不死鳥と雉鳩 不死鳥と雉鳩の概要

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不死鳥と雉鳩

出典: フリー百科事典『ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 (2021/03/24 05:34 UTC 版)

内容

最初に出版されたのは1601年で、ロバート・チェスター（Robert Chester）の長編詩『Love's Martyr（愛の殉教者）』の付録としてだった。チェスターの本のフルの題名が内容を説明している。

Love's Martyr: or Rosalins Complaint. Allegorically shadowing the truth of Loue, in the constant Fate of the Phoenix and Turtle. A Poeme enterlaced with much varietie and raritie; now first translated out of the venerable Italian Torquato Caeliano, by Robert Chester. With the true legend of famous King Arthur the last of the nine Worthies, being the first Essay of a new Brytish Poet: collected out of diuerse Authenticall Records. To these are added some new compositions of seuerall moderne Writers whose names are subscribed to their seuerall workes, vpon the first subiect viz. the Phoenix and Turtle. 愛の殉教者、またはロザリンの不平。不死鳥と雉鳩の絶え間ない運命の中に、寓話的な愛の真実の影が射します。たくさんのバラエティと珍しさが絡み合った詩。さて、はじめはロバート・チェスターによります尊敬すべきイタリア人Torquato Caelianoの翻訳。それに、さまざまな信頼の置ける記録から集めました、新英国詩人第一のエッセイとなります、九大偉人（Nine Worthies）の最後の一人、名高きアーサー王の真の伝説。これらに、数篇の当代作家たちの新作が加わります。作家の名前は最初のお題、すなわち、不死鳥と雉鳩についてのそれぞれの作品に刻まれております。

題名にある「turtle」は「亀」ではなく「コキジバト」である。チェスターは詩を、捧げられた愛の伝統的象徴、不死鳥とコキジバトへの短い献辞から始める。

Phoenix of beautie, beauteous, Bird of any
To thee I do entitle all my labour,
More precious in mine eye by far then many
That feedst all earthly sences with thy savour:
Accept my home-writ praises of thy loue,
And kind acceptance of thy Turtle-doue

主となるチェスターの詩は、アーサー王の物語を含む長編の寓話で、その中で鳥たちの関係が吟味され、その象徴性が関連づけられる。それに続いて、「名前はそれぞれの作品に刻まれております、我等が当代作家のうち最も年若く最高の者たち」による短い詩が続く。その作家たちとは、シェイクスピアの他に、ベン・ジョンソン、ジョージ・チャップマン（George Chapman）、ジョン・マーストン（John Marston）、そして「Vatum Chorus」および「Ignoto」という匿名の作家である。全員が同じイメージを使っている。

全文

The Phoenix and the Turtle

Let the bird of loudest lay,
On the sole Arabian tree,
Herald sad and trumpet be,
To whose sound chaste wings obey.

But thou, shrieking harbinger,
Foul pre-currer of the fiend,
Augur of the fever's end,
To this troop come thou not near.

From this session interdict
Every fowl of tyrant wing,
Save the eagle, feather'd king:
Keep the obsequy so strict.

Let the priest in surplice white,
That defunctive music can,
Be the death-divining swan,
Lest the requiem lack his right.

And thou, treble-dated crow,
That thy sable gender mak'st
With the breath thou giv'st and tak'st,
'Mongst our mourners shalt thou go.

Here the anthem doth commence:
Love and constancy is dead;
Phoenix and the turtle fled
In a mutual flame from hence.

So they lov'd, as love in twain
Had the essence but in one;
Two distincts, division none:
Number there in love was slain.

Hearts remote, yet not asunder;
Distance, and no space was seen
'Twixt the turtle and his queen;
But in them it were a wonder.

So between them love did shine,
That the turtle saw his right
Flaming in the phoenix' sight:
Either was the other's mine.

Property was thus appall'd,
That the self was not the same;
Single nature's double name
Neither two nor one was call'd.

Reason, in itself confounded,
Saw division grow together;
To themselves yet either-neither,
Simple were so well compounded

That it cried how true a twain
Seemeth this concordant one!
Love hath reason, reason none
If what parts can so remain.

Whereupon it made this threne
To the phoenix and the dove,
Co-supreme and stars of love;
As chorus to their tragic scene.

THRENOS.

Beauty, truth, and rarity.
Grace in all simplicity,
Here enclos'd in cinders lie.

Death is now the phoenix' nest;
And the turtle's loyal breast
To eternity doth rest,

Leaving no posterity:--
'Twas not their infirmity,
It was married chastity.

Truth may seem, but cannot be:
Beauty brag, but 'tis not she;
Truth and beauty buried be.

To this urn let those repair
That are either true or fair;
For these dead birds sigh a prayer.