Posted at 2021.01.23 Category : 未分類
大統領の就任演説は、練りに練って作られた演説でしょうから最高の英語教材になるため本にもなっています。バイデン大統領就任演説も例外ではないはず。深く理解して、発音とか構文とかにとどまらない英語力の底上げを図りたいものです。ここではこの就任演説を説明・分析した記事を以下の観点から紹介します。
日本語訳
レトリック
背景説明
語彙分析
どの日本のメディアも日本語訳を載せているのでありがたいですね。下記リンクはBBCジャパンのもの
2021年1月21日
レトリックについては今後もっと詳しいのが出るでしょうが、以下の記事がまとめていました。音のリズムの良さ、対比、反復をうまく使って、Unityというテーマを伝えようとしたのが今回のバイデン大統領の演説だったようです。
Carmine GalloSenior Contributor
Theme of Unity
Alliteration ex This is a time of testing, the sting of systemic racism
Highlight Differences ex this winter of peril and significant possibilities, American story of hope, not fear
Repetition ex Here we stand…, Here we stand…, Here we stand…
Shared Dreams
就任演説のスクリプトを載せるだけでなく注釈をつけたAnnotatedのものをアメリカ主要メディアは記事にしていました。Washignton PostやWSJを読み比べてみましたがNew York Timesが表現の背景知識も伝えてくれて丁寧でした。一例を紹介します。
President Biden used his Inaugural Address to urge Americans to come together to take on the challenges ahead.
By Glenn Thrush Jan. 20, 2021
President Biden delivered this address on Wednesday after taking the oath of office. These are his remarks as prepared for delivery.
作家・歴史家であるJon Meachamの影響はこのブログでも紹介しましたし、今回の演説でもbetter angelsやsoulなど彼の影響が色濃く出ていますが、聖アウグスチヌスの引用もそうなんですね。
Many centuries ago, Saint Augustine, a saint of my church, wrote that a people was a multitude defined by the common objects of their love. What are the common objects we love that define us as Americans? I think I know. Opportunity. Security. Liberty. Dignity. Respect. Honor. And, yes, the truth.
GLENN THRUSH:
Mr. Biden, a Catholic who attended a Mass in Washington before his inauguration, has been known to invoke his faith not only in speeches but in day-to-day planning and policy conversations with staff. This quote, from an early church philosopher, has often been used to rally people to address the needs of the poor — and is not infrequently invoked by Mr. Biden’s adviser Jon Meacham, a historian and speechwriter.
ただ聖アウグスチヌスなんてものを引用してしまうと「けっ。ペッペっ」と過激派たちが拒否反応を示さないか心配です。反対に、キリスト教の聖人ですから彼らの心に届くという計算があるのでしょうか。。。
ここからは英語の語彙分析をした記事をいくつか紹介します。まずは語数から。TOEICのテスト一回分の語数の半分以下ですので心のブロックを取り除きたいものです。
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At 2,552 words, Biden's speech was about average in length when compared to the 58 other inaugural speeches delivered by U.S. presidents.
The shortest inaugural speech was delivered by George Washington in 1793.
William Henry Harrison -- who also served as Indiana territorial governor -- holds the record for the longest speech, delivering 8,460 words during his 1841 inaugural ceremony. A month later Harrison developed pneumonia and became the first president to die while in office. His illness had been attributed to prolonged exposure to the bad weather on Inauguration Day, but modern historians and public health experts believe it was caused by a contaminated water supply at the White House.
ある単語が何回登場したのかを数えるのは専用ソフトがあれば簡単にできますので、記事としては書きやすいでしょう。まずはdemocracyという言葉に注目したもの。歴史のIfですが1月6日の事件がなければここまで言及したのかどうか。。。
PUBLISHED WED, JAN 20 20215:49 PM ESTUPDATED THU, JAN 21 20218:12 AM EST
Nate Rattner @NATERATTNER
President Joe Biden delivered an inaugural address that used the word “democracy” more times than any other inauguration speech, according to a CNBC analysis of speeches from the American Presidency Project.
That ranks ahead of addresses from Harry Truman, who said “democracy” nine times in his 1949 address, and Franklin D. Roosevelt, who did the same during his third swearing-in ceremony in 1941.
購読者専用の記事の紹介となり申し訳ないですが、以下の記事はバイデン大統領の就任演説でよく使われた語、バイデンが就任演説で初めて使った語を紹介したものです。コロナ禍で白人至上主義の暴力の影響が演説にも表れています。
By Ted Mellnik and Adrian Blanco
January 20 at 8:19 PM
In an inauguration unlike any other, President Biden’s words made history in two ways.
As he surveyed the challenges the nation faces, Biden used words such as inequity, pandemic and extremism, downbeat words never said before in any previous inaugural address going back to George Washington’s in 1789.
And yet the new president also repeated, more than any predecessor, hopeful words, referring to America and love as he shared his vision for the country and pleaded for unity. More than a quarter of all inaugural mentions of unity came on Wednesday from Biden.
単に単語の登場回数を数えるだけでなく、もっと深く語彙分析を進めていたのが以下の記事。読むのが辛いという方はグラフだけでも眺めて欲しいです。以下、グラフのキャプションを引用します。
New Statesman data analysis shows that the new president also put an unprecedented focus on public health and unity.
BY BEN VAN DER MERWE AND PATRICK SCOTT
The constitution hasn’t featured so heavily in an inaugural address since the Great Depression
Biden’s inaugural address focused heavily on issues of citizenship and the democratic process
Biden’s inaugural address was the angriest ever
Level of anger in US presidents’ inaugural addresses, based on sentiment analysis
No inaugural speech has ever centred as much on unity
Uses of the word ‘unity’ in US presidents’ inaugural addresses
Never before has public health dominated an inaugural address
Stand-out topics from inaugural speeches of US presidents
なぜ今回の就任演説がthe angriest everなのか、“lawlessness”や “extremism” という単語が使われているからというものでした。sentiment analysisの有効性をばかにするのは容易いですが、この記事は文章の意味も読み込みつつ語彙分布をみていますので興味深い内容になっています。
Instead, Biden’s focus was on home-grown issues. He showed no reticence in naming white supremacy as a threat to the country’s democracy – the first time the term has ever been used in an inaugural address. In addition, the New Statesman’s analysis found that Biden’s was the angriest inaugural address of those surveyed, based on his use of words such as “lawlessness” and “extremism” to describe the state of the country.
Though anger was far from the over-riding emotion in Biden’s speech, the president was unusually forthright in his criticisms of the current state of US politics compared to the far more abstract focus of most prior addresses.
At the same time, no president has ever made so many appeals to unity during their inauguration. “To overcome these challenges, to restore the soul and secure the future of America, requires so much more than words,” Biden said. “It requires the most elusive of all things in a democracy: unity.”
これまでの就任演説で登場しなかった言葉の一つにAnthemがあります。これはバイデン大統領が演説のクライマックスで引用したAmerican Anthemという曲があったから。訳はBBCジャパンからの引用です。
Will we master this rare and difficult hour? Will we meet our obligations and pass along a new and better world to our children? I believe we must. I’m sure you do as well. I believe we will.
And when we do, we’ll write the next great chapter in the history of the United States of America, the American story, a story that might sound something like a song that means a lot to me.
It’s called “American Anthem.”
There’s one verse that stands out, at least for me, and it goes like this.
“The work and prayers of century have brought us to this day. What shall be our legacy, what will our children say. Let me know in my heart when my days are through. America, America, I gave my best to you. Let’s add, let’s us add our own work and prayers to the unfolding story of our great nation. If we do this, then when our days were through, our children and our children’s children will say of us, they gave their best. They did their duty. They healed a broken land.”
希少で厳しいこの時を克服するのか。責任を果たして、より良い新しい世界を子どもたちに引き継ぐのか。そうしなくてはならないと私は思いますし、皆さんも同じはずです。できるはずだと思いますし、それができた時に私たちはアメリカ合衆国の歴史に次の偉大な章を書き足すことになります。アメリカの物語に。
その物語は歌のように響くものかもしれません。私にとってとても大切な歌です。「American Anthem（アメリカ賛歌）」という曲で（訳:ジーン・シア作曲、ノラ・ジョーンズのカバーが有名）、少なくとも私には特に印象的な歌詞があります。
「100年の働きと祈りがこの日をもたらした。私たちは何を残し、子どもたちは何と言うのか」
「私の人生が終わる時、アメリカよ、アメリカよ、君に最善を捧げたと自分が納得できていますように」
私たちもこの偉大な国で繰り広げられている物語に、自分たちの働きと祈りを加えましょう。そうすれば、自分の人生が終わる時、子どもたちや、子どもの子どもたちがこう言ってくれます。「自分の最善を捧げ、自分の義務を果たした、壊れた国を癒やした」のだと。
GLENN THRUSH:
The 2007 song “American Anthem,” performed by Norah Jones and written by Gene Scheer, has become something of a Washington baby boomer staple.
先ほどのニューヨークタイムズの注釈記事では上記のように紹介してくれてVarietyの紹介記事をリンクしてくれていました。バイデンが初めて引用しましたが、Washington baby boomer stapleとあるように1998年に作られて以降いろいろな場面で歌われた曲のようです。
Jan 20, 2021 9:36am PT
By Jem Aswad
オバマ的な融和した未来のアメリカの希望を描くのではなく、Unityを示した最高の例として第二次世界大戦の頃のアメリカに希望を託したバイデン。これはこれで右派も文句を言えないでしょう。演説冒頭のA day of history and hope.を体現した曲として選ばれたのかもしれません。NYTの注釈記事の引用です。
A day of history and hope. Of renewal and resolve.
GLENN THRUSH:
Mr. Biden’s commingling of “history and hope” was noteworthy — a nod to his partnership with President Barack Obama, who ran on a hope-and-change platform with Mr. Biden, an aging senator who was thought to be washed up when Mr. Obama enlisted him as his running mate in 2008. The “renewal” is a shift back to Obama-era governance.
最後に個人的な感想を。ちょっと前に焚き火のイメージに重ねてアメリカの状況をYutaは書いたのですが、バイデン大統領もそのあたりを心配していました。Politics doesn't have to be a raging fire destroying everything in its pathの部分を読み解いているCNNの記事。
Analysis by Chris Cillizza, CNN Editor-at-large
Updated 2101 GMT (0501 HKT) January 20, 2021
(CNN)About halfway through his inauguration speech, President Joe Biden said something very important about the work of Washington -- and how he envisions his presidency.
"Politics doesn't have to be a raging fire destroying everything in its path," Biden insisted. "Every disagreement doesn't have to be a cause for total war."
もちろん回顧趣味に陥っているわけではありません。22歳の詩人アマンダ・ゴーマンの詩は瑞々しい希望を与えるものでした。この辺のバランス感覚がバイデンの真骨頂なのかもしれません。
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