歌詞和訳 Sting – The Soul Cages

1991年発表の第3作アルバム The Soul Cages の表題曲。

The Soul Cages

(Sting)

The boy child is locked in the fisherman’s yard
There’s a bloodless moon where the oceans die
A shoal of night stars hang fire in the nets
And the chaos of cages where the crayfish lie

その男の子は漁具置場に閉じ込められている
生気のない月が出て、そこでは海は死んでいる
夜の群星が網の中に、そしてザリガニの
入った混沌たる籠の中に控えている

Where is the fisherman, where is the goat?
Where is the keeper in his carrion coat?
Eclipse on the moon when the dark bird flies
Where is the child with his father’s eyes?

漁師はどこだ、愚か者はどこだ
死肉のコートを着た番人はどこだ
暗黒の鳥が飛ぶと月は欠ける
父親と同じ目をした子はどこだ

He’s the king of the ninth world
The twisted son of the fog bells’ toll
In each and every lobster cage
A tortured human soul

彼は第九世界の王
霧鐘の音のひねくれた息子
どのロブスターの捕獲籠にも
苦しむ人間の魂が閉じ込められている

These are the souls of the broken factories
The subject slaves of the broken crown
The dead accounting of old guilty promises
These are the souls of the broken town

これは廃墟の工場の魂
壊れた王冠に従う奴隷
昔の罪深き約束は帳消しに
これは廃墟の町の魂

These are the soul cages
These are the soul cages
These are the soul cages
These are the soul cages

これは魂を閉じ込める籠

‘I have a wager,’ the brave child spoke
The fisherman laughed though disturbed at the joke
‘You will drink what I drink but you must equal me
And if the drink leaves me standing, a soul shall go free’

「賭けをしようよ」と勇敢な子が話しかける
漁師はその冗談に動揺しながらも笑った
「僕と飲みくらべをして
僕が倒れなかったら、魂は解放される」

‘I have here a cask of most magical wine
A vintage that blessed every ship in the line
It’s wrung from the blood of the sailors who died
Young white bodies adrift in the tide’

「ここに神秘のワインの樽がある
あらゆる船を祝福した極上のワインで
死んだ船乗りの、潮に漂う若い白い屍の
血から絞られたものさ」

‘And what’s in it for me, my pretty young thing?
Why should I whistle when the caged bird sings?
If you lose a wager with the king of the sea
You’ll spend the rest of forever in the cage with me’

「それで俺に何の得があるんだ、兄ちゃん
籠の鳥が鳴く時になぜ口笛を吹かなきゃならん
海の王との賭けに負けたら、お前は俺と一緒に
この先ずっと籠の中で過ごす事になるんだぞ」

These are the soul cages
These are the soul cages
These are the soul cages
These are the soul cages

これは魂を閉じ込める籠

A body lies open in the fisherman’s yard
Like the side of a ship where the iceberg rips
One less soul in the soul cages
One last curse on the fisherman’s lips

漁具置場にさらされた屍が一つ
まるで氷山に裂かれた船の側面の様
閉じ込めた籠から魂が一つ消え入る
漁師が口にする最後の一つの呪い

These are the soul cages
These are the soul cages
These are the soul cages
These are the soul cages
These are the soul cages
These are the soul cages

これは魂を閉じ込める籠

And he dreamed of a ship on the sea
It would carry his father and he
To a place they could never be found
To a place far away from this town
A Newcastle ship without coals
They would sail to the island of souls

そして彼は海に浮かぶ船の夢を見た
父親と彼を
二度と見つからぬ場所へと
この町から遠く離れた場所へと運ぶ船
石炭を積んでいないニューカッスルの船
彼らは魂の島へと航海する

These are the soul cages…

これは魂を閉じ込める籠…

My father died in 1989. We’d had a difficult relationship, and his death hit me harder than I’d imagined possible. I felt emotionally and creatively paralysed, isolated, and unable to mourn. I just felt numb and empty, as if the joy had been leached out of my life. Eventually I talked myself into going back to work, and this sombre collection of songs was the result. I became obsessed with my hometown and its history, images of boats and the sea, and my childhood in the shadow of the shipyards.
‘Lyrics’, 10/07