What will your verse be?

定期購読しているNew Yorkerの今週号の裏表紙が上記のiPad Airの広告でした。iPadの用途の多様性を示す一例として相撲部屋の使用例が挙げられています。キャプションは以下の通り。

In a training facility in Japan, an iPad allows sumo wrestlers to analyze their movements frame by frame. So they can refine their technique and find the perfect angle of attack.

相撲部屋がtraining facility in Japanとなっています。ついついtraining facilityを見るとフィットネスセンターみたいな運動施設をイメージしてしまいますが、相撲部屋みたいのにも使えるんですね。一応Wikipediaの説明も確認しておきます。

（相撲部屋の英語版Wikipedia）
In sumo wrestling, a heya (部屋?, lit. "room"; here as sumō-beya, usually translated into English as stable or training quarters[1]) is an organization of sumo wrestlers where they train and live. All wrestlers in professional sumo must belong to one. There are currently 43 heya (as of November 2013),[2] all but four of which belong to one of five ichimon (groupings of heya). They vary in size, with the largest heya having over thirty wrestlers and smallest just two. Most heya are based in and around the Ryōgoku district of Tokyo, sumo's traditional heartland, although the high price of land has led to some newer heya being built in other parts of Tokyo or its suburbs.

英語表現的な感想で言えば、an iPad allows sumo wrestlers to analyze their movements frame by frameのように動詞allowを使いこなせればネイティブっぽいですね。文章を多少変えましたが、allows you to do many useful thingsのような表現がTOEICにもありました。

This software allows you to do many useful things, such as create a web page, collaborate around a project.

この動詞allowに近い使われ方をするのが動詞enableでしょうか。

（ケンブリッジビジネス）
enable
› to make someone or something able to do something, or to make something possible:
enable sb/sth to do sth
This software will enable us to track orders more efficiently.
Recent technology has enabled the development of cheaper digital radios.

このような動詞を使えば一文で済ませられ、簡潔な英文が書けるようになりますので、意識して使えるようになりたいです。どうしてもIf we use this software, we can track orders more efficiently.と冗長に書きやすいんですよね。



相撲の広告は１月から始まっていた広告キャンペーンの一環のようです。ちょっと嫌みな始まりの記事ですが。。。

Apple’s Walt Whitman-Quoting iPad Air Commercial: A Little Corny?
Rob Walker
Tech Columnist
Jan 13, 2014

It’s been a while since Apple offered us a thrilling new product innovation — but at least the company has kept up a steady stream of glossy and attention-getting ads.

The latest debuted over the weekend, touting the iPad Air as a magical tool for creativity and progress. A minute-and-a-half montage offers a barrage of examples: explorers, photographers, musicians, children and sumo wrestlers do amazing things, thanks to this device. While all this flits by, we hear a monologue about poetry, quoting (a truncated version of) Walt Whitman’s “O Me! O Life!” promising us that “The powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.” It ends with a question: “What will your verse be?”

上記の記事ではこのセリフの元になっている映画『いまを生きる』(Dead Poets Society)の動画も紹介してくれています。前のブログでも紹介したものですね。



“What will your verse be?”はAppleの日本のサイトでは「あなたの物語は何ですか？」となっていました。

この記事では、Appleの広告に込められたメッセージはiPadをウェブ検索や映画を見たりして受動的に使うのではなく、もっと主体的に創造的に使って欲しいというものだと語っています。

Then again, a slogan is exactly what it is here, and I certainly understand Apple’s larger goal. In real life, most people probably think of the iPad as something for reading, watching movies, playing games — consuming. Apple has always pushed the idea that its products don’t merely improve individual lives; they improve society, culture and the world. They are not for the passive masses, but for creative mavericks.

Certainly this spot fits that pattern. In fact it fits it so neatly that it feels, to me, pretty flat: safe, rote, expressing a sentiment that nobody could seriously disagree with. But maybe that’s what happens when the maverick idea goes mass.