エデンの園（the Garden of Eden）

前回、ミルトンの Paradise Lost（失楽園）の話をしました。この楽園は、聖書では「エデンの園」（the Garden of Eden）と呼ばれています。聖書のこの箇所には、paradise という言葉は出てきません。

有名な話ですから、全部引用したいのですが、長すぎますから少々端折って紹介しておきましょう。エバがへびにそそのかされて禁断の木の実を食べ、アダムにも勧めて食べさせたために、女性には出産の苦しみが、男性には額に汗して働く労働が、課せられることとなり、アダムはエデンの園を追放される羽目となりました、という話です。

 The Fall of Man

The serpent said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?"

The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, "You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.'"

"You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."

When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

To the woman he (God) said, "I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you."

To Adam he said, "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, 'You must not eat of it,' cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return."

So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken.
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英文は、New International Version の「創世記」3章1-23節を縮約したものです。

■ did say《強調の助動詞＋動詞》say を強調している。
■ eat of 〜「〜をいくらか食べる、ごちそうになる」《古い言い方》
■ knowing good and evil「善悪をわきまえて」
■ desirable for gaining wisdom「〔食べると〕賢くなりそうである」
■ realized that they were naked「自分たちが裸であることに気づいた」
■ sewed fig leaves together「いちじくの葉を縫合せた」
■ pains in childbearing「出産の苦しみ」
■ give birth to 〜 「〜を産む」
■ Your desire will be for your husband「あなたは夫を求める」
■ rule over 〜 「〜を支配する」
■ cursed is the ground「大地は呪われている」《倒置法》＝the ground is cursed
■ through painful toil「苦労して」
■ By the sweat of your brow「額に汗して」
■ since from it you were taken「お前は土から取られたのだから」since＝because《倒置法》since you were taken from it
■ for dust you are and to dust you will return「なぜならば、お前はもともと塵であり、やがて塵に返るのだから」《倒置法》＝for you are dust and you will return to dust
■ work the ground「土地を耕す」