豪に居れば、豪に「詩違え」:どんなオージーでも知っているポエムが作り変えられる

Poet Dorothea Mackellar, author of “My Country”
 日本人誰でもが宮沢賢治氏氏の「雨にも負けず」を学ぶように、オーストラリアの子供たちがドロシア・マッケラー氏の「マイ・カントリー」(「我が国」)を学校で必ず勉強する。
 マッケラー氏が19歳で1904年にイギリスでホームシックとなった時に作詩し、以降母国のオーストラリアで広く知られるようになる。
 今でも一般にハイ・カルチャーが決して浸透していると言い難いオーストラリアでは少なくともこの詩ぐらいなら誰でも知っていると言っていいと思う。
 そして、あのウィーン少年合唱団が来月オーストラリアへツアーする予定であり、それを先駆けて「マイ・カントリー」を作曲し歌うことになっている。
「マイ・カントリー」(皆が知っている所。実際に全詩がもっと長い!)と日本語訳が以下の通り。

My Country 「我が国」

I love a sunburned country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of rugged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jeweled sea,
Her beauty and her terror -- The wide brown land for me.
私は愛す、この太陽の照りつける国を、
広大な平原、岩だらけの山の連なり、
干ばつ、そして土砂降りを。
私は愛す、遥かな水平線、
宝石の輝きにも似た海を、
その美しさ、その脅威ー
広漠たる赤褐色の我が国を。

ウィーン少年合唱団「マイ・カントリー」(「我が国」)

Vienna Boys Choir loves a sunburnt country

Cop A Gander At These Rippers Too...

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