常時英心:言葉の森から 1.0

約10年間,はてなダイアリーで英語表現の落穂拾いを行ってきました。現在はAmeba Blogに2.0を開設し,継続中です。こちらはしばらくアーカイブとして維持します。

fair is foul, foul is fair

The Economistに面白い記事がありました。記事では、前チュニジア大統領とその夫人をShakespeareMacbethのMacbethおよびLady Macbethに擬えています(Banquoまでも登場しています)。

さて、見出しは、言わずもがなですが、Macbethの第一幕第一場の三人の魔女の台詞ですね。形容詞fairは9世紀から英語として使用され、もともとは“Beautiful to the eye; of pleasing from or appearance; good looking”という意味でした。一方、foulは8世紀から使用され、意味は“grossly offensive to the senses, physically loathsome; primarily with reference to the odour or appearance indicative of putridity or corruption”という意味として使われていました(ともにOED)。見出しおよびMacbeth第一幕第一場11行の訳は「醜いは綺麗、綺麗は醜い」という訳になるでしょう。(Othello)

c.f. ジェイソン・コネリー主演の『マクベス』

Fair is foul and foul is fair - Macbeth in Tunis

TUNISIANS are still fascinated by Leila Trabelsi, the wife of their former president Zein al-Abidine Ben Ali. On the eve of the revolution in January 2011 it was still taboo to criticise the president himself but she and her family, who controlled a huge slice of the economy, were already openly pilloried. Many saw the president's wife as the power behind the throne. So it is appropriate that in a production loosely based on Shakespeare's Macbeth that has been playing to packed houses in Tunis, she provides the inspiration for Lady Macbeth and Mr Ben Ali for the Scottish king.
(中略)
On stage Ms Trabelsi goads her husband to eliminate his predecessor, Habib Bourguiba (in reality deposed by Mr Ben Ali in a palace coup in 1987). But Bourguiba appears, Banquo-like, to haunt his former protégé. Mr Ben Ali may have inherited his power, but he could never rival the "father of the nation" in charisma.