シェイクスピア・ソネット鑑賞短歌121: Tanka for Sonnet 121
121
われ悪しく なきも悪とぞ 言わるより
真の悪にと なるが本望
‘Tis better to be vile than esteemed,
When not to be receives reproach of being;
And the just pleasure lost, which is so deemed
Not by our feeling, but by others’ seeing:
‘Tis better to be vile than esteemed,
When not to be receives reproach of being;
And the just pleasure lost, which is so deemed
Not by our feeling, but by others’ seeing:
For why should others’ false adulterate eyes
Give salutation to my sportive blood?
Or on my frailties why are frailer spies,
Which in their wills count bad what I think good?
No, I am that I am; and they that level
At my abuses reckon up their own:
I may be straight, though they themselves be bevel;
By their rank thoughts my deeds must not be shown;
Unless this general evil they maintain –
All men are bad, and in their badness reign.
キーワード訳注
‘Tis better to be vile (下劣な, 汚い) than esteemed,
When not to be receives reproach of being;
And the just pleasure lost, which is so deemed
Not by our feeling, but by others’ seeing:
For why should others’ false adulterate (=不貞の; 混ぜ物をした) eyes
Give salutation (あいさつ) to my sportive (陽気な) blood?
Or on my frailties why are frailer (frailの比較級; もろい) spies,
Which in their wills count bad what I think good?
No, I am that I am; and they that level (平らになる)
At my abuses reckon up their own:
I may be straight, though they themselves be bevel (斜角の);
By their rank thoughts my deeds must not be shown;
Unless this general evil they maintain –
All men are bad, and in their badness reign.
