知ろう（学ぼう）！語学 －　その真相を探りたい　－

John Donne (1572-1631)の著述からの引用が最初です：

Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions, Meditation XVII: Nunc Lento Sonitu Dicunt, Morieris:
"Perchance he for whom this bell tolls may be so ill, as that he knows not it tolls for him; and perchance I may think myself so much better than I am, as that they who are about me, and see my state, may have caused it to toll for me, and I know not that.
...
No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were: any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bells tolls; it tolls for thee."
２段落目の最初の「No man is an island」（人間は誰しも島ではない）が更に明らかになるように、その人のために鳴る鐘は全員のためでもあると解いてよいでしょう。ちなみにここの「鳴る鐘」とは弔鐘のことです。なお、ヘミングウェイが同名の小説を書いてあります。