GOODMAN, Steveの最近のブログ記事

TITLE: The Dutchman　（ザ・ダッチマン）
AUTHOR: Michael Peter Smith　（マイケル・ピーター・スミス）
PERFORMER: Steve Goodman　（スティーブ・グッドマン）

いつだったか、"Let's go Dutch"（オランダ人でいこうぜ）という表現を覚え、それが「割り勘にしよう」という意味だと知り、オランダ人＝割り勘＝ケチ、そうか、オランダとイギリスって仲が悪かったんだ、と勝手に思っていた記憶があります。

この歌にでてくるダッチマン、つまりオランダ人は、年老いた男性で年のせいか、はたまた、他の何かの理由でぼけてしまっています。献身的に愛情を注ぐ妻のマーガレットと夫の姿は聞くものを感動させるかもしれません。

70年代前半にこの歌をアルバムに入れたスティーブ・グッドマン(Steve Goodman)は、惜しくも84年に白血病でこの世を去っています。

そして、この曲を歌っていたクランシー・ブラザーズのリアム・クランシー(Liam Clancy)も天国に旅立っていきました。

The Dutchman's not the kind of man
To keep his thumb jammed in the dam
That holds his dreams in
But that's a secret only Margaret knows
When Amsterdam is golden in the morning
Margaret brings him breakfast
She believes him
He thinks the tulips bloom beneath the snow
He's mad as he can be
But Margaret only sees that sometimes
Sometimes she sees her unborn children in his eyes

Let us go to the banks of the ocean
Where the walls rise above the Zuiderzee
Long ago I used to be a young man
And dear Margaret remembers that for me

The Dutchman still wears wooden shoes
His cap and coat are patched with love
That Margaret sewed in
Sometimes he thinks he's still in Rotterdam
He watches tugboats down canals
And calls out to them when he thinks
He knows the captain
'Til Margaret comes to take him home again
Through unforgiving streets
That trip him though she holds his arm
Sometimes he thinks that he's alone and calls her name

Let us go to the banks of the ocean
Where the walls rise above the Zuiderzee
Long ago I used to be a young man
And dear Margaret remembers that for me

The windmills whirl the winter in
She winds his muffler tighter
They sit in the kitchen
Some tea with whiskey keeps away the dew
He sees her for a moment calls her name
She makes the bed up humming
Some old love song
She learned it when the tune was very new
He hums a line or two
They hum together in the night
The Dutchman falls asleep and Margaret blows the candle out

Let us go to the banks of the ocean
Where the walls rise above the Zuiderzee
Long ago I used to be a young man
And dear Margaret remembers that for me