「社会人のための英語回路構築トレーニング自習帖」著者のブログ

To understand deeply the mystery of compassion, I have to look honestly at the reality that evokes it. The fact is that, long before turning and returning, the son left. He said to his father, “Let me have the share of the estate that will come to me,” then he got together everything he had received and left. The evangelist Luke tells it all so simply and so matter-of-factly that it is difficult to realize fully that what is happening here is an unheard-of event, hurtful, offensive, and in radical contradiction to the most venerated tradition of the time. Kenneth Bailey, in his penetrating explanation of Luke’s story, shows that the son’s manner of leaving is tantamount to wishing his father dead. Bailey writes:

For over fifteen years I have been asking people of all walks
of life from Morocco to India and from Turkey to the
Sudan about the implications of a son’s request for his
inheritance while the father is still living. The answer has
always been emphatically the same … the conversation
runs as follows:
Has anyone ever made such a request in your village?
Never!
Could anyone ever make such a request?
Impossible!
If anyone ever did, what would happen?
His father would beat him, of course!
Why?
The request means – he wants his father to die.

Bailey explains that the son asks not only for the division of the inheritance, but also for the right to dispose of his part. “After signing over possessions to his son, the father still has the right to live off the proceeds … as long as he is alive. Here the younger son gets, and thus is assumed to have demanded, disposition to which, even more explicitly, he has no right until the death of his father. The implication of ‘Father, I cannot wait for you to die’ underlies both requests.”
The son’s “leaving” is, therefore, a much more offensive act than it seems at first reading. It is a heartless rejection of the home in which the son was born and nurtured and a break with the most precious tradition carefully upheld by the larger community of which he was a part. When Luke writes, “and left for a distant country,” he indicates much more than the desire of a young man to see more of the world. He speaks about a drastic cutting loose from the way of living, thinking and acting that has been handed down to him from generation to generation as a sacred legacy. More than disrespect, it is a betrayal of the treasured values of family and community. The “distant country” is the world in which everything considered holy at home is disregarded.


注釈：
To understand deeply the mystery of compassion, I have to look honestly at the reality that evokes it.
「compassion」は「（助けてやろうという深い）思いやり: a strong feeling of sympathy for people who are suffering and a desire to help them」。「evoke」は「を引き起こす（bring to mind）」。

The fact is that, long before turning and returning, the son left.
「turning」はここでは「向きを変えること⇒生き方を変えること」の意。

He said to his father, “Let me have the share of the estate that will come to me,” then he got together everything he had received and left.
「estate」はここでは文脈から「遺産」。通例「不動産」を意味しますが「不動産」は手で持っていけないので「動産」も貰ったのでしょう。

The evangelist Luke tells it all so simply and so matter-of-factly that it is difficult to realize fully that what is happening here is an unheard-of event, hurtful, offensive, and in radical contradiction to the most venerated tradition of the time.
「evangelist」は「福音書の著者（Matthew, Mark, Luke, John）」。「Luke」は日本語では「ルカ」。「hurtful」は「感情を傷つける（upsetting）」。「offensive」は「無礼な（insulting, rude）」。「radical」は「完全な（thoroughgoing）」。「contradiction」は「矛盾（conflict）」。「venerate」は「に深い敬意を払う（worship）」。

Kenneth Bailey, in his penetrating explanation of Luke’s story, shows that the son’s manner of leaving is tantamount to wishing his father dead.
「penetrating」はここでは「洞察力のある、鋭い（perceptive, keen, sharp）」。「tantamount」「等しい、同然である（equivalent to）」。

Bailey writes:

For over fifteen years I have been asking people of all walks
of life from Morocco to India and from Turkey to the
Sudan about the implications of a son’s request for his
inheritance while the father is still living. The answer has
always been emphatically the same … the conversation
runs as follows:
「people of all walks of life」は「あらゆる職業・階級の人々」。「emphatically」は「断然、徹底的に」。

Has anyone ever made such a request in your village?
Never!
Could anyone ever make such a request?
Impossible!
If anyone ever did, what would happen?
His father would beat him, of course!
Why?
The request means – he wants his father to die.

Bailey explains that the son asks not only for the division of the inheritance, but also for the right to dispose of his part.
「division」は「分割（dividing）」。「inheritance」は「遺産（legacy）」。「dispose of …」は「を処分する」。

“After signing over possessions to his son, the father still has the right to live off the proceeds … as long as he is alive.
「sign over …」は「を署名して処分する」。「live off …」は「・・・で生きる」。「proceeds」は「利益、収入（profits, earnings）」。所有権は譲り渡したが利用権は留保されているということでしょうか。

Here the younger son gets, and thus is assumed to have demanded, disposition to which, even more explicitly, he has no right until the death of his father.

The implication of ‘Father, I cannot wait for you to die’ underlies both requests.”
「underlie」は「の下に横たわる」。「both requests」は明示されていませんが「財産分与」と「家を離れること」の要求だと思います。

The son’s “leaving” is, therefore, a much more offensive act than it seems at first reading.
このようなことは自分の知らない世界で起ったことを自分の世界での解釈に置き直すことから生まれます。聖書を読む時には、常に要注意です。

It is a heartless rejection of the home in which the son was born and nurtured and a break with the most precious tradition carefully upheld by the larger community of which he was a part.
「nurture」は「を育てる（bring up）」。「uphold」はここでは「を維持する、保つ（maintain, sustain）」。

When Luke writes, “and left for a distant country,” he indicates much more than the desire of a young man to see more of the world.

He speaks about a drastic cutting loose from the way of living, thinking and acting that has been handed down to him from generation to generation as a sacred legacy.
「cut loose」は「自由になる」。「be handed down」は「伝わる」。

More than disrespect, it is a betrayal of the treasured values of family and community.
「betrayal」は「裏切り行為（disloyalty）」。

The “distant country” is the world in which everything considered holy at home is disregarded.
「disregard」は「を無視する（ignore）」。

The younger said to his father, “Father, let me have the share of the estate that will come to me.” So the father divided the property between them. A few days later, the younger son got together everything he had and left for a distant country.



The full title of Rembrandt’s painting is, as has been said, The Return of the Prodigal Son. Implicit in the “return” is a leaving. Returning is a homecoming after a home-leaving, a coming back after having gone away. The father who welcomes his son home, is so glad because this son “was dead and has come back to life; he was lost and is found.” The immense joy in welcoming back the lost son hides the immense sorrow that has gone before. The finding has the losing in the background, the returning has the leaving under the cloak. Looking at the tender and joy-filled return, I have to dare to taste the sorrowful events that preceded it. Only when I have the courage to explore in depth what it means to leave home, can I come to a true understanding of the return. The soft yellow-brown of the son’s underclothes looks beautiful when seen in rich harmony with the red of the father’s cloak, but the truth of the matter is that the son is dressed in rags that betray the great misery that lies behind him. In the context of a compassionate embrace, our brokenness may appear beautiful, but our brokenness has no other beauty but the beauty that comes from the compassion that surrounds it.


注釈：
The younger said to his father, “Father, let me have the share of the estate that will come to me.” So the father divided the property between them. A few days later, the younger son got together everything he had and left for a distant country.
聖書からの引用という意味でイタリックスになっています。放蕩息子の帰郷（１）を参照。


「radical」は通例「急進的な」の意でつかわれますが、ここでは「徹底的な（thorough, complete）」。「rejection」は「拒絶」。

The full title of Rembrandt’s painting is, as has been said, The Return of the Prodigal Son.

Implicit in the “return” is a leaving.
「implicit」はここでは名詞として使われています。「示唆（suggestion）」。

Returning is a homecoming after a home-leaving, a coming back after having gone away. The father who welcomes his son home, is so glad because this son “was dead and has come back to life; he was lost and is found.”

The immense joy in welcoming back the lost son hides the immense sorrow that has gone before.
「immense」は「（普通では計りきれないほど）巨大な（huge）」。

The finding has the losing in the background, the returning has the leaving under the cloak.

Looking at the tender and joy-filled return, I have to dare to taste the sorrowful events that preceded it.
「precede」は「に先立つ（go/come before）」。

Only when I have the courage to explore in depth what it means to leave home, can I come to a true understanding of the return.

The soft yellow-brown of the son’s underclothes looks beautiful when seen in rich harmony with the red of the father’s cloak, but the truth of the matter is that the son is dressed in rags that betray the great misery that lies behind him.
「underclothes」は辞書には「下着、肌着」と出ていますが、ここでは「外套の下に着る衣服」の意で使われています。「着物」と訳しておきます。「betray」はここでは「を裏切る」の意ではなく「をさらけ出す（reveal, disclose）」。「misery」は「みじめさ（unhappiness）」。

In the context of a compassionate embrace, our brokenness may appear beautiful, but our brokenness has no other beauty but the beauty that comes from the compassion that surrounds it.
「in the context of …」は「・・・の状況下では」。「compassionate」は「あわれみ深い、おもいやりのある（sympathetic）」。「brokenness」はここでは「打ちひしがれた状態」。

Still, all the Rembrandt biographers describe him as a proud young man, strongly convinced of his own genius and eager to explore everything the world has to offer, an extrovert who loves luxury and is quite insensitive toward those about him. There is no doubt that one of Rembrandt’s main concerns was money. He made a lot, he spent a lot, and lost a lot. A large part of his energy was wasted in long, drawn-out court cases about financial settlements and bankruptcy proceedings. The self-portraits painted during his late twenties and early thirties reveal Rembrandt as a man hungry for fame and adulation, fond of extravagant costumes, preferring golden chains to the traditional starched white collars, and sporting outlandish hats, berets, helmets, and turbans. Although much of this elaborate dressing-up can be explained as a normal way to practice and show off painting techniques, it also demonstrates an arrogant character who wasn’t simply out to please his sponsors.
However, this short period of success, popularity, and wealth is followed by much grief, misfortune, and disaster. Trying to summarize the many misfortunes of Rembrandt’s life can be overwhelming. They are not unlike those of the prodigal son. After having lost his son Rumbartus in 1634, his first daughter Cornelia in 1938, and his second daughter Cornelia in 1640, Rembrandt’s wife Saskia, whom he deeply loved and admired, dies in 1642. Rembrandt is left behind with his nine-month old son, Titus. After Saska’s death, Rembrandt’s life continues to be marked with countless pains and problems. A very unhappy relationship with Titus’ nurse, Greerrje Dircx, ending in lawsuits and the confinement of Greerrje in an asylum, is followed by a more stable union with Hendrickje Stoffels. She bears him a son who dies in 1652 and a daughter, Cornelia, the only child who will survive him.


注釈：
Still, all the Rembrandt biographers describe him as a proud young man, strongly convinced of his own genius and eager to explore everything the world has to offer; an extrovert who loves luxury and is quite insensitive toward those about him.
「everything the world has to offer」は「everything the world must offer」の意ではなく。「everything the world has / to offer」の構造になっています（「世の中が提供する全て」の意）。「extrovert」は「外向性の人（outgoing person, sociable person）」。「insensitive」は「鈍感な（impervious）」。「those about him」は「彼の周りの人々」。

There is no doubt that one of Rembrandt’s main concerns was money. He made a lot, he spent a lot, and lost a lot.

A large part of his energy was wasted in long, drawn-out court cases about financial settlements and bankruptcy proceedings.
「drawn-out」は「引き伸ばされた」

The self-portraits painted during his late twenties and early thirties reveal Rembrandt as a man hungry for fame and adulation, fond of extravagant costumes, preferring golden chains to the traditional starched white collars, and sporting outlandish hats, berets, helmets, and turbans.
「reveal」はここでは「・・・が・・・であることを示す（show）」。「adulation」は「賛辞（hero-worship, flattery）」。「extravagant」はここでは「けばけばしい（ornate）」。「outlandish」は「奇妙な（weird, queer）」。「helmet」は「日よけヘルメット」。建築現場のヘルメットは「hardhat」。

Although much of this elaborate dressing-up can be explained as a normal way to practice and show off painting techniques, it also demonstrates an arrogant character who wasn’t simply out to please his sponsors.
「elaborate」は「手の込んだ（ornate）」。「practice」はここでは「を実践する」。「show off」は「見せびらかす」。「out to …」は「しきりに〜したがる、〜をしようと躍起になる」の意。

However, this short period of success, popularity, and wealth is followed by much grief, misfortune, and disaster.

Trying to summarize the many misfortunes of Rembrandt’s life can be overwhelming.
「summarize」は「を要約する」。「overwhelming」はここでは「〔感情的に人を〕圧倒する、打ちのめす」⇒反対は「insignificant」。

They are not unlike those of the prodigal son.

After having lost his son Rumbartus in 1634, his first daughter Cornelia in 1938, and his second daughter Cornelia in 1640, Rembrandt’s wife Saskia, whom he deeply loved and admired, dies in 1642. Rembrandt is left behind with his nine-month old son, Titus. After Saska’s death, Rembrandt’s life continues to be marked with countless pains and problems.

A very unhappy relationship with Titus’ nurse, Greerrje Dircx, ending in lawsuits and the confinement of Greerrje in an asylum, is followed by a more stable union with Hendrickje Stoffels.
「unhappy」はここでは「好ましくない（inappropriate）」。「nurse」はここでは「乳母」。「confinement」は「監禁」。「asylum」は「避難所」。

She bears him a son who dies in 1652 and a daughter, Cornelia, the only child who will survive him.
「survive」はここでは「・・・より長生きする（outlive）」。

Rembrandt was close to his death when he painted his Prodigal Son. Most likely it was one of Rembrandt’s last works. The more I read about it and look at it, the more I see it as a final statement of a tumultuous and tormented life. Together with his unfinished painting Simeon and the Child Jesus, the Prodigal Son shows the painter’s perception of his aged self – a perception in which physical blindness and a deep inner seeing are intimately connected. The way in which the old Simeon holds the vulnerable child and the way in which the old father embraces his exhausted son reveal an inner vision that reminds one of Jesus’ words to his disciples: “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see.” Both Simeon and the father of the returning son carry within themselves that mysterious light by which they see. It is an inner light, deeply hidden, but radiating an all-pervasive tender beauty.
This inner light, however, had remained hidden for a long time. For many years it remained unreachable for Rembrandt. Only gradually and through much anguish did he come to know that light within himself and, through himself, in those he painted. Before being like the father Rembrandt was for a long time like the proud young man who “got together everything he had and left for a distant country where he squandered his money.”
When I look at the profoundly interiorized self-portraits which Rembrandt produced during his last years and which explain much of his ability to paint the luminous old father and the old Simeon, I must not forget that, as a young man, Rembrandt had all the characters of the prodigal son: brash, self-confident, spendthrift, sensual, and very arrogant. At the age of thirty, he painted himself with his wife, Saskia, as the lost son in a brothel. No interiority is visible there. Drunk, with his half-open mouth and sexually greedy eyes, he glares scornfully at those who look at his portrait as if to say: “Isn’t this a lot of fun!” With his right hand he lifts up a half-empty glass while with his left he touches the lower back of his girl whose eyes are no less lustful than his own. Rembrandt’s long, curly hair, his velvet cap with the huge white feather, and the leather-sheathed sword with golden hilt touching the backs of the two merrymakers leave little doubt about their intentions. The drawn curtain in the upper right corner even makes one think of the brothels in Amsterdam’s infamous red-light district. Gazing intently at this sensuous self-portrait of the young Rembrandt as the prodigal son, I can scarcely believe that this is the same man who, thirty years later, painted himself with yes that penetrate so deeply into the hidden mysteries of life.


注釈：
Rembrandt was close to his death when he painted his Prodigal Son. Most likely it was one of Rembrandt’s last works.

The more I read about it and look at it, the more I see it as a final statement of a tumultuous and tormented life.
「tumultuous」はここでは「騒乱を引き起こす、無秩序の（disordderly）」。「tormented」は「苦しんでいる（tortured）」。

Together with his unfinished painting Simeon and the Child Jesus, the Prodigal Son shows the painter’s perception of his aged self – a perception in which physical blindness and a deep inner seeing are intimately connected.
「Simeon and the Child Jesus」はＹａｈｏｏで検索すると「Simeon and the Child Jesusの画像」に出ています、２列目の真ん中の画像（立て長）。「perception」はここでは「知覚されたもの」。「Simeon（シメオン）」: 新約聖書では「幼子イエスに出会って救い主と認め、神への賛歌（Nunc Dimittis）を歌ってその将来を予言した」と出ています。「intimately」はここでは「密接に（closely）」。

The way in which the old Simeon holds the vulnerable child and the way in which the old father embraces his exhausted son reveal an inner vision that reminds one of Jesus’ words to his disciples: “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see.”
『それから弟子（でし）たちの方に振りむいて、ひそかに言われた、「あなたがたが見ていることを見る目は、さいわいである』

Both Simeon and the father of the returning son carry within themselves that mysterious light by which they see.

It is an inner light, deeply hidden, but radiating an all-pervasive tender beauty.
「all-pervasive」は「すっかり広がった」。

This inner light, however, had remained hidden for a long time. For many years it remained unreachable for Rembrandt.

Only gradually and through much anguish did he come to know that light within himself and, through himself, in those he painted.
「anguish」は「（心の）苦痛（agony, pain）」。

Before being like the father Rembrandt was for a long time like the proud young man who “got together everything he had and left for a distant country where he squandered his money.”
「squander」は「を浪費する（waste）」。

When I look at the profoundly interiorized self-portraits which Rembrandt produced during his last years and which explain much of his ability to paint the luminous old father and the old Simeon, I must not forget that, as a young man, Rembrandt had all the characters of the prodigal son: brash, self-confident, spendthrift, sensual, and very arrogant.
「profoundly」は「深く、深遠に（deeply）」。「interiorize」は「を内面化する」。「self-portrait」は「自画像」。「luminous」は「光を発する、輝く（shining, bright）」。「brash」はここでは「でしゃばりの（self-assertive, pushy）」。「self-confident」は「自信のある」。「spendthrift」は「金使いの荒い（prodigal）」。「sensual」は「好色な（carnal）」。「arrogant」は「横柄な（haughty, high handed, overbearing）」。

At the age of thirty, he painted himself with his wife, Saskia, as the lost son in a brothel.
この絵は「Rembrandt Saskia」で検索すると「Rembrandt Saskiaの画像」に出てきます。「brothel」は「売春宿」。

No interiority is visible there.
「interiority」は「内面性」。

Drunk, with his half-open mouth and sexually greedy eyes, he glares scornfully at those who look at his portrait as if to say: “Isn’t this a lot of fun!”
「greedy」は「貪欲である（eager）」。「scornfully」は「軽蔑して、ばかにして（contemptuously）」。

With his right hand he lifts up a half-empty glass while with his left he touches the lower back of his girl whose eyes are no less lustful than his own.
「lustful」は「好色な」。

Rembrandt’s long, curly hair, his velvet cap with the huge white feather, and the leather-sheathed sword with golden hilt touching the backs of the two merrymakers leave little doubt about their intentions.
「leather-sheathed」は「革の鞘に納められた」。「hilt」は「柄」。「merrymaker」は「浮かれ騒ぐ人」。この絵を見る限り、その刀は女の背中には接触していません。そうすると「touching」はここでは「届く」という意味で使っていることになります。作者が何を暗示しているのか著者には分かりません。

The drawn curtain in the upper right corner even makes one think of the brothels in Amsterdam’s infamous red-light district.
「infamous」は「悪名の高い（notorious）」。

Gazing intently at this sensuous self-portrait of the young Rembrandt as the prodigal son, I can scarcely believe that this is the same man who, thirty years later, painted himself with yes that penetrate so deeply into the hidden mysteries of life.
「sensuous」はここでは「sensual（好色な）」の意。

The younger said to his father, “Father, let me have the share of the estate that will come to me.” So the father divided the property between them. A few days later, the younger son got together everything he had and left for a distant country where he squandered his money on a life of debauchery.
When he spent it all, that country experienced a severe famine, and now he began to feel the pinch so he hired himself out to one of the local inhabitants who put him on his farm to feed the pigs. And he would willingly have filled himself with the husks the pigs were eating but no one would let him have them. Then he came to his senses and said, “How many of my father’s hired men have all the food they want and more, and here am I dying of hunger! I will leave this place and go to my father and say: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you; I no longer deserve to be called your son; treat me as one of your hire men …” So he left the place and went back to his father.

「放蕩息子の帰郷（１）」を参照下さい。