romantic は「ロマンチック」か？

先日、「東海道」や「奥の細道」を取り上げたらドイツの「ロマンチック街道」を連想したので、ついでに romantic について書くことにする。この単語を男女関係に使った場合、「ロマンチック」という日本語をそのままあてはめていいものだろうか。

例えば、いま歌手のマドンナがメジャーリーガーとの交際をめぐって騒ぎを起こしているが、それを報じる英文にこんなくだりがある。

Alex Rodriguez's relationship with Madonna was "an affair of the heart"-- not "sexual infidelity" -- according to Cynthia Rodriguez's lawyer.

Still, the baseball star's relationship with the singer "was the last straw" before the Yankee slugger's wife filed for divorce Monday, her Houston attorney, Earle Lilly, tells PEOPLE.

Lilly says that A-Rod was smitten with Madonna, but makes no claim of any sexual liaison. "The correct analysis is a relationship," he says. "Some people categorize an affair as something as sexual infidelity. We're not claming that. It's an affair of the heart."

Over the weekend, Madonna issued a statement to PEOPLE denying a romantic relationship with the baseball star, saying, "I have nothing to do with the state of his marriage."

( http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20210715,00.html )

ついでに、マドンナが今月初めに出したコメントでは、

Madonna has released an exclusive statement to PEOPLE, denying that she is divorcing Guy Ritchie or having an affair with Yankee star Alex Rodriguez.

In it, she says: （中略） "I am not romantically involved in any way with Alex Rodriguez. I have nothing to do with the state of his marriage or what spiritual path he may choose to study.”

( http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20210591,00.html )

という表現が使われている。

もうひとつ、アメリカの大統領選挙の記事から、マケイン候補にまつわる例を拾ってみよう。

John McCain emphatically denied a romantic relationship with a female telecommunications lobbyist on Thursday and said a report by The New York Times suggesting favoritism for her clients is "not true."

( http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23271556/ )

Convinced the relationship had become romantic, some of his top advisers intervened to protect the candidate from himself -- instructing staff members to block the woman’s access, privately warning her away and repeatedly confronting him, several people involved in the campaign said on the condition of anonymity.

( http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/21/us/politics/21mccain.html?ref=politics )

国語辞典で「ロマンチック」を引くと、「現実を離れ、情緒的で甘美なさま」「空想的であるさま」などとある。また英語の romantic にも

of, characterized by, or suggestive of an idealized view of reality

という意味がある。

しかし上にあげたような例では、男女関係を「情緒的で甘味」と文学的に表現したのだ、と捉えるより、端的に「２人はできている」「不倫している」といいたいのだ、と考えた方がしっくりするのではないだろうか。

タグ：カタカナ語