August 28 言葉の影、または引用について Word Shadows: On Quotation

August 28, 2008 (Thursday)

    Thomas F. Madigan のWord Shadow of the Great (1930) という直筆の筆跡のコレクションについての蘊蓄を語った本の、本文のすぐ前のページというかリーフ、つまりローマ数字がふられている序文とアラビア数字のページ番号がふられている本文の境目の紙葉に、ページ番号なしで、エピグラフ epigraph として掲げられているのが、"word shadows" というフレーズを含む引用です。

"These ink-stains, which in the imperfection of language we have called words―these WORD SHADOWS then, are latent living powers, which, could they again be uttered by the lips which perished long ago, would subdue, as eloquence ever does, the hearts of all within their reach, and even in their silence still possess a strange charm to penetrate and stir the deepest feelings of those privileged to read them."     ―CHARLES READE

しかし、この文章はチャールズ・リードの小説の地の文章にでてくる英語とは違うのでした。リードのテキストはGutenberg にもありました。そのグーテンベルグのE-text を使ったArthur's Classic Novels というウェブサイトから前後を合わせて引用します。このサイト、すごくイイ感じです、文学作品のe-text の趣味的なページとして。Winston Churchill (英国首相のいとこのアメリカ作家) とか Marie Corelli とか、Henry Van Dyke とかマイナーな作家をいれ、テーマ別でも "Old Sci-Fi" とか "Gothic Tales" とかだけでなく "Life After Death" とか "For History Lovers" とかあるのがすごい。なにがどこにあるかわからんというキライはあるが。( ..)φメモメモメモ。"Peg Woffington" (1852) ――

     Mrs. Bracegirdle now raised her eyes (they had set her in a chair), and looking sweetly, tenderly and earnestly on her old companion, she said to him, slowly, gently, but impressively[:] "Colley, at threescore years and ten this was ill done of us!  You and I are here now―for what? to cheer the young up the hill we mounted years ago.  And, old friend, if we detract from them we discourage them.  A great sin in the old!"
     "Every dog his day."
     "We have had ours."  Here she smiled, then, laying her hand tenderly in the old man's, she added, with calm solemnity: "And now we must go quietly toward our rest, and strut and fret no more the few last minutes of life's fleeting hour."
     How tame my cacotype of these words compared with what they were.  I am ashamed of them and myself, and the human craft of writing, which, though commoner far, is so miserably behind the godlike art of speech: "Si ipsam audivisses!"
     These ink scratches, which, in the imperfection of language, we have called words, till the unthinking actually dream they are words, but which are the shadows of the corpses of words; these word-shadows then were living powers on her lips, and subdued, as eloquence always does, every heart within reach of the imperial tongue.
     The young loved her, and the old man, softened and vanquished, and mindful of his failing life, was silent, and pressed his handkerchief to his eyes a moment; then he said:
     "No, Bracy, no.  Be composed, I pray you.  She is right.  Young people, forgive me that I love the dead too well, and the days when I was what you are now.  Drat the woman," continued he, half ashamed of his emotion; "she makes us laugh, and makes us cry, just as she used."
     "What does he say, young woman?" said the old lady, dryly, to Mrs. Clive.
     "He says you make us laugh, and make us cry, madam; and so you do me, I'm sure."
     "And that's Peg Woffington's notion of an actress!  Better it, Cibber and Bracegirdle, if you can," said the other, rising up like lightning.
     She then threw Colley Cibber a note, and walked coolly and rapidly out of the room, without looking once behind her. (ch. 2)

　　太字の赤は変えられているところ、細字の赤は消えているところ。そして、もう一度。

These ink-stains, which in the imperfection of language we have called words―these WORD SHADOWS then, are latent living powers, which, could they again be uttered by the lips which perished long ago, would subdue, as eloquence ever does, the hearts of all within their reach, and even in their silence still possess a strange charm to penetrate and stir the deepest feelings of those privileged to read them.

   この19世紀イギリスの中篇小説を読んでから書こうと思ってホッておいたのですが、これだけ読んで書くことにしました。

 

    これは引用なのでしょうか。

　　　試訳(マディガンによる「引用」の)――「これらのインクのしみ、それを言語の不完全性ゆえに我々は言葉と呼んできたが――ならば、これらの言葉の影、は、潜在的に生きている力であり、遠い昔に消え去った唇によって再び発せられることが仮にあったならば、雄弁というものがつねにそうであるように、届く範囲のすべての人の心を征服することだろうし、黙していてもなお、読む特権を与えられた者の深奥の感情に浸透して揺さぶる不思議な魅力をもっているのである。」

　　　盗用ではないです。それはそうだ。しかし・・・・・・変えすぎ。

 

　　つづく。

 

タグ：引用 word shadows Thomas F. Madigan Charles Reade quotation Arthur's Classic Novels e-text