キーツ関連の書籍をネットで検索していたら、Ode to a Nightingale からの引用が目に留まった。Ode とは OED によると、
(a) In early use (esp. with reference to ancient literature): a poem intended to be sung or one written in a form originally used for sung performance (e.g. the Odes of Pindar, of Horace, etc.).
(b) Later: a lyric poem, typically one in the form of an address to a particular subject, written in varied or irregular metre. Also in extended use.
Traditionally, an ode (in sense 1(b)) rarely exceeded 150 lines and could be much shorter. The metre in longer odes is usually irregular (e.g. Dryden Alexander’s Feast, Wordsworth Intimations of Immortality), or consists of stanzas regularly varied (e.g. Gray’s Pindaric Odes), but some shorter odes consist of uniform stanzas (e.g. Gray’s shorter odes). The popularity of the ode as a poetical form tended to diminish during the 20th cent.
The term is sometimes applied to certain short Old English poems, such as The Battle of Brunanburh.
引用されていたのは、第六節の第一行から第五行までだったが、節全体は以下の通り。
Darkling I listen; and, for many a time
I have been half in love with easeful Death,
Call’d him soft names in many a mused rhyme,
To take into the air my quiet breath;
Now more than ever seems it rich to die,
To cease upon the midnight with no pain,
While thou art pouring forth thy soul abroad
In such an ecstasy!
Still wouldst thou sing, and I have ears in vain —
To thy high requiem become a sod.
第五行目の « rich to die » の rich はどのような意味なのだろう。その次の行が死の様態を具体的に示しているけれども、真夜中に苦痛なく命を終えることができれば、それだけで充分に満たされているということだろうか。最後の四行は、恍惚として歌い続けるナイチンゲールの歌声がレクイエムとなって、それが響き続けるこの世に別れを告げて、私は土へと還ってゆく、と謳う。
この十行の詩句を声低く繰り返しながら今日一日を過ごした。
