高一の昼休みの校内放送で、印象の残っている曲は、
由紀さおりさんの「夜明けのスキャット」と、
サイモン & ガーファンクルの「Sound of Silence」です。
歌詞が、韻をふんでいることに、妙に感動しました。
数年後、マックス・ピカートの「沈黙の世界」という本に
出会い、愛読したのは、少なからず「Sound of Silence」
の影響に違いないのです。
「The Sound Of Silence」
Hello darkness, my old friend
I've come to talk with you again
Because a vision softly creeping
Left its seeds while I was sleeping
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sound of silence
In restless dreams I walked alone
Narrow streets of cobblestone
‘Neath the halo of a streetlamp
I turned my collar to the cold and damp
When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light
That split the night
And touched the sound of silence
And in the naked light I saw
Ten thousand people, maybe more
People talking without speaking
People hearing without listening
People writing songs that voices never share
No one dare
Disturb the sound of silence
“Fools” said I, “You do not know
Silence like a cancer grows
Hear my words that I might teach you
Take my arms that I might reach you”
But my words like silent raindrops fell
And echoed in the wells of silence
And the people bowed and prayed
To the neon god they made
And the sign flashed out its warning
In the words that it was forming
And the sign said “The words of the prophets
Are written on subway walls
And tenement halls
And whispered in the sounds of silence”