Okakura Kakuzoの "The Book of Tea" を読んでいます。 今日も "The Tea Room" の章からの引用です。
Rikiu was watching his son Shoan as he swept and watered the garden path. "Not clean enough," said Rikiu, when Shoan had finished his task, and bade him try again. After a weary hour the son turned to Rikiu: "Father, there is nothing more to be done. The steps have been washed for the third time, the stone lanterns and the trees are well sprinkled with water, moss and lichens are shining with a fresh verdure; not a twig, not a leaf have I left on the ground." "Young fool," chided the tea-master, "that is not the way a garden path should be swept." Saying this, Rikiu stepped into the garden, shook a tree and scattered over the garden gold and crimson leaves, scraps of the brocade of autumn! What Rikiu demanded was not cleanliness alone, but the beautiful and the natural also.
この逸話を読んでいたら、数年前に行った足立美術館の庭園（島根県にあり、世界一の日本庭園と称されている）を思い出しました。かなり広い庭園なのに落ち葉一つない（庭園内には入れません）のが不思議と言うか、本当に絵画の様で、綺麗ですが、むしろ不自然だと思いました。
"verdure" は緑のことだとうろ覚えなので辞書で確認します。
・Collins Dictionary: the fresh-green color of growing things; greenness: Many of the fences that separated each lot from another with trees and verdure were left intact.
・Wiktionary: greenness, especially of fresh, flourishing vegetation.: On the other side was a narrow margin, and then a sheer wall of hills in exquisite verdure.
Merriam-Websterにこんな説明がありました。
Like the more common verdant, the word traces back to Latin virēre, meaning "to be green." Since the early 16th century, verdure has also been used to refer to a kind of tapestry with a design based on plant forms. The verdure that English speakers sometimes encounter on menus is Italian; in that language verdure refers to green vegetables or to vegetables in general (as in "fettuccine con verdure").
私が覚えていたのは "verdure" ではなく "verdant" でした。
Rikiu was watching his son Shoan as he swept and watered the garden path. "Not clean enough," said Rikiu, when Shoan had finished his task, and bade him try again. After a weary hour the son turned to Rikiu: "Father, there is nothing more to be done. The steps have been washed for the third time, the stone lanterns and the trees are well sprinkled with water, moss and lichens are shining with a fresh verdure; not a twig, not a leaf have I left on the ground." "Young fool," chided the tea-master, "that is not the way a garden path should be swept." Saying this, Rikiu stepped into the garden, shook a tree and scattered over the garden gold and crimson leaves, scraps of the brocade of autumn! What Rikiu demanded was not cleanliness alone, but the beautiful and the natural also.
この逸話を読んでいたら、数年前に行った足立美術館の庭園（島根県にあり、世界一の日本庭園と称されている）を思い出しました。かなり広い庭園なのに落ち葉一つない（庭園内には入れません）のが不思議と言うか、本当に絵画の様で、綺麗ですが、むしろ不自然だと思いました。
"verdure" は緑のことだとうろ覚えなので辞書で確認します。
・Collins Dictionary: the fresh-green color of growing things; greenness: Many of the fences that separated each lot from another with trees and verdure were left intact.
・Wiktionary: greenness, especially of fresh, flourishing vegetation.: On the other side was a narrow margin, and then a sheer wall of hills in exquisite verdure.
Merriam-Websterにこんな説明がありました。
Like the more common verdant, the word traces back to Latin virēre, meaning "to be green." Since the early 16th century, verdure has also been used to refer to a kind of tapestry with a design based on plant forms. The verdure that English speakers sometimes encounter on menus is Italian; in that language verdure refers to green vegetables or to vegetables in general (as in "fettuccine con verdure").
私が覚えていたのは "verdure" ではなく "verdant" でした。
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