エドガー・ポーの詩「ベル」The Bells(壺齋散人訳)
そりは鳴らす鈴の音
銀の鈴
喜びの世界からやってきた音!
リンリンリンと鈴が鳴る
冷たい夜をつんざいて!
夜空いっぱいに散らばった
星また星が輝くよ
水晶のきらめきのように
ゆったりとした時の流れを
ルーンの調べに閉じ込めて
妙なる響きを撒き散らすよ
リンリンリンリンと鈴が鳴る
鈴が鳴る
ジングル ティンクル 鈴が鳴る
結婚式では鐘が鳴る
鐘の音
幸福をしらせる素敵な音!
さわやかな夜風に乗って
楽しい音を響かせる
とろけるような黄金の調べ
妙なる調べ
風に乗って流れ出し
キジバトも聞きほれる
月を見ながら!
聞こえてくるよ
溢れるように豊かな音が!
聞いてごらん
すばらしい未来を
語っているよ!
湧き出る喜びを
歌っているよ!
カランコロン カランコロン
鐘が鳴る
ディンドン ディンドンと
鐘が鳴る
鐘 鐘 鐘が鳴る
この詩はマリー・ルイーズ・シュー Marie Louise Shewという婦人のために書かれたといわれている。ヴァージニアの死の床に付き添ってその最後を見取った女性だ。詩想もこの婦人から得たといわれる。
詩は4つのパートからなっていて、いずれも Bell をテーマにしている。だが視の調子は先へ進むに連れてだんだんと暗くなっていく。楽しい鈴の音がから始まり、結婚式の鐘、警告の鐘、そして葬送の鐘へといった具合だ。
THE BELLS. By Edgar Allan Poe
I.
HEAR the sledges with the bells --
Silver bells!
What a world of merriment their melody foretells!
How they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle,
In the icy air of night!
While the stars that oversprinkle
All the heavens, seem to twinkle
With a crystalline delight;
Keeping time, time, time,
In a sort of Runic rhyme,
To the tintinabulation that so musically wells
From the bells, bells, bells, bells,
Bells, bells, bells --
From the jingling and the tinkling of the bells.
II.
Hear the mellow wedding bells,
Golden bells!
What a world of happiness their harmony foretells!
Through the balmy air of night
How they ring out their delight!
From the molten-golden notes,
And all in tune,
What a liquid ditty floats
To the turtle-dove that listens, while she gloats
On the moon!
Oh, from out the sounding cells,
What a gush of euphony voluminously wells!
How it swells!
How it dwells
On the Future! how it tells
Of the rapture that impels
To the swinging and the ringing
Of the bells, bells, bells,
Of the bells, bells, bells, bells,
Bells, bells, bells --
To the rhyming and the chiming of the bells!
III.
Hear the loud alarum bells --
Brazen bells!
What a tale of terror, now, their turbulency tells!
In the startled ear of night
How they scream out their affright!
Too much horrified to speak,
They can only shriek, shriek,
Out of tune,
In a clamorous appealing to the mercy of the fire,
In a mad expostulation with the deaf and frantic fire
Leaping higher, higher, higher,
With a desperate desire,
And a resolute endeavor
Now -- now to sit or never,
By the side of the pale-faced moon.
Oh, the bells, bells, bells!
What a tale their terror tells
Of Despair!
How they clang, and clash, and roar!
What a horror they outpour
On the bosom of the palpitating air!
Yet the ear it fully knows,
By the twanging,
And the clanging,
How the danger ebbs and flows;
Yet [[Yes]] the ear distinctly tells,
In the jangling,
And the wrangling,
How the danger sinks and swells,
By the sinking or the swelling in the anger of the bells -- [page 25:]
Of the bells --
Of the bells, bells, bells, bells,
Bells, bells, bells --
In the clamor and the clangor of the bells!
IV.
Hear the tolling of the bells --
Iron bells!
What a world of solemn thought their monody compels!
In the silence of the night,
How we shiver with affright
At the melancholy menace of their tone!
For every sound that floats
From the rust within their throats
Is a groan.
And the people -- ah, the people --
They that dwell up in the steeple,
All alone,
And who, tolling, tolling, tolling,
In that muffled monotone,
Feel a glory in so rolling
On the human heart a stone --
They are neither man nor woman --
They are neither brute nor human --
They are Ghouls:
And their king it is who tolls;
And he rolls, rolls, rolls, rolls,
Rolls
A pæan from the bells!
And his merry bosom swells
With the pæan of the bells!
And he dances, and he yells;
Keeping time, time, time,
In a sort of Runic rhyme,
To the pæan of the bells --
Of the bells:
Keeping time, time, time,
In a sort of Runic rhyme,
To the throbbing of the bells -- [page 26:]
Of the bells, bells, bells --
To the sobbing of the bells;
Keeping time, time, time,
As he knells, knells, knells,
In a happy Runic rhyme,
To the rolling of the bells --
Of the bells, bells, bells --
To the tolling of the bells,
Of the bells, bells, bells, bells --
Bells, bells, bells --
To the moaning and the groaning of the bells.
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