William Blakeウィリアム・ブレイク / 1757-1827
Category
詩人 A〜C 1740年〜1799年 翻訳作品 詩人 A〜Cイングランドの詩人、版画家。7人兄弟の3番目としてロンドンの中産階級の家庭に生まれ、学校教育はいっさい受けず、母親を家庭教師として育った。1772 年、彫版師ジェイムズ・バジア (James Basire) に弟子入りし、ロンドンのゴシック教会の彫像などをコピーする仕事に携わったことがブレイクの芸術スタイル、神秘主義思想の形成に寄与したと言われる。1783年に最初の詩集 Poetical Sketches を出版し、1789年には自ら版画印刷した詩集 Songs of Innocence を、1794年に対をなす詩集 Songs of Experience を出版した。
ブレイク全集の編者スティーブンソン (W. H. Stevenson) は、ブレイクのバラッド詩にあるゴシック的要素について次のように述べている。
“This poem [“Fair Elenor”] and Gwin embody the full Gothic strain deriving from the ballads and Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto, at this time fashionable and becoming more and more popular. This poem has all the classical Gothic elements (later to be used e.g. by Coleridge in Christabel and Keats in Isabella) — midnight, a fair maiden, a castle, vault, a horrific bloody head, ghostly voices, and a macabre ending.” [Blake: The Complete Poems, ed. W. H. Stevenson (London, 1971) 6]
ここに指摘されているように、ブレイクのみならずロマン派詩人たちの作品におけるバラッド風ゴシック様式は、バラッド詩の歴史の中でも体系的に研究されるべきテーマの一つである。 (M. Y.)
English poet, painter, and printmaker, born in London to a middle-class family. Blake was the third of seven children, and never attended school, being educated at home by his mother. In 1772 he became apprenticed to engraver James Basire for the term of seven years. His experiences copying images from the Gothic churches in London in those days contributed to the formation of his artistic style and ideas. Blake’s first collection of poems, Poetical Sketches, was published in 1783. He published his own engraved book of poems, Songs of Innocence, in 1789, exemplary of the early stages of his highly mystic vision, and Songs of Experience followed it in 1794.
W. H. Stevenson, editor of Blake’s poems, refers to the Gothic elements in his literary ballads: “This poem [“Fair Elenor”] and Gwin embody the full Gothic strain deriving from the ballads and Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto, at this time fashionable and becoming more and more popular. This poem has all the classical Gothic elements (later to be used e.g. by Coleridge in Christabel and Keats in Isabella) — midnight, a fair maiden, a castle, vault, a horrific bloody head, ghostly voices, and a macabre ending.” [Blake: The Complete Poems, ed. W. H. Stevenson (London, 1971) 6]
Balladic Gothicism in the Romantic poets is an important subject which requires more systematic discussion for the history of literary balladry. (M. Y.)
原詩(PDF)
- 1. The Chimney Sweeper (Innocence, 1789)
- 2. The Chimney-sweeper (Experience, 1794)
- 3. Fair Elenor
- 4. The Grey Monk
- 5. Gwin, King of Norway
- 6. The Mental Traveller
- 7. A Poison Tree
- 8. William Bond
訳詩(PDF)
原詩出典
* The Poetical Works of William Blake. Ed. With an Introduction and Textual Notes by John Sampson. Oxford UP, 1913.