天皇によるオリンピックの開会宣言
私は、オリンピックの開会式をテレビで見なかったのですが、天皇の開会宣言についての報道を見ました。
１９６４年の昭和天皇の開会宣言は、以下の通りです。
「第１８回近代オリンピアードを祝い、ここにオリンピック東京大会の開会を宣言します。」
それに対して今回の宣言はこうでした。
「私は、ここに、第３２回近代オリンピアードを記念する、東京大会の開会を宣言します。」
この違いについて、興味深い記事を見つけました。
この記事で、多賀敏行・大阪学院大学教授は、今回の宣言の方が、英語とフランス語の原文と照らし合わせても正しいと言っています。そこで、JOCが公表する「五輪憲章2020年版・英和対訳」を見ました。該当箇所は、ここです。
55 Opening and closing ceremonies
3. The Olympic Games shall be proclaimed open by the Head of State of the country of the host by pronouncing either of the following sentences as the case may be:
– if at the opening of the Games of the Olympiad:
“I declare open the Games of ... (name of the host) celebrating the ... (number of the Olympiad) ... Olympiad of the modern era.”
– If at the opening of the Olympic Winter Games:
“I declare open the ... (number of the Olympic Winter Games) Olympic Winter Games of ... (name of the host).”
確かに、celebrating は、the Games を修飾しています。鴻巣 友季子さんによる、少しくだけた表現では「３２回目のおめでたい節目となるオリンピック大会を開会します」ということです。
しかし、英文解釈としては、celebrating以下を後置修飾と見るか、分詞構文と見るかの違いがあるそうです。一般的には、コンマ（,）があれば分祠構文だと思いますが、鴻巣さんによると、コンマがなくても分祠構文と解釈する例（I had lunch watching TV.）があったりしてややこしいです。
多賀教授は、英語原文よりも優先されるフランス語原文から見ても、後置修飾だと言われています。英語原文でも、コンマがないので、後置修飾という扱いで問題ないと思います。
では冬季オリンピックの宣言はどうだったのでしょうか。宮内庁のホームページによると、長野オリンピックではこのように宣言されました。
ここに，長野における第18回オリンピック冬季競技大会の開会を宣言します。
冬季オリンピックの英語原文には、celebrating以下の言葉が元々無いので、単純で、和訳に関して議論の余地はありません。
ところで宮内庁のホームページを見ると、過去の天皇の声明と、その英訳が載っています。平成天皇のビデオメッセージ「象徴としてのお務めについての天皇陛下のおことば」の英訳もあって、日本語原文と見比べると興味深いです。いずれ、noteの中で取り上げてみたいと思っています。
タイトル写真は、wikipediaから引用
The Emperor's Declaration of the Opening of the Olympic Games
I did not watch the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games on TV, but I did see a report about the Emperor's opening declaration.
In 1964, the Emperor Showa made the following declaration: "I declare open the Games of Tokyo ,celebrating the eighteenth Olympiad of the modern era."
In contrast, the declaration this time was as follows
"I declare open the Games of Tokyo celebrating the thirty second Olympiad of the modern era."
I found an interesting article about this difference.
In this article, Toshiyuki Taga, a professor at Osaka Gakuin University, says that the new declaration is more correct when compared to the original text in English and French. So, I looked at the English-Japanese translation of the Olympic Charter 2020, published by the JOC. The relevant part is here.
3. the Olympic Games shall be proclaimed.
3. the Olympic Games shall be proclaimed open by the Head of State of the country of the host by pronouncing either of the following sentences as the case may be The Olympics shall be proclaimed open by the Head of State of the country of the host by pronouncing either of the following sentences as the case may be:
- The Olympic Games shall be proclaimed open by the Head of State of the country of the host by pronouncing either of the following sentences as the case may be
"I declare open the Games of ... (name of the host) celebrating the ... (number of the Olympiad) ... Olympiad of the modern era."
- If at the opening of the Olympic Winter Games:
"I declare open the ... (number of the Olympic Winter Games) Olympic Winter Games of ... (name of the host)."
Indeed, celebrating modifies the Games. In the slightly truncated version by Yukiko Kounosu, it means "I will open the 32nd congratulatory Olympic Games."
However, in terms of English interpretation, there is a difference in whether the phrase "celebrating" is seen as a postmodification or a participle construction. Generally speaking, if there is a comma (,), it is considered to be a participle construction, but according to her, there are some cases where it is interpreted as a participle construction without a comma (for example,"I had lunch watching TV".), which complicates things.
Professor Taga says that it is a postmodification even from the point of view of the French original, which takes precedence over the English original. Even in the English original, there is no comma, so I think there is no problem in treating it as a postmodification.
So how was the declaration for the Winter Olympics? According to the website of the Imperial Household Agency, the declaration for the Nagano Olympics was as follows
I declare open the eighteenth Olympic Winter Games of Nagano.
The original English text of the Winter Olympics does not have the word "celebrating" in it, so it is simple and there is no room for debate about the Japanese translation.
By the way, if you look at the website of the Imperial Household Agency, you can find past statements of the Emperor and their English translations. There is also an English translation of Emperor Heisei's video message, "The Emperor's Message on His Duties as a Symbol," which is interesting to compare with the Japanese original. I would like to write about it in my notes.