本講座のねらい

どの文化においても，ことわざは人生の機微を巧みに表現するものとして，古くから人々に言いならわされてきました．英語文化においても例外ではなく，古英語期よりことわざが尊ばれ，ことわざ集が編まれてきました．現代に伝わる英語のことわざを学ぶことにより，英語文化で培われてきた人生の知恵を味わえるばかりではなく，英語そのものの深い理解に達することができることは，あまり気づかれていません．ことわざの英語には，太古より存続してきた英語特有の韻律があり，古英語や中英語に起源をもつ英語らしい文法・語法が息づいています．

例えば，「塵も積もれば山となる」に対応する Many a little makes a mickle. は，古英語に典型的な頭韻という詩法と強弱音節の繰り返しという韻律が見事に調和した，言語的にも優れたことわざです．「地獄の沙汰も金次第」に相当する Money makes a mare to go. では，使役の make にもかかわらず to 不定詞が用いられており，現代の文法からは逸脱しているように思われますが，ここにも韻律上の効果を認めることができます．

本講座の前半では，千年以上にわたる英語のことわざの歴史を具体例とともにひもとき，後半では現代まで受け継がれてきた英語のことわざに用いられている様々な言語的な技法を読み解くことにより，現代に残る数々のことわざをこれまで以上に楽しむことを目指します．

Art is long, life is short.

1. 「芸術は長く人生は短し」
2. 中英語：The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne. (Parlement of Foules)
3. ラテン語：Ars long, vita brevis.
4. 古代ギリシアの医学者ヒポクラテスが，医学を究める道の長さを嘆いた言葉
5. 形式・内容ともにヴァリエーションを経てきた
6. 対句の形式，対比の内容に注意
7. 強弱リズム (trochee) に注意
8. 特に中英語版の頭韻 (alliteration) に注意

英語ことわざに関する辞書・書籍の紹介

1. 英語ことわざ辞書の決定版：Speake, Jennifer, ed. The Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs. 6th ed. Oxford: OUP, 2015.
2. その和訳：ジェニファー・スピーク（編），澤田 治美（監訳），赤羽 美鳥・杉山 正二（訳）　『オックスフォード英語ことわざ・名言辞典』　柊風社，2017年．
3. 英語ことわざ入門書：ロナルド・ライダゥト／クリフォード・ウィティング（著），中西 秀男（訳）　『常識としての英語の諺800』　北星堂，1973年．
4. 注目の近著：安藤 邦男　『ことわざから探る　英米人の知恵と考え方』　開拓社，2018年．（紹介HPから，索引その他のことわざ一覧をダウンロードできる）

「ことわざ」「金言」「格言」など（『広辞苑第六版』より）

1. ことわざ：古くから人々に言いならわされたことば．教訓・諷刺などの意を寓した短句や秀句．
2. 金言：古人の残した、模範となる尊い言葉．格言．金句．
3. 格言：深い経験を踏まえ、簡潔に表現したいましめの言葉．金言．箴言（しんげん）．
4. 箴言：いましめとなる短い句．格言．
5. 俚諺：俗間のことわざ．民間で言いならわされてきたことわざ．
6. 警句：人生・社会・文化などについて真理を簡潔な中に鋭く表現した語句．「水清ければ魚棲まず」の類．アフォリズム．「―を吐く」

proverb, saying, maxim, etc. (OALD8)

1. proverb: a well-known phrase or sentence that gives advice or says sth that is generally true, for example "Waste not, want not".
2. saying: a well-known phrase or statement that expresses sth about life that most people believe is wise and true. . . . A saying is any kind of phrase used to express an idea that people believe to be wise or true. A proverb is a traditional saying that is usually expressed as a metaphor (= in terms of sth else): Don't count your chickens before they are hatched.
3. maxim: a well-known phrase that expresses sth that is usually true or that people think is a rule for sensible behaviour.
4. adage: a well-known phrase expressing a general truth about people or the world.
5. aphorism: a short phrase that says sth true or wise
6. motto: a short sentence or phrase that expresses the aims and beliefs of a person, a group, an institution, etc. and is used as a rule of behaviour.
7. slogan: a word or phrase that is easy to remember, used for example by a political party or in advertising to attract people's attention or to suggest an idea quickly.

英単語 proverb の語源

1. 中英語（14世紀） proverbe(n) ← 古フランス語 proverbe < ラテン語 prōverbium (prō- "(put) forth" + verbum "word")
2. 初例：What man that hath freendes thurgh fortune, Mishap wol make hem enemys, I gesse; This prouerbe is ful sooth and ful commune. (c1375, Chaucer Monk's Tale)
3. 動詞としても：Thise wise clerkes that ben dede Han evere..proverbed to us yonge That 'firste vertu is to kepe tonge'. (c1385, Chaucer Troilus & Criseyde)
4. 形容詞形 proverbial の語義に注意 (OALD8)：
1. [only before noun] used to show that you are referring to a particular proverb or well-known phrase: Let's not count our proverbial chickens. He drinks like the proverbial fish.
2. [not usually before noun] well known and talked about by a lot of people; famous: Their hospitality is proverbial.

英語ことわざ史 (#2691)

1. 最古の英語ことわざ集：Proverbs of Alfred (c. 1150--80) （修道院，修辞学の学校，説教などで広められた）
2. 中世から初期近代まで：賢き知恵として尊ばれた
3. 16--17世紀：文学や雄弁術の華として（John Heywood によることわざの戯曲（1546年），Michael Drayton によることわざのソネット，下院でのことわざの演説）
4. 18世紀以降：陳腐な表現として軽蔑の対象に
5. しかし，一般民衆の間では生活の知恵としてことわざ文化が存続

英語ことわざの起源 (#3321)

1. 英語本来：It never rains but it pours. （降れば必ずどしゃ降り；1726年）
2. 古典語由来：There's many a slip 'twixt cup and lip. （コップを口に持っていく間にも多くのしくじりがある；油断大敵；1539年）
3. フランス語由来：Nothing succeeds like success. （一事成れば万事成る；1867年；cf. #2395）
4. 日本語由来：The frog in the well knows nothing of the sea. （井の中の蛙大海を知らず；1918年）
5. 現代アメリカ：The opera isn't over till the fat lady sings. （太った女性が歌うまでオペラは終らない；事は最後の最後までわからない；1978年）

英語ことわざの内容による分類 (#3320)

1. 一般的真理：Absence makes the heart grow fonder. Nature abhors a vacuum.
2. 日常の経験に基づく種々の観察：You can take a horse to water, but you can't make him drink. Don't put all your eggs in one basket.
3. 伝統的な知恵や民間伝承（古典語からの翻訳が多い）：After dinner rest a while, after supper walk a mile. Feed a cold and starve a fever. Red sky at night, shepherd's delight; red sky in the morning, shepherd's warning.

英語ことわざのキーワード，トップ50 (#3419)

is, makes, good, man, cannot, a, never, you, love, wise, better, thief, devil, ill, than, fool, horse, no, truth, fortune, sweet, adversity, evil, make, shall, travels, friend, every, don't, beauty, knows, not, money, neighbor, speak, words, will, worth, fair, hath, best, blind, deceives, dog, longest, comes, honor, man's, great, bread

＊参考　日本語ことわざの語彙 (#3336)

キーワード入りことわざの例 (#3420)

1. No man better knows what good is than he who has endured evil.
2. See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.
3. Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; show him how to catch fish and you feed him for a lifetime.
4. Better the devil you know than the devil you don't know.
5. A good neighbor is better than a brother far off.
6. It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.
7. Half a loaf is better than no bread.
8. Better be the head of a dog than the tail of a horse.
9. A wise man changes his mind, a fool never.
10. A man of words and not of deeds is like a garden full of weeds.
11. A man may lead (or take) a horse to the water but he cannot make him drink.
12. A good wife and health is a man's best wealth.
13. Where there is a will, there is a way.
14. We may not expect a good whelp from an ill dog.
15. The good you do for others is good you do yourself.

英語ことわざの短さ (#3421)

Corpus	Proverbs	BE06
tokens (running words) in text	6,276	1,011,020
types (distinct words)	1,616	45,298
type/token ratio (TTR)	25.75	4.48
standardised TTR	45.25	43.90
STTR std.dev.	46.42	54.62
STTR basis	1,000	1,000
mean word length (in characters)	4.09	4.69
word length std.dev.	1.92	2.58
sentences	869	53,466
mean (in words)	7.22	18.91
std.dev.	2.86	14.38
1-letter words	292	38,775
2-letter words	1,020	168,273
3-letter words	1,345	205,211
4-letter words	1,370	166,961
5-letter words	996	110,856
6-letter words	553	88,195
7-letter words	359	79,174
8-letter words	163	56,645
9-letter words	96	39,767
10-letter words	53	26,170
11-letter words	17	15,493
12-letter words	6	8,208
13-letter words	4	4,557
14-letter words	1	1,687
15-letter words	1	623

短いことわざの例（短文，句，省略）

1. Time flies.
2. Life is sweet.
3. Love is blind.
4. Talk is cheap.
5. Time is money.
6. Live and learn.
7. Time has wings.
8. Blood will tell.
9. Divide and rule.
10. Walls have ears.
11. Deeds, not words.
12. Love begets love.
13. Revenge is sweet.
14. Haste makes waste.
15. Love conquers all.
16. Make haste slowly.
17. Poverty is no sin.
18. Union is strength.
19. Boys, be ambitious.
20. Divide and conquer.

参考　長いことわざもある

1. It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.
2. Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; show him how to catch fish and you feed him for a lifetime.
3. Love does not consist in gazing at each other, but in looking together in the same direction.
4. In time of prosperity, friends will be plenty; in time of adversity, not one amongst twenty.
5. If a man deceives me once, shame on him; if he deceives me twice, shame on me.

対義ことわざ

A good beginning makes a good ending.	←→	All is well that ends well.
A little learning is a dangerous thing.	←→	It is better to know something than to know nothing.
An occasion lost cannot be redeemed.	←→	Tomorrow is another day.
One is never too old to learn.	←→	You can't teach an old dog new tricks.
The tailor makes the man.	←→	The cowl (or hood) does not make the monk.
Experience is a good (or the best) teacher.	←→	Experience is the teacher of fools.
Love is a flower which turns into fruit at marriage.	←→	Marriage is the tomb of love.
Many hands make light work.	←→	Too many cooks spoil the broth.

「それぞれの状況のそれぞれの段階における知恵ですから，けっして矛盾しているわけではありません．それぞれの段階に応じて重点の置き方が違っているだけであって，どちらも真実なのです．」（安藤，p. 12）

頭韻 (alliteration)

1. 頭韻を踏む2項イディオム (#953)：public and private, rules and regulations, pots and pans, command and control, flora and fauna, free and fair, death and destruction, go and get, safety and security, signs and symptoms, fame and fortune, families and friends, fresh or frozen, peace and prosperity, past and present, quantity and quality, morbidity and mortality, slowly but surely, professional and personal, name and number, facts and figures, pencil and paper, state and society, small but significant, clear and convincing
2. 脚韻を踏む2項イディオム (#954)：positive and negative, national and international, internal and external, Friday and Saturday, teaching and learning, gifted and talented, elementary and secondary, hunting and fishing, personal and professional, presence or absence, reliability and validity, coming and going, winners and losers, physical and psychological, formal and informal, directly and indirectly, advantages and disadvantages, rising and falling, physically and mentally, buyers and sellers
3. 頭韻と脚韻を踏む2項イディオム (#955)：Saturday and Sunday, personal and professional, himself or herself, quantity and quality, morbidity and mortality, quantitative and qualitative, security and stability, best and brightest, latitude and longitude, sixteenth and seventeenth, whenever and wherever, sensitivity and specificity, watching and waiting, majority and minority, basketball and baseball, fight or flight, ranting and raving, forties and fifties, cooperation and coordination, nature and nurture, pushing and pulling, tossing and turning, twisting and turning, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, skiers and snowboarders, communication and collaboration, cooking and cleaning, psychiatrists and psychologists, biggest and best, development and deployment, slipping and sliding, communication and cooperation, Dungeons and Dragons, heterosexual and homosexual, healthier and happier, grandmother and grandfather, stopping and starting, sixteen or seventeen, hooting and hollering, competence and confidence, stalactites and stalagmites, waxing and waning, positive and productive, reading and rereading, patience and perseverance, bedroom and bathroom, consultation and collaboration, going and getting, grandfather and grandmother, protection and promotion
4. 俚諺的直喩 (#943)：as blind as a bat, as bold as brass, as brisk as a bee, as clear as crystal, as cool as a cucumber, as dead as a door-nail, as dry as dust, as fit as a fiddle, as good as gold, as green as grass, as hungry as a hawk, as mad as a March hare, as queer as a Quaker, as strong as Samson, as sweet as summer

頭韻とことわざ (#943)

1. The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne. (Parlement of Foules)
2. Birth is much but breeding is more.
3. Care killed the cat.
4. Look before you leap.
5. Soon ripe, soon rotten.
6. Wilful waste makes woeful want.

強勢リズム

1. 英語の強勢リズムの基本は「弱強」 (iamb) か「強弱」 (trochee) の連鎖
2. The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne.
3. After dinner rest a while, after supper walk a mile.
4. Spare the rod and spoil the child.
5. Many a little makes a mickle.
6. Money makes the mare to go.
7. Handsome is as handsome does.

Many a little makes a mickle. (#564)

1. 「塵も積もれば山となる」
2. 頭韻と強弱リズムに注目
3. many a という表現 (cf. each, every) (#832)
4. mickle とは？ (cf. much) (#1557)
5. 妙なヴァリエーション: Many a mickle makes a muckle. (#3322)
6. 音感覚性 (phonaesthesia) の妙味 (#242)

Money makes the mare to go. (##970,978)

1. 「お金は（しぶとい）雌馬をも歩かせる（＝地獄の沙汰も金次第）」
2. 頭韻と強弱リズムに注目
3. 使役の make なのに to 不定詞？
4. Cf. His joke made her laugh. vs She was made to laugh by his joke.
5. 歴史的に両方可能だった事実，及び強弱リズムの圧力

Handsome is as handsome does. (#3319)

1. 「立派な行いの人は美しい」「見目より心」
2. 強弱リズムに注目 (cf. 自己頭韻)
3. "Handsome is he who does handsomely" ほどの意
4. ヴァリエーションとして：
1. c 1580 A. MUNDAY View of sundry Examples in J. P. Collier John A Kent (1851) 78 As the ancient adage is, goodly is he that goodly dooth.
2. 1659 N. R. Proverbs 49 He is handsome that handsome doth.
3. 1766 GOLDSMITH Vicar of Wakefield i. They are as heaven made them, handsome enough if they be good enough; for handsome is that handsome does.
4. 1845 Spirit of Times 23 Aug. 297 Handsome is as handsome does.
5. 1873 C. M. YONGE Pillars of House II. xvii. 'Don't you think her much better looking than Alda?' 'If handsome is that handsome does.'
6. 1979 A. WILLIAMSON Funeral March for Siegfried xxiv. 'But he's such a handsome, chivalrous, man.' Handsome is as handsome does, thought York grimly.

One man's meat is another man's poison.

1. 「甲の薬は乙の毒」「人の好みはさまざま」
2. meat は古英語では「食物；食事」の意．13世紀以降「肉」の意に限定されてきた．(#780)
3. 「意味の特殊化」と呼ばれる意味変化の典型例 (#473)
4. 古い語義が生き残っている語句：
1. before [after] meat 「食前［食後］に」
2. green meat 「青物」
3. meat and drink 「飲食物」 cf. meat and drink to sb 「〜にとって何よりの楽しみ」
4. sit down to meat 「食卓につく」
5. sweetmeat 「砂糖菓子」

One swallow does not make a summer.

1. 「ツバメが一羽きたとて夏にはならない」「一斑を見て全豹を卜すべからず」
2. ラテン語では「春」: una hirundo non facit ver.
3. イギリスではツバメは4月に来て9月に南方へ去る．
4. 四季を表わす語の歴史 (#1221; 「イギリス英語の autumn とアメリカ英語の fall ―― 複線的思考のすすめ」)
   
   

日英（東西）ことわざ比較（安藤，第8章より）

［多弁型］ Don't beat about the bush. Call a spade a spade.	←→	［寡黙型］口は災の元．秘すれば花．
［行動型］ Do to others as you would be done by. （『マタイ伝』『ルカ伝』）	←→	［慎重型］己の欲せざる所を人に施すこと勿れ．（『論語』）
［攻撃型］ Offense is the best defense.	←→	［守勢型］和をもって尊しとなす．（聖徳太子）
［経験主義］ Experience without learning is better than learning without experience.	←→	［権威主義］学若し成らずんば死すとも帰らず．温故知新．
［個人主義］ Who spits against heaven, it falls in his face.	←→	［集団主義］一蓮托生．親の因果が子に報い．
［罪を意識］ Religion is the rule of life.	←→	［世間を意識］生きて虜囚の恥かしめを受けず．忠臣は二君に仕えず．

聖書に由来することわざ

1. You cannot serve God and mammon. (Matt. 6:24)
2. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. (Matt. 26:41)
3. The labourer is worthy of his hire. (Luke 10:7)
4. A soft answer turneth away wrath. (Prov. 15:1)
5. Sow the wind and reap the whirlwind. (Hos. 8:7)
6. Spare the rod and spoil the child. (Prov. 13:23)
7. You cannot make bricks without straw. (Exod. 5)
8. その他，聖書に由来する表現は多数 (#1439)

古いことわざ（古英語・中英語より）

1. Hwa is thet mei thet hors wettrien the him-self nule drinken? (Old English Homilies)
2. Nis nawer nan so wis mon / That me ne mai bi-swiken. (Layamon)
3. Euer so the hul is more and herre, so the wind is more theron. (Ancrene Riwle) (方言形 hul について #1812)
4. Wel fight that wel specth --- seide Alvred. (Owl and Nightingale)
5. Strong hit is to rowe ayeyn the see that floweth, So hit is to swynke ayeyn un-ylimpe. (Prov. of Alfred)
6. More honour is, faire to sterve, Than in servage vyliche to serve. (Kyng Alisaunder)
7. Tel thou neuer thy fo that thy fot aketh. (Hending)
8. The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne. (Parlement of Foules)
9. Hit is not al gold, that glareth. (Hous of Fame)
10. Mordre wol out. (Canterbury Tales) (方言形 wol について ##89,1298)

まとめ

1. 英語ことわざの起源と歴史
2. 英語ことわざの形式・内容の特徴
3. 英語ことわざを英語史の観点から解釈・玩味

参考文献

• OALD8 = Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary. 8th ed. Oxford: OUP, 2013.
• Simpson, J. A., ed. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs. Oxford: OUP, 1892.
• Skeat, Walter W., ed. Early English Proverbs, Chiefly of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries, with Illustrative Quotations. Oxford: Clarendon, 1910.
• Speake, Jennifer, ed. The Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs. 6th ed. Oxford: OUP, 2015.
• 安藤 邦男　『ことわざから探る　英米人の知恵と考え方』　開拓社，2018年．
• 木下 哲生　『ことわざにうそはない？』　アリス館，1997年．
• ジェニファー・スピーク（編），澤田 治美（監訳），赤羽 美鳥・杉山 正二（訳）　『オックスフォード英語ことわざ・名言辞典』　柊風社，2017年．
• 寺澤 芳雄 (編集主幹)　『英語語源辞典』　研究社，1997年．
• ロナルド・ライダゥト／クリフォード・ウィティング（著），中西 秀男（訳）　『常識としての英語の諺800』　北星堂，1973年．