” of the Norway’s maritime heritage. Here again in Oslo, I find many more ships of the same kinds I saw in Lofoten, and oh I like them all.

Now that the days of my journey are counted, I am heading for Hamburg, where I will see my friends. I am going to take off from Stockholm on Ocrober 5th  for London, HongKong and the Osaka. I wish I could take boats to go across the Oceans on. the way home….

I will later write about Munch.

 


Fiat 500 Cinquecento X2or Alter Egos meet one another.

Gosh, we look alike, don't we?
Gosh, we look alike, don’t we?

“Oh mio Dio! Questo è il mio alter ego! Lei potrebbe aver detto” quando il mio Cinque incontrò sua sorella minore.  

“Oh my god! That’s my alter ego!” she might have said, when my Cinque bumped into her younger sister.  

「まあ、なんということでしょう!あそこに私の分身がいるわ!」って僕のチンク嬢、自分の妹に出くわして言ったかどうか、、、  

とまれ、僕が写真を撮とろうと思って車を停めていたら、新チンクのオーナーさんが僕の旧チンクのうるさい空冷エンジンを「ポルシェか何か」と思って出てこられた。  そしたらその方のTシャツは何とFiat500。  とそこに突然ポルシェが横切るという偶然。 

面白いクルマに乗っていると面白いことが起きるものだな。(笑)

ひとしきり車の話をしていたら、オーナーさんの奥さんも登場。なんか、お騒がせなひとときでした。すみません。m(_ _)m

その後、僕のチンク嬢の音は少しうれしそうに響いていた、ような気がする。

Look at the owner's T-shirt logo and illustration!
Look at the owner’s T-shirt logo and illustration!
The owners of the Cinquecento.
The owners of the Cinquecento.

Barbour Jacket Reproofed バブアージャケットのリプルーフ

バブアーのオイルジャケットが古びてカサカサになっていた

重いのであまり山用ではないんだけど、、、雨具と防寒具を兼ねて今度の旅に持って行こうと思うので、オイルとワックスの混合液を塗りたくってやった。一応バブアー純正品だけど、20年前に着ていた別のオイルジャケット用に買ったやつなんで、、、w。でも、フタを開けてないから大丈夫だろうと。

湯煎してワックスを溶かし、固まらないようにドライヤーかけながらボロ布で塗り広げて、もう一度ドライヤーかけながら余分を別のボロ布で吸い取りながらまんべんなく均す。作業は丁寧にさえやれば難しくはない。ただ、いくらポリエチレンの手袋をしていても結局は手がベトベトになってしまった。

My Barbour jacked was getting worn out and needed to be reproofed with oil-wax mixture stuff called “Thornproof Dressing”.

Though heavy, it is very useful for cold and rain protection. However, because of its bulkiness and weight, I kind of hesitated to take it to my journey of making my Oshirasama Morin Khuur to the Tohoku and Hokkaido Region two years ago. Then, I thought twice and said to myself “other than out in forests, where do I wear this heavy-duty stuff, heh?” I didn’t even have to answer the question. The tough jacket, like a guardian angel, really made my outing comfortable while in the nature of the North.

I happened to have an extra can of the dressing– left over from another oiled jacket that I used to wear two decades ago. The treatment wasn’t too difficult; it was just a matter of sticky hand.