※「英詩のマガジン」に入れるまでの限定公開のラフ・ヴァーションです。

Bob Dylan のアルバム 'Rough and Rowdy Ways' (2020) 所収の、同アルバムの頂点と目される 'Key West (Philosopher Pirate)' について、3冊ほど研究書を読みましたが、まともに分析したものがまだなく、自分でやることにします。

まずは、準備のラフな作業。詩形と注。

1連

McKinley hollered - McKinley squalled
Doctor said McKinley - death is on the wall
Say it to me if you got something to confess
I heard all about it - he was going down slow
Heard it on the wireless radio
From down in the boondocks - way down in Key West

詩形

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注

1 McKinley hollered - McKinley squalled 伝統歌 'White House Blues' から。最初期の録音として Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers によるものが知られる（1926年）

 McKinley 米25代大統領。共和党。暗殺（1901年9月6日に Temple of Music, Buffalo, New York で32口径リボルバで銃撃、同月14日に傷の壊疽で死亡）、米大統領の暗殺は3人目（4人目は John F. Kennedy）。
2 wall 胃壁（2発目の銃弾は胃を貫通していた）［壊疽が胃壁に広がっていることに医師団は気づいていなかった。発明者エディスンが送ったX線装置は重要な部品が欠けており使えなかった］→ 従って2行はディランの作ったフィクション
5 wireless radio 実験的な無線電話は1906年に始まる。ラジオ放送の開始は1920年 → 従って4-5行はディランの作ったフィクション

2連

I’m searchin’ for love and inspiration
On that pirate radio station
It’s comin’ out of Luxembourg and Budapest
Radio signal clear as can be
I’m so deep in love I can hardly see
Down in the flatlands - way down in Key West

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注

2 pirate radio station 〈無許可（海賊）ラジオ〉
3 Luxembourg 1924年、ルクセンブルグの最初の放送局 Radio Luxembourg が始まる
 Budapest 1925年、正式のラジオ放送が始まる（source）

pirate radio

国境を超えての放送について、Britannica に次の興味ある 記事 がある。'Border blasters' の第2段落に Radio Luxembourg と DJ の Wolfman Jack の名前が出てくる。この記事によれば、1951年からは、英国では AM 1439 KHzに合わせれば Radio Luxembourg の英語放送が聞けた。1960年代初頭からは、メキシコに設置された巨大放送塔により、北米中でウルフマン・ジャックの番組が聞けた。

Britannica article

pirate radio

unlicensed radio broadcast intended for general public reception. While many pirate radio stations have been short-lived low-power entities operated by amateur hobbyists, others have been elaborate professional undertakings that skirted government regulation by transmitting from outside the national boundaries of the signal’s target audience.

Border blasters

The practice of broadcasting programming intended for an audience beyond the signal’s country of origin began with political transmissions from the Soviet Union in the 1920s. Soon, propaganda broadcasts blanketed Europe, with foreign-language programs emanating from Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. As World War II progressed, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and Voice of America (VOA) played an important role in preserving the morale of listeners in occupied Europe.

While the BBC and the VOA remained fixtures in the postwar era, so-called “border blasters”—commercial radio stations that sought to circumvent a government telecommunication monopoly (as in the case of the BBC) or government regulation of advertising content (as with the American Federal Communications Commission [FCC])—began to appear. Starting in 1951, British pop music fans tuned their dials to AM 1439 KHz (208 metres) for the English-language programming of Radio Luxembourg, which had been broadcasting from its 200,000-watt transmitter in defiance of European regulations since 1933. In the early 1960s, massive broadcast towers located in Mexico beamed the programming of disc jockeys such as the iconic Wolfman Jack into homes across North America. The outsize personalities that typified the border blasters, combined with playlists that emphasized rock and roll and rhythm and blues, captivated audiences on both sides of the Atlantic.

Michael Ray

The golden age of offshore radio

On Easter, 1964, Radio Caroline began broadcasting from a ship anchored in international waters off the coast of Essex in southeastern England. Moves to outlaw the station were under way within a week. But by the time Radio London, a station with a slickly professional sound and commercial clout, opened in December, the airwaves of the United Kingdom were cluttered with unlicensed broadcasters operating from either ships or disused marine defense emplacements. Audience figures grew through 1965 as listeners embraced the formula of young, flamboyant disc jockeys and jingles and station identifications imported from the United States, punctuating a Top 40 playlist impervious to the “needle time agreements” between the BBC and record companies that forced the Light Programme to substitute live versions played by dance bands for the real hit records. It was not until July 1966, however, that the Marine Broadcasting (Offences) Bill began the parliamentary process that would outlaw offshore radio on August 15, 1967. By then the BBC’s new Radio 1—with ex-pirate disc jockeys such as John Peel, Kenny Everett, and Tony Blackburn playing Top 40 hits peppered with American-made jingles—was only six weeks from its launch, and only Caroline among the major players risked prosecution, remaining on the air until March 1968.

border blaster《俗》メキシコの米国国境近くにある大出力AM局（米国内をサービスエリアとする英語放送局で，1930-60年代に福音伝道やカントリーミュージックの番組で人気があった）（『リーダーズ・プラス』）

3連

Key West is the place to be
If you’re lookin’ for immortality
Stay on the road – follow the highway sign
Key West is fine and fair
If you lost your mind, you’ll find it there
Key West is on the horizon line

詩形

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4行の fine / fair の [f] の頭韻

注

3 highway sign 例えば、次の写真のような道路標識（source）

4連

I was born on the wrong side of the railroad track
Like Ginsberg, Corso and Kerouac
Like Louie and Jimmy and Buddy and all of the rest
It might not be the thing to do
But I’m stickin’ with you through and through
Down in the flatlands - way down in Key West

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2行 Kerouac の第３音節 /-ac/ に強勢

注

2 Ginsberg, Corso and Kerouac Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, Jack Kerouac
3 Louie and Jimmy and Buddy Louis Armstrong（Louie でも知られる）, Jimmy Buffett, Buddy Holly

5連

I got both my feet planted square on the ground
Got my right hand high with the thumb down
Such is life - such is happiness
Hibiscus flowers they grow everywhere here
If you wear one put it behind your ear
Down on the bottom - way down in Key West

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注

4 they 文の主語。Hibiscus flowers が同格（appositive）

6連

Key West is the place to go
Down by the Gulf of Mexico
Beyond the sea - beyond the shifting sand
Key West is the gateway key
To innocence and purity
Key West - Key West is the enchanted land

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注

3 shifting sand「流砂」

5 To 前行の key に続けて読む（〜への鍵）

7連

I’ve never lived in the land of Oz
Or wasted my time with an unworthy cause
It’s hot down here and you can’t be overdressed
The tiny blossoms of a toxic plant
They can make you dizzy - I’d like to help ya but I can’t
Down in the flatlands - way down in Key West

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注

1 the land of Oz L. Frank Baum の小説 'The Wonderful Wizard of Oz' (1900) などの舞台となる魔法の国（magical land, enchanted land） cf. 6連6行 'the enchanted land'
4 toxic plant 毒性のある（toxic）とは、人間の観点から見てのもの。植物にとっては、昆虫を撃退するなど、益になることがある。フロリダ州では数種類の毒草・有毒植物の類が知られている（source）

8連

The fishtail ponds and the orchid trees
They can give you the bleedin’ heart disease
People tell me - I oughta try a little tenderness
Amelia Street - Bay View Park
Walkin’ in the shadows after dark
Down under - way down in Key West

詩形

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注

1 fishtail ponds 不詳。cf. fishtail palm（caryota, クジャクヤシ）がフロリダ州で外来種（invasive）とみなされている［'fishtail palms' とディランが唄っているかもしれない］
3 try a little tenderness cf. 'Try a Little Tenderness' (Jimmy Campbell, Reg Connelly, and Harry M. Woods,
1932)
4 Amelia Street Key West 西部の通り［'On Newton Street' とディランが唄っているかもしれない］
 Bay View Park Key West 西部の Bayview Park（Amelia Street からは徒歩4分［1.6km］）

9連

I play gumbo limbo spirituals
I know all the Hindu rituals
People tell me that I’m truly blessed
Bougainvillea bloomin’ in the summer and spring
Winter here is an unknown thing
Down the flatlands - way down in Key West

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注

1 gumbo limbo spirituals 不詳。gumbo limbo「ガンボリンボ」（カンラン科の木［熱帯アメリカ産］）

10連

Key West is under the sun
Under the radar - under the gun
You stay to the left and then you lean to the right
Feel the sunlight on your skin
And the healing virtues of the wind
Key West - Key West is the land of light

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注

1 under the sun cf. there is no new thing under the sun（日の下には新しきものなし）Eccl. 1.9

11連

Wherever I travel - wherever I roam
I’m not that far from the convent home
I do what I think is right - what I think is best
Mystery Street off Mallory Square
Truman had his White House there
Eastbound - westbound way down in Key West

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注

2 home cf. roam / home ('The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest')［Karwowski は 'come to Rome'（「カトリシズムに改宗する」の婉曲表現）を公式詩集で 'come to roam' と綴ったと主張（Rome と roam は発音上は同じ）］; roam / home ('Mother of Muses') アルバム 'Rough and Rowdy Ways' では少なくとも2回 roam / home の押韻があることになる
4 Mallory Square Key West 西端にある。次行の Harry S. Truman Little White House はすぐ南にある

12連

Twelve years old and they put me in a suit
Forced me to marry a prostitute
There were gold fringes on her wedding dress
That’s my story but not where it ends
She’s still cute and we’re still friends
Down in the bottom - way down in Key West

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注

1 Twelve years old Varesi はディランが12歳のとき（1954年5月22日）に bar mitzvah（ユダヤ教の成人式、ユダヤ教に関する正規の課程を習得した13歳の男子を社会の一員として正式に受入れる儀式）を受けたことへの言及であり、この箇所は 'a metaphor for his formal rite of passage into Judaism, mixed with a reference to the Book of Hosea' であると指摘する。ディランは1954年5月24日に13歳になった。cf. Hosea 1.2. cf. 'Hosea the Prophet was even married to a prostitute, and it didn't stop him from being a holy man.' (Bob Dylan, 'Chronicles', ch. 4)
5 we’re still friends 'suggests a continued interest in the Jewish faith, even after Dylan's immersion (and, to this day, continued interest) in Christianity in the late 1970s' (Varesi)

13連

I play both sides against the middle
Pickin’ up that pirate radio signal
I heard the news - I heard your last request
Fly around my Pretty Little Miss
I don’t love nobody - gimme a kiss
Down at the bottom - way down in Key West

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注

4 Fly around my Pretty Little Miss cf. 伝承曲 'Fly Around, My Pretty Little Miss'

14連

Key West is the place to be
If you’re lookin’ for immortality
Key West is paradise divine
Key West is fine and fair
If you lost your mind you’ll find it there
Key West is on the horizon line

詩形

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4行 fine / fair の [f] の頭韻

注

5 If you lost your mind you’ll find it there 'Ultimately, "Key West" is an allegory for a state of mind.' (Varesi)

#英詩 #ボブディラン #KeyWest #韻律