かってなもんや

Salt on Our Skin のなかで引用されたマシュー・アーノルドの詩

Dover Beach by Matthew Arnold (1822-88)

The sea is calm to-night.
The tide is full, the moon lies fair
Upon the straits; on the French coast the light
Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand,
Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay.
Come to the window, sweet is the night-air!
Only, from the long line of spray
Where the sea meets the moon-blanch'd land,
Listen! you hear the grating roar
Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling,
At their return, up the high strand,
Begin, and cease, and then again begin,
With tremulous cadence slow, and bring
The eternal note of sadness in.

Sophocles long ago
Heard it on the {AE}gean, and it brought
Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow
Of human misery; we
Find also in the sound a thought,
Hearing it by this distant northern sea.

The Sea of Faith
Was once, too, at the full, and round earth's shore
Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furl'd.
But now I only hear
Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,
Retreating, to the breath
Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear
And naked shingles of the world.

Ah, love, let us be true
To one another! for the world, which seems
To lie before us like a land of dreams,
So various, so beautiful, so new,
Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,
Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;
And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night.

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訳をつけてみた

今宵の海は静かに　潮は満ち
月はさやけく海峡を照らす
フランスの浜べに　光がかすかにきらめき消え
イングランドの断崖は　茫漠としてほのかに輝き
静かなる湾に　そそりたつ

窓辺に近寄れば　甘やかなる夜の大気が
ただ　長き波うち際からたちのぼる
そこは海が月光のそそぐ大地と出会うところ
耳をすますがよい　玉石が呻きこすれあう
波がひき　押し寄せ　岸壁に高々と打ち寄せる
始まり　止まり　再び始まる
ゆっくりと震えるカデンツァのごとく
悲しみの永遠の調べを

ソフォクレスはその昔
エーゲ海のほとりで　その調べを聞き
ままならぬ潮の満ち引きに　思ったのだ
人の世の苦しみを
わたしたちもまた　
この遠き北の海にたち　海の音に思いをめぐらす

信仰という名の海は
かつては潮が満ちあふれ　すべての岸に沿って
輝く帯が幾層にも折りたたまれるがごとくうちよせた
だが　今聞こえくるは　ただ憂いに満ちた
長い　ひき潮の唸り
夜風の吐息と消え　茫洋たる世界の淵へ
赤剥けの砂浜へ　潮流は悲しく遠ざかる

ああ、愛する人よ、わたしたちは互いに誠実であろう
わたしたちの眼前に夢の国のように横たわる世界は
多彩で　美しく　清新に見えて
実のところ　喜びもなく　愛もなく　光もなく
確信も　平和も　苦痛の救いもないのだから
闇夜にぶつかりあう無知な軍隊のごとく
争いと敗走の恐怖に戸惑い　押し流され
わたしたちはここ　暗黒の大地にいるのだから


Arnold states that we are like the waves that crash and hit the shore, struggling and fighting for our place on this earth.
He says that love is the cure for all of the struggling and fighting
that takes place on earth.
Love is the only thing that he can rely on right now, even
though his love is not in his life.
Love is Arnold's way of escaping the harsh realities in life.


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