試訳 Pleiades’ Dust
プレアデスの塵
I- THINKER'S SLUMBER
一幕: 思索者の微睡
With the weakening of the Roman Empire at the beginning of the fifth century, Western Europe slipped rapidly into what is now known as the Dark Ages, from which it would not emerge for a thousand years Jim Al-Khalili - The House Of Wisdom
5世紀初頭のローマ帝国衰退を期に，西ヨーロッパはたちまち俗に言う暗黒時代へと雪崩れ込み，そこから1000年間脱却し得なかった． "智慧の館" Jim Al-Khalili 著
Scornful dogma Withering era
侮蔑めく教理
凋落の時代
Silence in sight Treasures of cognition Have ceased to be
幽寂の光景のうちに
知識の至宝は
存在を喪失えり
Destructive minds Turning life to ashes Relentlessly
堕落せる精神
人の生は熾烈にも
灰塵へと帰せらるる
Despotic hands on recollection Restraining man from recollection
在りし日の暴政の両手は
民の追憶を封ぜり
II. WANDERING TIMES Progress, through reason and rationality, is by definition a good thing; knowledge and enlightenment are always better than ignorance Ibid
二幕: 彷徨の時代
理性と合理性による進歩は，当然歓迎すべきことである．知識と啓蒙は常に無知にまさる．
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Wandering times Crawling thoughts abandoned at dusk Thinker's dream Lost in doubts Streams of lore Concealing in drought
彷徨の時代
連綿たる思想は薄暮に廃てられ
思索者の夢想は
猜疑のうちに消ゆ
伝承のせせらぎは
干魃に隠れり
Wandering times Scripted thoughts emerging at dawn Scholars' dream Starts to blink Streams of lore Submerging with ink
彷徨の時代
記述されき思想は黎明に閃き
学徒の夢想
明滅しそめ
伝承のせせらぎは
筆先を浸す
Glimpse of light in sight Dazzling minds are turning the page On darker times
刹那の光明閃き
目映き知性は頁を手繰らむ
なお昏き世にあれども
III. WITHIN THE ROUNDED WALLS Like the city of Alexandria, founded a thousand years earlier by Alexander the Great, Baghdad grew from nothing to become the world's largest city just fifty years after the first brick was laid. And just like Alexandria, it became a centre for culture, scholarship and enlightenment that attracted the world's greatest minds Ibid
三幕: 城壁の内にて
そこに最初のレンガが敷かれて以来わずか五十年のうちに，空閑としていたバクダッドは世界最大の都市へと成長した．
1000前，大王アレクサンダーの建てた都，アレクサンドリアのように，
そして，文化，学問，啓蒙の中心地となって世界の最も偉大な知恵者たちを魅了してきた．
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Nightfall unfurls its sky Whispers of waves...mesmerised Nightfall's canvas unfolds Frame in time, the stars have told Mighty circle of stone Standing strong, on the sands, alone
夕闇は天に拡がり
波のささめきはゆかしき
夕闇の画布は時の額装の内に張られ
星々は語りき
巨いなる石造の円環の
したたかに，沙上に，孤高に建つるを
Rounded walls Once foreseen Standing tall To the thinker's realm All roads shall lead
かつて予言されき
巡らさるる城壁
聳ゆるは高々と
思索者の王国へ
すべての路の通ずべき地へ
IV. PEARLS OF TRANSLATION (...) the success of a spectacularly massive translation movement - a process that lasted for two centuries - during which much of the wisdom of the earlier civilisations of the Greeks, Persians and Indians was translated into Arabic (...) The translation movement owes its beginnings to the appeal of Persian culture (...) along with the development of paper-making technology they have learned from the Chinese. But once it began, this obsession with translating ancient texts sparked the beginning of a golden age of scientific progress (...) By the mid-ninth century it had evolved into a new tradition of original scientific and philosophical scholarship that further fuelled the demand for more translations, both in quantity and quality Ibid
四幕: 翻訳の真珠
200年間におよぶ目を見張るほど膨大な翻訳運動によって，ギリシア，ペルシャ，そしてインドなどの先文明で培われた智慧がアラビヤ語へと翻訳された．
ペルシャ文化への憧憬に端を発するこの翻訳運動はペルシャ人が中華圏から学んだ製紙技術の発展に負うところが多かった．
しかし，ひとたび始まると，古来の文献翻訳へのこの執念は，科学的進歩の黄金時代への幕開けを告げる嚆矢となった．
9世紀半ばまでに翻訳運動はアラビヤ発祥の科学的・哲学的学術の新たな伝統へと発展し，量と質の両面でより多くの翻訳への需要をさらに煽った．
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Enthralling thirst for ideas Led by translation's quill Searching the world with no fear Paving the way for curious minds
翻訳の筆の導ける
叡智への甘やかなる渇望
筆先は恐怖れなく世を探索り
煥発な知者へ道を敷かむ
Roaming the land for ideas Led by translator's will Reading the world becomes clear Paving the way for golden times
訳者の意思に導かれ
叡智を求め大地を巡廻る
解読は世を明らめて
黄金時代へ道を敷かむ
V. COMPENDIUMS He (Al-Ma'mun) was well aware of the treasures to be found in the ancient texts of the Greek philosophers... He would send emissaries great distances to get hold of these scientific texts. Often, foreign rulers defeated in battle would required to settle the terms of surrender to him with books from their libraries rather than in gold. Al-Ma'mun was almost fanatical in his desire to collect all the world's books under one roof, translate them into Arabic and have his scholars study them. The institution he created to realize his dream epitomizes more than anything else the blossoming of the scientific golden age. It became known throughout the world as the House of Wisdom (Bayt al-Hikma)(...) By the middle of the ninth century the House of Wisdom would have become the largest repository of books in the world Ibid
五幕: 大系
彼の王 アル＝マームン は，ギリシャの哲学者たちの古文書の中に宝が眠っていることをよく知っていた．
彼はこうした科学的文書を手に入れるため，遠方に使者を送った．
彼との戦いに敗れた外国の支配者はしばしば，金品でなく図書館の本をもってして降伏条件を決定することを求められた．
アル＝マムンは世界中の書物を一つ屋根の下へと集め，アラビヤ語に翻訳し，学者たちに研究させようという狂信めいた野望を抱いていた．
この夢の実現のため彼が作った施設は，何よりも科学の黄金時代の開花を象徴している．
それは"智慧の館"(Bayt al-Hikma)として世界中に知られるようになった．9世紀半ばには智慧の館は世界最大の蔵書庫になっていた．
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Word by word Scribing compendiums Page by page Crafting compendiums Book by book Gathering compendiums
言葉ごと，言葉ごと
大系は書かれゆく
頁ごと，頁ごと
大系は編まれゆく
書物ごと，書物ごと
大系は積まれゆく
Library filled with compendiums Embracing texts from the past Hints of knowledge are grasped Concepts in fragments, scholars, will craft Sheltered on paper, ideas shall last
書院は大系に満ちたり
過去の文書を腕に抱き
智への端緒は掴まるる
学徒の断章の内に構想は築かれむ
紙に護らるる叡智のとこしえなるべし
VI. STRANDED MINDS ON THE SHORES OF DOUBT By the end of the tenth century the translation movement was coming to an end, the Abbasid Empire was crumbling, less-enlightened caliphs were cracking down on freedom of speech and rationalist enquiry, and the great names associated with the House of Wisdom were already a distant memory. But to infer from this that the golden age of Arabic science was on the wane would be utterly wrong, for the best was yet to come (...) It was during the second half of the tenth century that we saw the three most outstanding thinkers in the history of Islam arriving on the scene Ibid
六幕: 疑念の汀に立ち惑う者
10世紀末までに翻訳運動は終焉を迎え，アッバース帝国は崩壊した．
蒙昧なカリフは言論の自由と合理主義者の知的探求を取り締まり，智慧の館にまつわる偉大な人々の名前はすでに遠い記憶となっていた．
しかし，このことからアラビア科学の黄金時代が衰退しているとする推測は全くの誤りである．
というのも，全盛期はまだ来ていないのだ．イスラームの歴史の中で最も優れた3人の思想家が登場したのは10世紀後半のことだった．
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歌詞なし，インストゥルメンタル
VII. BESIEGED It was in 1258 that the accomplishments of the House of Wisdom and the Islamic Golden Age were brought to a cruel halt. During the Mongol invasion of Baghdad (...) the mosques, libraries, homes and hospitals of the great city were all destroyed. The family of the last Abbasid Caliph Al-Musta'sim, as well as thousands of the city inhabitants, were slaughtered, and the extensive collection of books and manuscripts at the House of Wisdom were thrown in the Tigris. It is said that for days afterwards the river ran black with the ink of books and red with the blood of scholars. It was a tragic ending for one of the most advanced, diverse and progressive cities of the age, and an ending from which it would take Baghdad centuries to recover Isabella Bengoechea - Iraq's Golden Age: The Rise and Fall of the House of Wisdom
七幕: 包囲
1258年，智慧の館とイスラム黄金時代の業績は無残な消滅の憂き目に遭った．
モンゴル帝国のバグダッド侵攻により，この偉大なる都市のモスク，図書館，家，病院はそれぞれすべて破壊された．
最後のカリフ アル=ムスタシムの一族とともに，この街の住民数千人が虐殺され，智慧の館にあった膨大な蔵書や写本はチグリス川へと投げ込まれたのである．
その後何日もの間，川は書物から流れたインクで黒く，学者から流れた血で赤く染まったと伝えられている．
それは，当時最も先進的で多様性に富み，進歩的な都市だったバグダットにとって悲劇的な結末であり、都市の復興には数世紀を要するとも思われた．
"イラクの黄金期 - 智慧の館の興亡 -" Isabella Bengoechea 著
Winds of dogma Have reached the rounded walls The flame of lore has been blown Arrows will, soon, be thrown
異教の風
いよいよ城壁へ到れり
伝承のほむら吹き消されり
矢はやがて放たれむ
Darkened era Will fill the land and souls As life turns black as ink A chapter starts to sink
昏き世は
大地と魂とに満ちるらむ
生は墨のごと黒々く転じ
物語は沈みそむ
Rising storm from the East Circle of archers, intruding beast Trampled furrows of memory Seeds of invasion sowed by enemies
東方より熾れる嵐
射手どもの円陣，けだものどもの侵入
踏みにじらるるは記憶のわだち
侵略の種は仇敵に撒かるる
Blindly burning to decimate Pages to ashes...Cognition's fate Drowned in despotic waters Treasures from minds are lost forever
殺戮に盲いた火炎
頁は灰に，智は骸に
暴虐の水に溺れ
賢者の至宝はとわに失せり
Stream of lore destroyed at last Running, for days, from red to black Scornful dogma Withering era
ついには伝承のせせらぎ果てて
幾日も，流るる，赤きより黒きへと
侮蔑めく教理
凋落の時代
