I wandered lonely as a cloud ~ワーズワースをわかりやすく?~
通称"Daffodils"でおなじみのWilliam Wordsworthさんの詩ですが、結構わかりやすい反面、詩であることで語順がごちゃごちゃしていて少々理解しにくい部分もあるようなので、現代文表記の英語にしてみました。
読んだ時に、ワーズワースが妹のドロシーと見た、「一面の水仙」を思い描け、その後「ソファーで寝転ぶさえない男」が「その場面を思い出し脳内で踊りだす」映像が浮かび上がってくるでしょうか?
コロナウイルス蔓延で自宅で過ごすことが多くなった昨今、寝転びながらワーズワースが語った、"the bliss of solitude"を感じた瞬間、涙が出ちゃいますよね。
「幸せは、すでにあったよダッファディルズ。」
まずは原文の引用
I wandered lonely as a cloud -William Wordsworth
I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed - and gazed - but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:
For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.
では現代文のシンプルな英文にしました。
I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
→ I was wandering alone like a cloud floating in the valley.
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
→ Suddenly I saw a lot, or rather a whole bunch of golden daffodils.
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
→ Beside the lake, at the base of the trees, the flowers were fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
→ With an eternal chain of twinkling stars in a galaxy,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
→ The flowers were lined up in a row along the edge of the bay in never-ending succession.
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
→ I saw ten thousand flowers at a glance, which were dancing merrily with their heads shaking.
The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
→ The waves beside the flowers were dancing too; but the flowers were even more joyful than the sparkling waves.
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
→ No poet can help but be glad coming across such a joyous scene.
I gazed - and gazed - but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:
→ I just gazed and gazed it; therefore, I didn't realise the wealth I had held at the moment.
For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
→ That is because I often sit in my sofa spacing out or depressing,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
→ The scene of that day comes back into my inner eye, which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.
→ And my heart is filled with pleasure, I dancing with the daffodils.
ここまでやってなんですけど、現代文風にすると、
風情もへったくれもない
ですね(爆ぜる)。なんで私はこの記事書いたんだろう、、、