tiptoe and apocalypse

世界終末時計(Doomsday Clock)が刻々と零時に近づいています。近年は、世界中でいろいろなことがおきすぎています。ニュージーランド沖地震、東日本大震災、原発問題、アラブの春、エジプトの財政破綻、世界的な恐慌。The Guardianが伝えています。

Doomsday Clock ticks one minute closer to midnight
The symbolic clock face, maintained since 1947 by the board of directors of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists at the University of Chicago, counts down to nuclear Armageddon.

The world tiptoed closer to the apocalypse on Tuesday as scientists moved the Doomsday Clock one minute closer to the zero hour.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/10/doomsday-clock-ticks-closer-to-midnight

このtiptoeは「つまさき」という意味からわかるように「注意深く歩く」というイメージがあります。よくwalk in tiptoeで「抜き足、差し足、忍び足で歩く、忍び寄る」のように使われます。LDOCE 4th Eds.の動詞tiptoeの定義をみてみましょう。

to walk quietly and carefully on your toes, so that nobody hears you:

重要なのは、定義の後半にある「誰にも気づかれないで」という意味です。本文の場合ですと、世界の終りに刻々と近づいている末法的な意味合いが強まる感があります。

さらに、どこに近づいているかと言えば“the apocalypse”です。LDOCEの定義を見てみると”1 the destruction and end of the world”とあります。つまり、終末時計は世界の終りに近づいていることがわかります。

また、キリスト教新約聖書におけるThe Apocalypseは、しばしば「ヨハネの黙示録(The Revelation of St. John the Divine)」と訳される、終末思想の預言書です。ラテン語ですとApocalypsis Johannisといいます。

最後に、「ヨハネの黙示録」でも有名な、天使のラッパと災いを引用して終わりたいと思います。(以下、「ヨハネの黙示録」第８章-第10章まで抜粋する。大カッコ[ ]の中の文字は節を表す。)(Othello)

第８章
[6] And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound.
[7] The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.
[8] And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood;
[9] And the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed.
[10] And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters;
[11] And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.
[12] And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise. [13] And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which are yet to sound!
第９章
[1] And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.
[11] And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon.
[12] One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter.
[13] And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God,
[14] Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates.
[15] And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men.
[1] And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire:
第10章
[7] But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets.