Book I. In EnglishⅢ
The Canoe Speaks(From Underwoods)
Robert Louis Stevenson
On the great streams the ships may go
About men's business to and fro.
But I, the egg-shell pinnace, sleep
On crystal waters ankle-deep:
I, whose diminutive design,
Of sweeter cedar, pithier pine,
Is fashioned on so frail a mould,
A hand may launch, a hand withhold:
I, rather, with the leaping trout
Wind, among lilies, in and out;
I, the unnamed, inviolate,
Green, rustic rivers, navigate;
My dripping paddle scarcely shakes
The berry in the bramble-brakes;
Still forth on my green way I wend
Beside the cottage garden-end;
And by the nested angler fare,
And take the lovers unaware.
By willow wood and water-wheel
Speedily fleets my touching keel;
By all retired and shady spots
Where prosper dim forget-me-nots;
By meadows where at afternoon
The growing maidens tropp in June
To loose their girldes on the grass.
Ah! speedier than before the glass
The backward toilet goes; and swift
As swallows quiver, robe and shift,
And the rough country stockings lie
Around each young divinity
When, following the recondite brook,
Sudden upon this scene I look.
And light with nfamiliar face
On chaste Diana's bathing-place,
Loud ring the hills about and all
The shallows are abandoned.
大河の水面(みなも)、船は、
あちこちで、男達の商売に資する
だが僕は、卵の殻小縦帆船、水晶のように透き通った水の上、踝(くるぶし)奥深く眠る
僕、芳(かぐわ)しい西洋杉、髄の多い松からなる拙設計は、常に脆い鋳型の上に作り上げられる
ー方は、おそらく進水し、ー方は留まるだろう
僕は、寧ろ、飛び跳ねる鱒と共に
百合の中に出入りして、風を通す
僕は、名もない、汚れを知らぬ、青い田舎の川を航行する
僕のびしょ濡れの櫂を辛うじて振り動かす
木苺の荗みに潜む小果実
更に先へと、僕なりの青い途上、
田舎家の庭先に沿って
又、巣食った釣師の食物の傍を
僕は進む
恋人達の不意を襲う
21:19 2015/12/29火曜日
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