Milton

    Kadotettu Paratiisi

   

John Milton (1608-1674) julkaisi Raamatun alkulukuihin perustuvan runokokoelman 1667. Vergiliuksen Aeneasta mukaellen hän antoi siitä 12 osaisen version kuolinvuonnaan,1674.

    Milton kuuluu englantilaisen runouden suurimpiin nimiin.

    Kadotettu Paratiisi sisältää aineksia sekä Raamatusta että Miltonin ihailemasta kreikkalais-roomalaisesta mytologiasta. Hänen mielestään kristillinen usko on tässä suhteessa köyhempi kuin antiikin Kreikka ja Rooma (niinkuin onkin).

   

Teologialtaan tiukan Oliver Cromwellin puritanismin aikaan elänyt Milton on hieman erikoinen, hän ei uskonut pyhään Kolminaisuuteen vaan ainoastaan Isään ja Poikaan.

    Runoissa Isä on helposti suuttuva ja pelottava hahmo, jopa sarkastinen. Poika taas on

hyväntahtoinen ja toiveikas.

    voit lukea koko teoksen verkossa John Milton "ParadiseLost and Regained"

Epäilen mahtaako John Miltonia suurempia englannista löytyä? Josef  Haydn antoi hänen säkeilleen mahtavan musiikillisen tulkinnan

Milton kirjoittaa rankasti:

    The infernal Serpent; he it was whose guile,

    Stirred up with envy and revenge, deceived

    The mother of mankind, what time his pride

    Had cast him out from Heaven, with all his host

    Of rebel Angels, by whose aid, aspiring

    To set himself in glory above his peers,

    He trusted to have equalled the Most High,

    If he opposed, and, with ambitious aim

    Against the throne and monarchy of God,

   Raised impious war in Heaven and battle proud,

   With vain attempt. Him the Almighty Power  

 Hurled headlong flaming from the ethereal sky,  

 With hideous ruin and combustion, down

    To bottomless perdition, there to dwell

    In adamantine chains and penal fire,

    Who durst defy the Omnipotent to arms.

 

    Nine times the space that measures day and night

    To mortal men, he, with his horrid crew,

    Lay vanquished, rowling in the fiery gulf,

    Confounded, though immortal. But his doom

    Reserved him to more wrath; for now the thought

    Both of lost happiness and lasting pain

    Torments him: round he throws his baleful eyes,

    That witnessed huge affliction and dismay,

    Mixed with obdurate pride and steadfast hate.

    At once, as far as Angel's ken, he views

    The dismal situation waste and wild.

  A dungeon horrible, on all sides round,   

As one great furnace flamed; yet from those flames

 

  No light; but rather darkness visible   

Served only to discover sights of woe,

    Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace

    And rest can never dwell, hope never comes

    That comes to all, but torture without end

    Still urges, and a fiery deluge, fed

    With ever-burning sulphur unconsumed.

    Such place Eternal Justice had prepared

    For those rebellious; here their prison ordained

    In utter darkness, and their portion set,

    As far removed from God and light of Heaven

    As from the centre thrice to the utmost pole.

    Oh how unlike the place from whence they fell!

 

    There the companions of his fall, o'erwhelmed

    With floods and whirlwinds of tempestuous fire,

    He soon discerns; and, weltering by his side,

    One next himself in power, and next in crime,

    Long after known in Palestine, and named

   Beelzebub. To whom the Arch-Enemy,

    And thence in Heaven called Satan, with bold words

    Breaking the horrid silence, thus began: -

 

    "If thou beest he-but Oh how fallen! how changed

   From him!-who, in the happy realms of light,

    Clothed with transcendent brightness, didst outshine

    Myriads, though bright-if he whom mutual league,

    United thoughts and counsels, equal hope

    And hazard in the glorious enterprise,

    Joined with me once, now misery hath joined

    In equal ruin; into what pit thou seest

    From what highth fallen: so much the stronger proved

    He with his thunder: and till then who knew

    The force of those dire arms? Yet not for those,

    Nor what the potent Victor in his rage

    Can else inflict, do I repent, or change,

    Though changed in outward lustre, that fixed mind,

    And high disdain from sense of injured merit,

    That with the Mightiest raised me to contend,

    And to the fierce contention brought along

    Innumerable force of Spirits armed,

    That durst dislike his reign, and, me preferring,

    His utmost power with adverse power opposed

 

    In dubious battle on the plains of Heaven,

    And shook his throne. What though the field be lost?

    All is not lost-the unconquerable will,

    And study of revenge, immortal hate,

    And courage never to submit or yield:

    And what is else not to be overcome.

    That glory never shall his wrath or might

    Extort from me. To bow and sue for grace

    With suppliant knee, and deify his power

    Who, from the terror of this arm, so late

    Doubted his empire-that were low indeed;

   That were an ignominy and shame beneath

This downfall; since, by fate, the strength of Gods,

   And this empyreal substance, cannot fail;

Since, through experience of this great event,   

In arms not worse, in foresight much advanced,   

We may with more successful hope resolve

    To wage by force or guile eternal war,   

Irreconcilable to our grand Foe,   

Who now triumphs, and in the excess of joy

    Sole reigning holds the tyranny of Heaven."

 

...................

    hieman Miltonia hänen omalla kielellään ja ilmaisuillaan... pois se että yrittäisin kääntää!

    tästä näkee tekstin valtavan voiman mutta myös sen, että ei tämä Käärmelle mikään huvimatka yödiskoon ole alkuperäisessä tekstissä.    teatteriväki tekee omia tulkintojaan. 

    As far removed from God and light of Heaven

    As from the centre thrice to the utmost pole.

    Oh how unlike the place from whence they fell!

 

    John Miltonin Kadotettu paratiisi ei ehkä samalla tavalla kiehdo aikamme ihmistä, koska se on uskonnollista runoutta, joka juurtuu syvälle Raamatun perintöön.

   Monet aikamme Euroopan kulttuuri-ihmiset eivät niin uskonnosta perusta.    mutta niille, joita kristinusko on lähelleä, Kadotettu paratiisi rikkaine kielikuvineen ja aikansa hengellistä elämää ja uskon maailmaa kuvaavana voi itse asiassa olla aikamoinen elämys.    

Yrjö Jylhä käänsi teoksen 1933 mutta alkutestissä on tietenkin oma tehonsa.

    Joku sanoi mielenkiintoisesti, että Milton on kristitty, mutta Saatana on teoksen mielenkiintoisin hahmo.

    siteeraamani kohta Kadotetun paratiisin alusta tukee tuota ajatusta.

    "John Miltonin (1608 - 1674) eepos on kommentti aikansa moraaliseen hätään. Vanheneva ja

silti voimantuntoa uhkuva Milton oli tullut sokeaksi ja saneli Paradise Lost -teosta tyttärelleen seitsemän vuotta. Hän tiesi laativansa pääteostaan ja ratkaisevaa kommenttiaan tästä maailmasta."

(ref)