ボブ・ディランが韻を踏みながらどれだけ巧みにストーリー・テリングをしているかをわかって欲しくて訳した。
文末に注目して、ローリング・サンダー・レビューに入っているやつを聴きながら読んでほしい。
https://itunes.apple.com/jp/album/hurricane-live/id292026137?i=292026423
Hurricane*1
Pistol shots ring out*2 in the barroom night
Enter Patty Valentine from the upper hall
She sees the bartender in a pool of blood
Cries out, “My God, they killed them all!”
Here comes the story of the Hurricane
The man the authorities came to blame
For somethin’ that he never done
Put in a prison cell, but one time he could-a been
夜の酒場に銃声が鳴る
「マイ・ゴッド、みんな殺されてる」彼女は叫ぶ
決してしてはいないことのために
かつては世界チャンピオンだったというのに
Three bodies lyin’ there does Patty see
And another man named Bello, movin’ around mysteriously
“I didn’t do it,” he says, and he throws up his hands
“I was only robbin’ the register, I hope you understand
I saw them leavin’,” he says, and he stops
“One of us had better call up the cops”
And so Patty calls the cops
And they arrive on the scene with their red lights flashin’
In the hot New Jersey night
三人の死体が転がっていた
もう一人、怪しげに動くベローという男
「俺はやってない」彼は両手を挙げた
俺は犯人たちを見た」そう言って止まった
「警察を呼んだほうが良さそうだ」
赤いランプを光らせて彼らはやってきた
Meanwhile, far away in another part of town
Rubin Carter and a couple of friends are drivin’ around
Number one contender for the middleweight crown
Had no idea what kinda shit was about to go down
When a cop pulled him over to the side of the road
Just like the time before and the time before that
In Paterson that’s just the way things go
If you’re black you might as well not show up on the street
そのときも、またその前も
パターソンではこのように物ごとが運ぶ
黒人は外出しない方がいい
面倒ごとに巻き込まれたくなければ
Alfred Bello had a partner and he had a rap for the cops
Him and Arthur Dexter Bradley were just out prowlin’ around
He said, “I saw two men runnin’ out, they looked like middleweights*3
They jumped into a white car with out-of-state plates”
And Miss Patty Valentine just nodded her head
Cop said, “Wait a minute, boys, this one’s not dead”
So they took him to the infirmary
And though this man could hardly see
They told him that he could identify the guilty men
彼とアーサー・デクスター・ブラッドレーはちょうど獲物を物色中だった
「二人の男が走っていきました、中肉中背に見えました。
奴らは州外ナンバーの白い車に乗り込みました」
おまわりが言った「おい、こいつは死んでないぞ」
見えない男なのに
面通しをするように言った
Four in the mornin’ and they haul Rubin in
Take him to the hospital and they bring him upstairs
The wounded man looks up through his one dyin’ eye
Says, “Wha’d you bring him in here for? He ain’t the guy!”
Yes, here’s the story of the Hurricane
The man the authorities came to blame
For somethin’ that he never done
Put in a prison cell, but one time he could-a been
午前４時、連中はルービンをしょっ引いた
負傷者の男は死んだ片目で見上げる
「どうして彼を連れてきた？犯人じゃないぜ！」
決してしてはいないことのために
かつては世界チャンピオンだったというのに
Four months later, the ghettos are in flame
Rubin’s in South America, fightin’ for his name
While Arthur Dexter Bradley’s still in the robbery game
And the cops are puttin’ the screws to him, lookin’ for somebody to blame
“Remember that murder that happened in a bar?”
“Remember you said you saw the getaway car?”
“You think you’d like to play ball with the law?”
“Think it might-a been that fighter that you saw runnin’ that night?”
“Don’t forget that you are white”
４か月後、ゲットーは炎の中
警察は彼を搾りあげている、責める者を探して
「バーでの殺人事件は覚えているな？」
「逃走車を目撃したと言ったよな？」
「司法取引がしたいんだろう？」
「お前が白人ということを忘れるな」
Arthur Dexter Bradley said, “I’m really not sure”
Cops said, “A poor boy like you could use a break
We got you for the motel job and we’re talkin’ to your friend Bello
Now you don’t wanta have to go back to jail, be a nice fellow
You’ll be doin’ society a favor
That sonofabitch is brave and gettin’ braver
We want to put his ass in stir
We want to pin this triple murder on him
He ain’t no Gentleman Jim*4”
警察は言った「哀れなやつ、少し考えるんだ。
モーテルの仕事につけてやるし、友だちのベローにも話はつけてある。
さあ、豚箱に戻りたくないだろう、いい子になれよ。
社会のためになるんだぞ。
あのクソ野郎はどんどん勇敢になっていく。
我々はあいつをぶち込んでやりたい。
三人の殺人容疑を負わせてな。
Rubin could take a man out with just one punch
But he never did like to talk about it all that much
It’s my work, he’d say, and I do it for pay
And when it’s over I’d just as soon go on my way
Up to some paradise
Where the trout*5 streams flow and the air is nice
And ride a horse along a trail
But then they took him to the jailhouse
Where they try to turn a man into a mouse
そんなことをろくに自慢したことはなかった
それが終わったら、好きなことをやるのさ
楽園に行って
鱒がいる川が流れ、空気がおいしいところ
山の小道沿いに馬に乗って
だけど連中は彼を牢獄に連れて行った
All of Rubin’s cards were marked in advance
The trial was a pig-circus, he never had a chance
The judge made Rubin’s witnesses drunkards from the slums
To the white folks who watched he was a revolutionary bum
And to the black folks he was just a crazy nigger
No one doubted that he pulled the trigger
And though they could not produce the gun
The D.A. said he was the one who did the deed
連中に証拠の銃を作ることはできなかったけれど
Rubin Carter was falsely tried
The crime was murder “one,” guess who testified?
Bello and Bradley and they both baldly lied
And the newspapers, they all went along for the ride
How can the life of such a man
Be in the palm of some fool’s hand?
To see him obviously framed
Couldn’t help but make me feel ashamed to live in a land
ルービンのような男の命をどうやって
彼は明らかにハメられた
Now all the criminals in their coats and their ties
Are free to drink martinis and watch the sun rise
While Rubin sits like Buddha in a ten-foot cell
An innocent man in a living hell
That’s the story of the Hurricane
But it won’t be over till they clear his name
And give him back the time he’s done
Put in a prison cell, but one time he could-a been
決して終わらない
かつては世界チャンピオンだったというのに