この哀悼歌にて作者は、一六三七年チェスターよりの途上アイルランド海にて水難に遭ひし博學なる友を嘆く。またそれにより、折りしも驕りを極めし破戒僧の滅亡を予言すべし。
リシダスが、壯年いたらず死んだのだ、
竝ぶ者なき、若きリシダス。
リシダスが爲め
美しき涙の
では取りかヽれ、
神泉の
始め給へ、高らかに弦をかき鳴らせ。
されば優しき
我が
通り往くとき
我が
こかげと小川、
曉の目覺めの
遠き野に羊を追ひて、ともに聞けり、
宵に上りし輝く
天つ方へと
亂暴な
喜びの響きに間もなく顯はれて、
ダモエタス
然ても
はや
あな
繁る
柳木と
もはや見ること叶ふまじ、
冒すこと、薔薇で云ひしは
乳離れせし草食む
山査子の白き花咲く季の初め
麗しき裳を纏ひし花の霜の如し。
リシダスよ、
深みが愛しきリシダスの頭の上に閉じしとき?
名にし負ふ
草深きモオナの高き頂や、
靈水流るる
あないみじ! 愚かなる夢――
萬物がこぞりて哭きし
恐ろしき聲あぐ
レスボスの湾に
嗚呼! 愼ましき羊飼ひなる儚き
無慈悲なる
絶えなき念が何になる?
森蔭のアマリヽスとか、
ネアイラの髪のもつれと戯るヽ、
他人の如くさうすることが益なきや?
名聲は無垢な
(
悦びを
俄に焔を燃やさんときに、
盲目の
細き
「名聲は現世の土に生い立たむ
世の中を引き立て光る箔ならず、
下馬評の廣く知られることにもあらず、
全能の
委細洩らさぬ見証しに高く聳えて廣がらむ。
最期にて一人一人の行ひに申し渡さんときにこそ、
天に
泉なるアレツウザかな、名にし負ふ奔流なるは
音高き葦を戴く、澱みなきミンシウスかな、
我聞きし、その旋律の氣高きを。
だが我は麦笛の音を続けつヽ、
大海の
荒波と不実な風に尋ねしは、
「この麗しき彼の友に如何なる悲運襲ひしか?」
尖りし岬を吹きおろす
激しき風に問ひかけし。
吹く風は
賢かる
突風は我が
大氣は
蝕に建てられ呪ひの闇を籠められし
因果なる不實の船の仕業なり。
続いては、老師ケイムス確固たる遲々たる歩み、
毛の
得體の知れぬ刺繍織り、血塗られし
花の如くに悲しみを刻みける裾。
「嗚呼! 誰が、我が最愛の子を奪いしか?」
しんがりに顯はれ
ガラリヤ
(
法冠の卷毛を振りて、
「若き子よ、羊の群れに忍び寄り、私慾の爲に
汝も無事にゐたならば!
如何にして収穫祭に割り込みて、
招待客を追ひ出すか、それよりほかに氣を留めず。
昏き口! 杖の握りを知る者ぞなき、
一刻に羊追ひける
わずかながらに學びしもなし!
何どてか
望むまヽ、貧しく
卑しき藁の疎ましき笛に軋まむ。
飢えし羊が目を上ぐも、餌も貰へず、
風の中、惡しき霞を漁り取り、
密かに腐り、
加へて
日々ごとに何も云はずに疾く喰らふ。
だがしかし戸口に重き武器を立て
たつた一撃、とヾめ刺す、その一撃を準備せむ」
戻り來よ、
震えあがらす、恐ろしき聲は去りけり。戻り來よ、
峡谷に聲を掛くべし、幾千の五色の花を
木の蔭と浮氣な風と奔流が、
そよ囁きし峡谷よ、
蜜の
持ちて來給へ、見捨てられ儚くならん櫻草、
房なりの釣鐘水仙、色淡き
白き撫子、黒紋の三色菫、
輝く菫、
喪章を付けし花をすべて。
美を匂わせし
涙で
リシダスの眠る柩に撒き給へ。
ぐずぐずと脆き夢想に
あないみじ! 岸邊と深き大海が
汝を洗ひ流す間に、骨は嵐の
ヘブリデイイズに打ち寄せて、
思ふに
恐ろしき世界の底を訪れし。
或るはまた、
老ベレルスの傳説に眠りにつかば、
護られし山の偉容と
ナマンコス、バヨナの
哀しみに溶けて家路を急ぎつる天使を見給へ。
あな海豚! 不歸の若衆を運び給へ。
さはにな泣きそ、悲しみ暮るる羊飼ひ、さはにな泣きそ、
汝の嘆くリシダスは死んではをらぬ、
水底の下深くにはあらうとも、
そは太陽が海原に沈むと云へど、
幾たびも垂れし
光を
茜さす夜明けの空に照る如し。
リシダスも深く沈むも、波の
歩きし者の御力で、高く登りし、【マタイ14:25】
彼方の木蔭、流れに沿ひて、
言葉にできぬ婚礼の
悦びと愛の優しき神國で。
天上の聖人たちが歓迎す、
厳かに群れ優しく集ひ、
歌うたひ、
彼の涙を
リシダスよ、羊飼ひ等はもう泣かぬ。
是よりは、汝は廣き
海の守護靈、危うき時化に彷徨ひし
すべての者に
斯く如く、拙き
靜かなる
彼の者は葦笛の音に胸打たれ、
熱き思ひを
今やもう
西の入江に沈みけり。
終に起ち、青き
明くる日は新たな森と
Ver.1 03/12/27
[訳者あとがき]
ご覧のとおり、昔の翻訳調にルビふり七五調で訳したのですが、ところどころ五七になったり七七になったりというのはご容赦を。ルビ付きのためIE以外のブラウザの方には《 》でくくったルビが邪魔かもしれません。
この詩を訳すために、いろいろ古い訳書をチェックしてルビの振り方を拝借させていただきました。わかる人にはわかるんじゃないでしょか。「満盈《みつ》」は文語訳聖書からだし、「羸《みつ》」は日夏耿之介訳「大鴉」からです。上の訳に使うことはなかったけれど、日夏訳「サロメ」に「紫苑」と書いて《おにわ》とルビが振ってあってうならされました。これ以上はあり得ないというほどの完璧なルビです、いや完璧な翻訳です。
作者ミルトンは、言うまでもなく『失楽園』の著者。友人エドワード・キングがアイルランドに航海途中遭難死した際の悲しみを謡った詩であるが、作者自身の詞書きにあるとおり、同時に当時の腐敗聖職者層を糾弾した。「羊飼い」というのが語り手とリシダス(すなわちミルトンとキング)の比喩。そもそもリシダスというのがミルトンの友人であるわけで、そのリシダス以外にも、ミルトンにしかわからないような当時の作者周辺の人物が描かれていたりするそうです。
In this Monody the author bewails a learned friend, unfortunately drowned in his passage from Chester on the Irish seas, 1637. And by occasion foretells the ruin of our corrupted clergy then in their height.
Yet once more, O ye laurels and once more
Ye myrtles brown, with ivy never sere,
I come to pluck your berries harsh and crude,
And with forced fingers rude,
Shatter your leaves before the mellowing year.
Bitter constraint, and sad occasion dear,
Compels me to disturb your season due;
For Lycidas is dead, dead ere his prime,
Young Lycidas, and hath not left his peer.
Who would not sing for Lycidas? He knew
Himself to sing, and build the lofty rhyme.
He must not float upon his watery bier
Unwept, and welter to the parching wind,
Without the meed of some melodious tear.
Begin then, sisters of the sacred well
That from beneath the seat of Jove doth spring,
Begin, and somewhat loudly sweep the string.
Hence with denial vain, and coy excuse;
So may some gentle Muse
With lucky words favor my destined urn,
And as he passes turn,
And bid fair peace be to my sable shroud.
For we were nursed upon the selfsame hill,
Fed the same flock, by fountain, shade and rill.
Together both, ere the high lawns appeared
Under the opening eyelids of the morn,
We drove afield, and both together heard
What time the grayfly winds her sultry horn,
Battening our flocks with the fresh dews of night,
Oft till the star that rose an evening bright
Toward Heaven's descent had sloped his westering wheel.
Meanwhile the rural ditties were not mute,
Tempered to th' oaten flute,
Rough satyrs danced, and fauns with cloven heel
From the glad sound would not be absent long,
And old Damoetas loved to hear our song.
But O the heavy change, now thou art gone,
Now thou art gone, and never must return!
Thee, shepherd, thee the woods and desert caves,
With wild thyme and the gadding vine o'ergrown,
And all their echoes mourn.
The willows and the hazel copses green
Shall now no more be seen,
Fanning their joyous leaves to thy soft lays.
As killing as the canker to the rose,
Or taint-worm to the weanling herds that graze,
Or frost to flowers that their gay wardrobe wear,
When first the white thorn blows;
Such, Lycidas, thy loss to shepherd's ear.
Where were ye, nymphs, when the remorseless deep
Closed o'er the head of your loved Lycidas?
For neither were ye playing on the steep,
Where your old Bards, the famous Druids lie,
Nor on the shaggy top of Mona high,
Nor yet where Deva spreads her wizard stream:
Ay me! I fondly dream --
Had ye been there --for what could that have done?
What could the Muse herself that Orpheus bore,
The Muse herself, for her enchanting son
Whom universal Nature did lament,
When by the rout that made the hideous roar,
His gory visage down the stream was sent,
Down the swift Hebrus to the Lesbian shore?
Alas! What boots it with incessant care
To tend the homely slighted shepherd's trade,
And strictly meditate the thankless Muse?
Were it not better done as others use,
To sport with Amaryllis in the shade,
Or with the tangles of Neaera's hair?
Fame is the spur that the clear spirit doth raise
(That last infirmity of noble mind)
To scorn delights, and live laborious days;
But the fair guerdon when we hope to find,
And think to burst out into sudden blaze,
Comes the blind Fury with th' abhorred shears,
And slits the thin spun life. "But not the praise,"
Phoebus replied, and touched my trembling ears;
"Fame is no plant that grows on mortal soil,
Nor in the glistering foil
Set off to th' world, nor in broad rumor lies,
But lives and spreads aloft by those pure eyes,
And perfect witness of all-judging Jove;
As he pronounces lastly on each deed,
Of so much fame in Heaven expect thy meed."
O fountain Arethuse, and thou honored flood,
Smooth-sliding Mincius, crowned with vocal reeds,
That strain I heard was of a higher mood.
But now my oat proceeds,
And listens to the herald of the sea
That came in Neptune's plea.
He asked the waves and asked the felon winds,
"What hard mishap hath doomed this gentle swain?"
And questioned every gust of rugged wings
That blows from off each beaked promontory;
They knew not of his story,
And sage Hippotade their answer brings,
That not a blast was from his dungeon strayed,
The air was clam, and on the level brine,
Sleek Panope with all her sisters played.
It was that fatal and perfidious bark
Built in th'eclipse and rigged with curses dark,
That sunk so low that sacred head of thine.
Next Camus, reverend sire, went footing slow,
His mantle hairy, and his bonnet sedge,
Inwrought with figures dim, and on the edge
Like to that sanguine flower inscribed with woe.
"Ah! who hath reft," quoth he, "my dearest pledge?"
Last came and last did go
The pilot of the Galilean lake,
Two massy keys he bore of metals twain
(The golden opes, the iron shuts amain).
He shook his mitered locks, and stern bespake:
"How well could I have spared for thee, young swain,
Enow of such as for their bellies' sake,
Creep and intrude, and climb into the fold!
Of other care they little reckoning make,
Than how to scramble at the shearer's feast,
And shove away the worthy bidden guest.
Blind mouths! That scarce themselves know how to hold
A sheep-hook, or have learned aught else the least
That to the faithful herdman's art belongs!
What recks it them? What need they? They are sped;
And when they list, their lean and flashy songs
Grate on their scrannel pipes of wretched straw.
The hungry sheep look up, and are not fed,
But swoln with wind, and the rank mist they draw,
Rot inwardly, and foul contagion spread,
Besides what the grim wolf with privy paw
Daily devours apace, and nothing said.
But that two-handed engine at the door
Stands ready to smite once, and smite no more."
Return, Alpheus, the dread voice is past,
That shrunk thy streams; return, Sicilian muse,
And call the vales, and bid them hither cast
Their bells and flowerets of a thousand hues.
Ye valleys low where the mild whispers use,
Of shades and wanton winds, and gushing brooks,
On whose fresh lap the swart star sparely looks,
Throw hither all your quaint enameled eyes,
That on the green turf suck the honeyed showers,
And purple all the ground with vernal flowers.
Bring the rathe primrose that forsaken dies,
The tufted crow-toe, and pale jessamine,
The white pink, and the pansy freaked with jet,
The glowing violet,
The musk-rose, and the well attired woodbine,
With cowslips wan that hang the pensive head,
And every flower that sad embroidery wears:
Bid amaranthus all his beauty shed,
And daffadillies fill their cups with tears,
To strew the laureate hearse where Lycid lies.
For so to interpose a little ease,
Let our frail thoughts dally with false surmise.
Ay me! Whilst thee the shores and sounding seas
Wash far away, where'er thy bones are hurled,
Whether beyond the stormy Hebrides,
Where thou perhaps under the whelming tide
Visit'st the bottom of the monstrous world;
Or whether thou, to our moist vows denied,
Sleep'st by the fable of Bellerus old,
Where the great vision of the guarded mount
Looks toward Namancos and Bayona's hold;
Look homeward angel now, and melt with ruth:
And, O ye dolphins, waft the hapless youth.
Weep no more, woeful shepherds, weep no more,
For Lycidas your sorrow is not dead,
Sunk though he be beneath the watery floor,
So sinks the day-star in the ocean bed,
And yet anon repairs his drooping head,
And tricks his beams, and with new spangled ore,
Flames in the forehead of the morning sky:
So Lycidas sunk low, but mounted high,
Through the dear might of him that walk'd the waves,
Where, other groves and other streams along,
With nectar pure his oozy locks he laves,
And hears the unexpressive nuptial song,
In the blest kingdoms meek of joy and love.
There entertain him all the saints above,
In solemn troops and sweet societies
That sing, and singing in their glory move,
And wipe the tears forever from his eyes.
Now, Lycidas, the shepherds weep no more;
Henceforth thou art the genius of the shore,
In thy large recompense, and shalt be good
To all that wander in that perilous flood.
Thus sang the uncouth swain to th'oaks and rills,
While the still morn went out with sandals gray;
He touched the tender stops of various quills,
With eager thought warbling his Doric lay:
And now the sun had stretched out all the hills,
And now was dropped into the western bay;
At last he rose, and twitched his mantle blue:
Tomorrow to fresh woods, and pastures new.