一茶オノマトペ俳句70句英訳

刊行序文：Preface by 遠藤由明

若い頃、シュルツさんの英語漫画「スヌーピー」に出合って、「短い発話の中での擬音の効果的な使い方」に感動したと同時に、「あっ、この場面でこんな英語を使うのか！」と外国人との会話に安心して発話出来る基礎知識となりました. 英語圏の諺：「短いほど良い」の通り、例えば、恋の語らいや「ヤッターマンの歌」が英語だとして、スピーチコンテストや大統領演説的な立て板に水のような英語を話す必要はありませんね.

When I was young, I came across Mr. Schulz's English cartoon “Snoopy” and was impressed by the “effective use of onomatopoeia in short utterances”. At the same time, I could feel myself, “Oh, they're using this kind of English in this scene!''; which gave me the basic knowledge to be able to speak with English speakers. As an English- proverb says, “The shorter the better”, for example, if a love story or “Yatterman-song'' was written in English, there's no need to speak English fluently when it comes to a speech contest or US Presidential Speeches.

俳句 (連歌・俳諧等から発展)は、和歌 (短歌) に起源をもつ美しい五七調の調べの中に大和文化の花鳥風月を、僅か17語という、これ以上削りようがない大吟醸酒の旨味のようで、世界に誇る最短詩だと思います. このことが少しですが分かるようになっているのは、旧友Tim Beebe氏の英語俳句和訳と山下佳恵様の詩集英語訳のお蔭だと感謝しています.

Haiku (developed from renga, haikai, etc.), you know, has its origins in waka (tanka), and expresses beauty of Japanese nature in its beautiful five-seven-toned melody, with only 17 words, which seems to be an inimitable fine flavor of dai-ginjo sake. I think it is the shortest poem in the world. I am grateful that I am able to understand this, even if only a little; thanks to my old friend Mr. Tim Beebe's English haiku and Ms. Yoshie Yamashita's poems.

一見「雑俳(ざっぱい)」かと見間違うような俳句を英訳するに当たって、俳句読解以上の苦労が英語表現探しの難しさの中にありました. 幼児や思春期までの子供達が発する英会話の中に珠玉の表現に近いものが散見されます. そこで、長年高校英語教師として英語指導一筋に教え子達やALTから慕われておられる荒井 豊先生から校閲して頂きました. 2016年完成の「百人一首英訳」に続き、新井高校時代からの尊敬する恩師と数回に渡っての個人指導を頂けたことは、無常の喜びです. 先生と小生の略歴ご紹介は巻末にございます.

When translating these unique haiku into English, which at first glance could be mistaken for “the other classified haiku'', in which I realized much more difficulty of finding appropriate English expressions than just reading haiku. So I asked Mr. Yutaka Arai to proofread it, who was a high school English teacher and respected or loved by his students and ALTs for his dedication to teaching English. Recently he helped me to do at “One Hundred Poems by One Hundred Poets” published in 2016. I am extremely happy to have had such great opportunities to receive his private instruction several times since my young days at Arai Senior High School. His profile and mine can be found at the end of this booklet. Thank you for reading this.

🌑 <春> 01-20

1.

うそうそと雨降るなかを春の蝶

In the restless rain,

Look, a spring butterfly is

Fluttering about

2.

陽炎(かげろう)のづんづと伸びる葎(むぐら)かな

The shimmering air

Rapidly keeps wild creepers

Growing on and on

*shimmer [ʃímɚ]：(vi) キラキラ光る、揺らめく   *creeper：(cn) 這うもの、蔓(つる)植物

3. 落書絵有

艸蔭(くさかげ)にぶつくさぬかす蛙(かわず)かな

Murmurs of a flog

In the shade of overgrown weeds

Mouthing off complains