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My Friend, and thou, our Sister! we have learnt
A different lore: we may not thus profane
Nature's sweet voices, always full of love
And joyance! 'Tis the merry Nightingale
That crowds and hurries, and precipitates
With fast thick warble his delicious notes,
As he were fearful that an April night
Would be too short for him to utter forth
His love-chant, and disburthen his full soul
Of all its music!
And I know a grove
Of large extent, hard by a castle huge,
Which the great lord inhabits not; and so
This grove is wild with tangling underwood,
And the trim walks are broken up, and grass,
Thin grass and king-cups grow within the paths.
But never elsewhere in one place I knew
So many nightingales; and far and near,
In wood and thicket, over the wide grove,
They answer and provoke each other's song,
With skirmish and capricious passagings,
And murmurs musical and swift jug jug,
And one low piping sound more sweet than all
Stirring the air with such a harmony,
That should you close your eyes, you might almost
Forget it was not day! On moonlight bushes,
Whose dewy leaflets are but half-disclosed,
You may perchance behold them on the twigs,
Their bright, bright eyes, their eyes both bright and full,
Glistening, while many a glow-worm in the shade
Lights up her love-torch.
A most gentle Maid,
Who dwelleth in her hospitable home
Hard by the castle, and at latest eve
(Even like a Lady vowed and dedicate
To something more than Nature in the grove)
Glides through the pathways; she knows all their notes,
That gentle Maid! and oft, a moment's space,
What time the moon was lost behind a cloud,
Hath heard a pause of silence; till the moon
Emerging, a hath awakened earth and sky
With one sensation, and those wakeful birds
Have all burst forth in choral minstrelsy,
As if some sudden gale had swept at once
A hundred airy harps! And she hath watched
Many a nightingale perch giddily
On blossomy twig still swinging from the breeze,
And to that motion tune his wanton song
Like tipsy Joy that reels with tossing head.
友よ!妹よ!われらが聞いてきた
伝承は違う。われらは自然の甘き声
いつも愛と喜びに満ちた声を
冒涜しまい!これぞ陽気なナイチンゲール
急ぎ集まり 突然麗しき調べを
絶え間なく速い声で歌い始める。
彼が恐れるのは
恋の歌を歌い響かせ
彼の魂から 彼の曲すべてを
出し尽くすには
四月の夜は短すぎることだ。
僕が知っている
大きな城の近くにある大きな森。
領主は住んでいないので
荒れ果てた森の下生えは縺れ
刈った道も草むして崩れ
雑草とキンポウゲが生えている。
近くにも遠くにもナイチンゲールが
これほど多い場所を僕は知らない。
木にも藪にも 森の中いたる所
気まぐれな言い合いのような歌で
サラサラあるいはジャッジャという音で
互いに呼びかけては答えている。
ある低い声はなによりも甘く響き
調和して空気を揺るがし
目を閉じれば 昼ではないことを
忘れるかもしれない!夜露に濡れ
葉がかすかに見える月明かりの藪で
枝に止まる鳥を見つめる。
光り輝く目 見開いた輝く目
そして影に潜む多くの発光虫が
愛の松明を灯す。
ある優しい乙女
彼女は城のそばの
素敵な家に住み 夜遅くに
(森の自然より高きものに
誓願を立て仕える貴婦人のようだ)
小道を通り抜ける。この優しき乙女!
彼女は調べを知り尽くす。
ほんの一瞬月が雲間に隠れ
しばしの静寂を体験した。やがて
月が出ると天と地は大騒ぎで
目覚める。この眠れぬ鳥は一斉に
吟遊詩人の合唱を始めるが
吹き渡る突風が優美な竪琴を
百も鳴らすようだ!風はみつめる
ナイチンゲールは浮つきながら
風がいまだ揺らす花咲く小枝に止まる。
気まぐれな歌はこの動きに合わせ
先が揺れるのをよろめきながら喜ぶようだ。
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