ドラマで英語を学ぼう (26) ～名作にチャレンジ！～ Paul Revere's Ride

Posted by: huepod

あさって7/4はアメリカ合衆国独立記念日（Independence Day）。これにちなみ、７月第１週の今回は「ドラマで英語を学ぼう」として、アメリカ人に今も親しまれている詩をお届けします。

今回お届けする「ポール・リビアの騎行」（Paul Revere's Ride）は、アメリカの詩人ロングフェロー（Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 1807-1882）が1861年に発表した詩です。この詩に登場するポール・リビア（1735-1818）は日本ではあまり知られていませんが、アメリカでは建国の英雄として広く知られており、いわば「アメリカの坂本龍馬」のような人物でしょうか。



BGM（The Fairest of the Fair）：Internet Archive
BGM（Stars and Stripes Forever）：Internet Archive

（15:31　9.4MB　初級～中級）

Paul Revere's Ride
Written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)

Key Words

in Seventy-Five = In 1775

Hardly a man is now alive = almost no person… (Note: Indeed, since the poem was written in the early 1860s, almost everyone had already died.)

aloft = high (Note: This has a poetic feeling. Check Internet for example sentences.)

a belfry-arch = the arch window of a tower with a big bell at the top

the North-Church-tower = a real place a Boston today

Middlesex = a county (area) near Boston

country-folk = people who live in the countryside, farmers

to be up = to be awake

to arm = to get rifles

muffled = made quiet (Note: "a car muffler")

an oar = オール

to row = 漕ぐ

Charleston = a town near Boston

moorings = the ropes and chains which keep a ship safely anchored in one place

the Somerset = an 18th century British battleship which had about 70 canons

a man-of-war = a fancy way to say "a battleship"

a phantom = something similar to a ghost

a mast = a large sail

a spar = a pole (used to support masts on a ship)

a hulk = the body of a ship

to be magnified = to appear larger than it actually is

a reflection = 反映

a tide = 潮

an alley = a very narrow road in a city

to wander = to walk around

eager = excited, 熱心な

the muster of (soldiers) = the gathering of (soldiers) (Note: Usually only this context. Also "a muster roll" means "the calling of the names of soldiers.")

barracks = the buildings where soldiers sleep (Note: Usually plural)

arms = weapons (Note: Always plural)

the tramp of feet = noisy walking

a measured tread = careful and professional walking, marching

a grenadier = an elite British soldier

stealthy = quiet and secret (Note: Frequently used in the expression "stealth bombers" which are highly-advanced fighter planes that cannot be identified by enemy radar)

a chamber = a room

to startle = to surprise or scare

a pigeon = a gray bird often found in cities and parks, ハト

a perch = a stick, branch, or high place upon which a bird sits

somber = quiet, dark, sad

a rafter = a large piece of wood that supports a slanted roof

round = around

to tremble = to shake

steep = 険しい

a churchyard = the grassy area outside a church (Note: Here, it refers to a cemetery)

an encampment = a camp

still = not moving

a sentinel = a guard, a soldier

to creep = to walk very quietly

a spell = 呪文、魔法

dread = 恐怖、不安

bent on = leaning toward, in a certain direction (Note: poetic)

to float = 浮かぶ

impatient = がまんできない

to mount (a horse) = to get on (a horse)

booted = wearing boots

spurred = having spurs on the backs of the boots, 拍車

a stride = a walking pace

to pat = なでる

to gaze on = to look at

impetuous = having a violent force (maybe because of impatience or anger)

to stamp = 踏みおろす

a saddle-girth = a belt attaching a saddle to a horse

a grave = a place in the ground for a dead person

spectral = similar to a ghost

Lo! = Look! (Note: Old and rare)

a glimmer = a weak shining light, a dim flash

a gleam = a brightness

to spring = to jump up

a bridle = 馬勒（ばろく）

to linger = to wait around, to delay leaving

a hoof = a horse's foot

a bulk = a large thing (Note: "to be bulky" is more frequently used, meaning "to be so large that it is difficult to handle." Example: "This package is bulky. I can't carry it easily.")

a pebble = a small stone

a spark = a brief flash or fire

to strike out = to make a violent force (Note: The past tense is "struck". Of course, in baseball "to strike out" means 三振する)

a steed = a strong and quick horse

fleet = quick

a gloom = a darkness

a fate = a destiny, 運命 (Note: "fate is riding on" means "fate will be determined by". Example: "The fate of the company is riding on what we decide." So, in this line of the poem, "riding" has two meanings: one concerning fate, and one concerning Revere riding the horse.)

a flight = fast running

to kindle… a flame = to start a fire

a steep = a high area or slope (Note: Rare as a noun. But frequent as an adjective.)

tranquil = quiet

broad = wide

the Mystic = the name of a river near Boston. (Note: Usually "mystic" is used as an adjective, referring to something in a strange and mysterious way.)

an alder = a kind of tree, similar to a birch tree, ハンノキ

that skirt its edge = that are lined along the river's edge

load on the ledge = heavy on top of a cliff (Note: poetic)

Medford, Lexington, and Concord = three towns in the state of Massachusetts

gilded = covered in a thin layer of gold

a weathercock = a wind detector on the top of a building, in the shape of a rooster

blank and bare = having nothing

a glare = a gleam, shining

aghast = shocked

bloody work = (Note: Here it means the war fighting.)

a bleating = the sound of a goat or sheep

a flock = a group (of goats or sheep)

a twitter = the singing of small birds (Note: This is the same word used in the name of the famous online social networking service! Notice the interesting relationship.)

a breeze = a usually light wind

a meadow = a natural grass field, either wild or used by farm animals

one = (Note: Here it means "a person")

pierced = 突き通される. (Note: "pierced earrings")

a musket-ball = a bullet of a musket rifle used from 400 to 200 years ago

British Regulars = ordinary British soldiers

to flee = to run away (Note: The past tense is "fled")

gave them ball for ball = returned rifle shots when they were shot at

a red-coat = a regular British soldier (especially one who wore a red uniform during the American Revolutionary War)

to emerge = to come out

to fire = to shoot (a gun)

to load = to put a bullet in a gun

a cry of alarm = a shout that danger is coming

a cry of defiance = shouting against, not obeying

to echo = こだまする、鳴り響く

borne = (Note: Here it means "carried")

peril = danger


Paul Revere's Ride
by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Listen, my children, and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-Five:
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year.

He said to his friend, "If the British march
By land or sea from the town to-night,
Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry-arch
Of the North-Church-tower, as a signal-light--
One if by land, and two if by sea;
And I on the opposite shore will be,
Ready to ride and spread the alarm
Through every Middlesex village and farm,

Then he said "Good night!" and with muffled oar
Silently rowed to the Charlestown shore,
Just as the moon rose over the bay,
Where swinging wide at her moorings lay
The Somerset, British man-of-war:
A phantom ship, with each mast and spar
Across the moon, like a prison-bar,
And a huge black hulk, that was magnified
By its own reflection in the tide.

Meanwhile, his friend, through alley and street
Wanders and watches with eager ears,
Till in the silence around him he hears
The muster of men at the barrack door,
The sound of arms, and the tramp of feet,
And the measured tread of the grenadiers
Marching down to their boats on the shore.

Then he climbed to the tower of the church,
Up the wooden stairs, with stealthy tread,
To the belfry-chamber overhead,
And startled the pigeons from their perch
On the sombre rafters, that round him made
Masses and moving shapes of shade--
By the trembling ladder, steep and tall,
To the highest window in the wall,
Where he paused to listen and look down
A moment on the roofs of the town,
And the moonlight flowing over all.

Beneath, in the churchyard, lay the dead,
In their night-encampment on the hill,
Wrapped in silence so deep and still
That he could hear, like a sentinel's tread,
The watchful night-wind, as it went
Creeping along from tent to tent,
And seeming to whisper, "All is well!"
A moment only he feels the spell
Of the place and the hour, and the secret dread
Of the lonely belfry and the dead;
For suddenly all his thoughts are bent
On a shadowy something far away,
Where the river widens to meet the bay--
A line of black, that bends and floats
On the rising tide, like a bridge of boats.

Meanwhile, impatient to mount and ride,
Booted and spurred, with a heavy stride,
On the opposite shore walked Paul Revere.
Now he patted his horse's side,
Now gazed on the landscape far and near,
Then, impetuous, stamped the earth,
And turned and tightened his saddle-girth;
But mostly he watched with eager search
The belfry-tower of the old North Church,
As it rose above the graves on the hill,
Lonely and spectral and sombre and still.

And lo! as he looks, on the belfry's height,
A glimmer, and then a gleam of light!
He springs to the saddle, the bridle he turns,
But lingers and gazes, till full on his sight
A second lamp in the belfry burns!

A hurry of hoofs in a village-street,
A shape in the moonlight, a bulk in the dark,
And beneath from the pebbles, in passing, a spark
Struck out by a steed that flies fearless and fleet:
The fate of a nation was riding that night;
Kindled the land into flame with its heat.

He has left the village and mounted the steep,
And beneath him, tranquil and broad and deep,
Is the Mystic, meeting the ocean tides;
And under the alders, that skirt its edge,
Now soft on the sand, now load on the ledge,
Is heard the tramp of his steed as he rides.

It was twelve by the village clock
When he crossed the bridge into Medford town.
He heard the crowing of the cock,
And the barking of the farmer's dog,
And felt the damp of the river-fog,
That rises when the sun goes down.

It was one by the village clock,
When he galloped into Lexington.
He saw the gilded weathercock
Swim in the moonlight as he passed,
And the meeting-house windows, blank and bare,
Gaze at him with a spectral glare,
As if they already stood aghast
At the bloody work they would look upon.

It was two by the village clock,
When he came to the bridge in Concord town.
He heard the bleating of the flock,
And the twitter of birds among the trees,
And felt the breath of the morning breeze
Blowing over the meadows brown.
And one was safe and asleep in his bed
Who at the bridge would be first to fall,
Who that day would be lying dead,
Pierced by a British musket-ball.

You know the rest. In the books you have read,
How the British Regulars fired and fled--
How the farmers gave them ball for ball,
From behind each fence and farmyard-wall,
Chasing the red-coats down the lane,
Then crossing the fields to emerge again
Under the trees at the turn of the road,
And only pausing to fire and load.

So through the night rode Paul Revere;
And so through the night went his cry of alarm
To every Middlesex village and farm--
A cry of defiance, and not of fear,
A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door,
And a word that shall echo forevermore!
For, borne on the night-wind of the Past,
Through all our history, to the last,
In the hour of darkness and peril and need,
The people will waken and listen to hear
The hurrying hoof-beats of that steed,
And the midnight message of Paul Revere.

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