禅智内供の鼻と云えば、池の尾で知らない者はない。長さは五六寸あって上唇の上から顋の下まで下っている。形は元も先も同じように太い。云わば細長い腸詰めのような物が、ぶらりと顔のまん中からぶら下っているのである。
Speak of the nose of Zenchi Naigu, and there is no one in Ike-no-o who does not know it. It hung down some five or six inches, from above the upper lip to below the chin. In shape it was as thick at the tip as at the base — a long, slender thing like a sausage, dangling limply from the very center of his face.
五十歳を越えた内供は、沙弥の昔から、内道場供奉の職に陞った今日まで、内心では始終この鼻を苦に病んで来た。勿論表面では、今でもさほど気にならないような顔をしてすましている。これは専念に当来の浄土を渇仰すべき僧侶の身で、鼻の心配をするのが悪いと思ったからばかりではない。それよりむしろ、自分で鼻を気にしていると云う事を、人に知られるのが嫌だったからである。内供は日常の談話の中に、鼻と云う語が出て来るのを何よりも惧れていた。
The Naigu, past fifty years of age, had suffered inwardly over this nose from his days as a young novice down to the present, now that he had risen to the office of Naidojo-gubu. Outwardly, of course, he still kept up a face of unconcern, as though it scarcely troubled him. This was not merely because he felt it unseemly for a priest, whose whole heart should be set upon longing for the Pure Land to come, to fret over his nose. Rather, it was that he disliked, above all, having it known that he himself minded it. In the course of everyday conversation, the one thing the Naigu dreaded more than anything was that the word "nose" should come up.
内供が鼻を持てあました理由は二つある。――一つは実際的に、鼻の長いのが不便だったからである。第一飯を食う時にも独りでは食えない。独りで食えば、鼻の先が鋺の中の飯へとどいてしまう。そこで内供は弟子の一人を膳の向うへ坐らせて、飯を食う間中、広さ一寸長さ二尺ばかりの板で、鼻を持上げていて貰う事にした。しかしこうして飯を食うと云う事は、持上げている弟子にとっても、持上げられている内供にとっても、決して容易な事ではない。一度この弟子の代りをした中童子が、嚏をした拍子に手がふるえて、鼻を粥の中へ落した話は、当時京都まで喧伝された。――けれどもこれは内供にとって、決して鼻を苦に病んだ重な理由ではない。内供は実にこの鼻によって傷つけられる自尊心のために苦しんだのである。
There were two reasons the Naigu found his nose such a trial. — One was practical: the length of the nose was simply inconvenient. To begin with, he could not eat his rice unaided. If he tried to eat alone, the tip of his nose would reach down into the rice in his bowl. And so the Naigu had one of his disciples sit across the tray from him and, throughout the meal, hold up his nose with a board about an inch wide and two feet long. But eating in this fashion was by no means an easy matter, either for the disciple who held the nose up or for the Naigu whose nose was held. Once, when a young acolyte who had taken this disciple's place sneezed, his hand shook, and he let the nose drop into the rice gruel — a story that was, at the time, talked of even as far as Kyoto. — But this was by no means the chief reason the Naigu suffered over his nose. What truly tormented the Naigu was the wound this nose dealt to his self-esteem.
池の尾の町の者は、こう云う鼻をしている禅智内供のために、内供の俗でない事を仕合せだと云った。あの鼻では誰も妻になる女があるまいと思ったからである。中にはまた、あの鼻だから出家したのだろうと批評する者さえあった。しかし内供は、自分が僧であるために、幾分でもこの鼻に煩される事が少くなったと思っていない。内供の自尊心は、妻帯と云うような結果的な事実に左右されるためには、余りにデリケイトに出来ていたのである。そこで内供は、積極的にも消極的にも、この自尊心の毀損を恢復しようと試みた。
The people of the town of Ike-no-o said, of Zenchi Naigu with his nose of such a kind, that it was fortunate he was not a layman. With that nose, they thought, no woman would ever have consented to become his wife. Some even ventured the opinion that it was on account of that very nose that he had taken holy orders. But the Naigu did not feel that his being a priest had, in the least, lessened the trouble this nose caused him. His self-esteem was far too delicate a thing to be swayed by so incidental a fact as whether or not he had taken a wife. And so the Naigu set about, both by active means and by passive ones, trying to repair this injury to his self-esteem.
第一に内供の考えたのは、この長い鼻を実際以上に短く見せる方法である。これは人のいない時に、鏡へ向って、いろいろな角度から顔を映しながら、熱心に工夫を凝らして見た。どうかすると、顔の位置を換えるだけでは、安心が出来なくなって、頬杖をついたり頤の先へ指をあてがったりして、根気よく鏡を覗いて見る事もあった。しかし自分でも満足するほど、鼻が短く見えた事は、これまでにただの一度もない。時によると、苦心すればするほど、かえって長く見えるような気さえした。内供は、こう云う時には、鏡を箱へしまいながら、今更のようにため息をついて、不承不承にまた元の経机へ、観音経をよみに帰るのである。
The first thing the Naigu thought of was some way to make this long nose look shorter than it really was. When no one was about, he would turn to a mirror and study his face from every angle, devoting himself earnestly to the problem. At times, merely changing the position of his face would not satisfy him, and he would rest his cheek on his hand, or press a finger to the tip of his chin, and gaze patiently into the mirror. But never once, in all this, had the nose looked short enough to satisfy even himself. Sometimes it even seemed to him that the harder he labored at it, the longer it looked. On such occasions the Naigu would put the mirror away in its box, and, sighing as though the thought had only just struck him, would return, reluctantly, to his reading-desk to chant the Kannon Sutra once more.
それからまた内供は、絶えず人の鼻を気にしていた。池の尾の寺は、僧供講説などのしばしば行われる寺である。寺の内には、僧坊が隙なく建て続いて、湯屋では寺の僧が日毎に湯を沸かしている。従ってここへ出入する僧俗の類も甚だ多い。内供はこう云う人々の顔を根気よく物色した。一人でも自分のような鼻のある人間を見つけて、安心がしたかったからである。だから内供の眼には、紺の水干も白の帷子もはいらない。まして柑子色の帽子や、椎鈍の法衣なぞは、見慣れているだけに、有れども無きが如くである。内供は人を見ずに、ただ、鼻を見た。――しかし鍵鼻はあっても、内供のような鼻は一つも見当らない。その見当らない事が度重なるに従って、内供の心は次第にまた不快になった。内供が人と話しながら、思わずぶらりと下っている鼻の先をつまんで見て、年甲斐もなく顔を赤らめたのは、全くこの不快に動かされての所為である。
Besides this, the Naigu was forever taking note of other men's noses. The temple of Ike-no-o was one where offerings to the monks and lectures on the scriptures were frequently held. Within its grounds the monks' quarters stood close-built one against another, and at the bathhouse the temple monks heated water every day. Consequently a great many monks and laymen came and went there. The Naigu scanned the faces of all these people, patiently, hoping to find even one person with a nose like his own, if only to set his mind at ease. So it was that the indigo suikan cloaks and the white summer robes made no impression on the Naigu's eye at all; still less the orange caps or the drab priestly vestments, sights too familiar to be noticed, as good as not there. The Naigu looked not at the men, but only at their noses. — And yet, though there were hook-noses enough, not one nose like his own was to be found anywhere. And as this failure repeated itself again and again, the Naigu's heart grew, little by little, the more discontented. That the Naigu, in the midst of talking with someone, would unconsciously reach up and pinch the tip of his dangling nose, and blush like a man too old for such things — this was entirely the working of that same discontent.
最後に、内供は、内典外典の中に、自分と同じような鼻のある人物を見出して、せめても幾分の心やりにしようとさえ思った事がある。けれども、目連や、舎利弗の鼻が長かったとは、どの経文にも書いてない。勿論竜樹や馬鳴も、人並の鼻を備えた菩薩である。内供は、震旦の話の序に蜀漢の劉玄徳の耳が長かったと云う事を聞いた時に、それが鼻だったら、どのくらい自分は心細くなくなるだろうと思った。
At last, the Naigu even thought to seek out, among the Buddhist and secular writings, some figure with a nose like his own, that he might find in it at least some small comfort. But nowhere in any sutra is it written that Maudgalyayana's nose, or Sariputra's, was long. Nagarjuna and Asvaghosha, too, were bodhisattvas furnished with ordinary noses. When the Naigu once heard, in the course of some tale of ancient China, that Liu Xuande of Shu Han had long ears, he thought how much less forlorn he would feel, had it only been a nose.
内供がこう云う消極的な苦心をしながらも、一方ではまた、積極的に鼻の短くなる方法を試みた事は、わざわざここに云うまでもない。内供はこの方面でもほとんど出来るだけの事をした。烏瓜を煎じて飲んで見た事もある。鼠の尿を鼻へなすって見た事もある。しかし何をどうしても、鼻は依然として、五六寸の長さをぶらりと唇の上にぶら下げているではないか。
That the Naigu, even while pursuing such passive efforts, also tried, on the other hand, active means of shortening his nose, scarcely needs saying here. In this direction too the Naigu did almost everything that could be done. He tried boiling snake-gourd and drinking the decoction. He tried rubbing mouse urine on his nose. But whatever he did, however he did it, the nose still hung there, five or six inches long, dangling above his lip, just as before.
所がある年の秋、内供の用を兼ねて、京へ上った弟子の僧が、知己の医者から長い鼻を短くする法を教わって来た。その医者と云うのは、もと震旦から渡って来た男で、当時は長楽寺の供僧になっていたのである。
Then, one autumn, a disciple-monk who had gone up to Kyoto on some errand for the Naigu learned, from a physician of his acquaintance, a method for shortening a long nose. This physician was a man originally come over from China, who at that time held the office of a temple monk at Choraku-ji.
内供は、いつものように、鼻などは気にかけないと云う風をして、わざとその法もすぐにやって見ようとは云わずにいた。そうして一方では、気軽な口調で、食事の度毎に、弟子の手数をかけるのが、心苦しいと云うような事を云った。内心では勿論弟子の僧が、自分を説伏せて、この法を試みさせるのを待っていたのである。弟子の僧にも、内供のこの策略がわからない筈はない。しかしそれに対する反感よりは、内供のそう云う策略をとる心もちの方が、より強くこの弟子の僧の同情を動かしたのであろう。弟子の僧は、内供の予期通り、口を極めて、この法を試みる事を勧め出した。そうして、内供自身もまた、その予期通り、結局この熱心な勧告に聴従する事になった。
The Naigu, as was his custom, put on an air of not troubling himself over his nose at all, and did not at once say that he wished to try this method. Meanwhile, in a light tone, he remarked that it pained him to put his disciple to such trouble at every meal. In his heart, of course, he was waiting for the disciple-monk to press him into trying the treatment. Nor could the disciple-monk fail to see through this stratagem of the Naigu's. But rather than resentment at it, it was, no doubt, the state of mind that drove the Naigu to such a stratagem that moved this disciple's sympathy the more strongly. The disciple-monk, exactly as the Naigu had expected, began urging, in the most earnest terms, that he try this method. And the Naigu himself, exactly as he had expected, ended by yielding to this earnest counsel.
その法と云うのは、ただ、湯で鼻を茹でて、その鼻を人に踏ませると云う、極めて簡単なものであった。
The method itself was an extremely simple one: merely to boil the nose in hot water, and then have someone tread upon it.
湯は寺の湯屋で、毎日沸かしている。そこで弟子の僧は、指も入れられないような熱い湯を、すぐに提に入れて、湯屋から汲んで来た。しかしじかにこの提へ鼻を入れるとなると、湯気に吹かれて顔を火傷する惧がある。そこで折敷へ穴をあけて、それを提の蓋にして、その穴から鼻を湯の中へ入れる事にした。鼻だけはこの熱い湯の中へ浸しても、少しも熱くないのである。しばらくすると弟子の僧が云った。
Hot water was heated every day at the temple bathhouse. So the disciple-monk drew water so hot one could not even dip a finger in it, and brought it at once in a kettle from the bathhouse. But to put the nose directly into this kettle risked scalding the face with the rising steam. And so they bored a hole in a wooden tray, fitted it over the kettle as a lid, and put the nose through the hole into the water. The nose alone, immersed in this scalding water, felt no heat at all. After a while the disciple-monk spoke.
――もう茹った時分でござろう。
— It should be well boiled by now.
内供は苦笑した。これだけ聞いたのでは、誰も鼻の話とは気がつかないだろうと思ったからである。鼻は熱湯に蒸されて、蚤の食ったようにむず痒い。
The Naigu smiled wryly, thinking that no one overhearing only this much would ever guess they were speaking of a nose. Steamed in the scalding water, the nose itched as though fleas were biting it.
弟子の僧は、内供が折敷の穴から鼻をぬくと、そのまだ湯気の立っている鼻を、両足に力を入れながら、踏みはじめた。内供は横になって、鼻を床板の上へのばしながら、弟子の僧の足が上下に動くのを眼の前に見ているのである。弟子の僧は、時々気の毒そうな顔をして、内供の禿げ頭を見下しながら、こんな事を云った。
When the Naigu drew his nose out through the hole in the tray, the disciple-monk, putting his weight onto both feet, began to tread upon the nose while it still steamed. The Naigu lay on his side, stretching the nose out along the floorboards, watching the disciple's feet move up and down before his very eyes. From time to time the disciple-monk, looking down at the Naigu's bald head with an air of some pity, would say things like this.
――痛うはござらぬかな。医師は責めて踏めと申したで。じゃが、痛うはござらぬかな。
— Does it not hurt? The physician said I must tread firmly. But — does it not hurt?
内供は首を振って、痛くないと云う意味を示そうとした。所が鼻を踏まれているので思うように首が動かない。そこで、上眼を使って、弟子の僧の足に皹のきれているのを眺めながら、腹を立てたような声で、
The Naigu shook his head, meaning to show that it did not hurt. But with his nose being trodden upon, his head would not move as he wished. And so, casting his eyes upward and gazing at the chapped skin cracking on the disciple-monk's feet, he said, in a voice as though put out:
――痛うはないて。
— It does not hurt.
と答えた。実際鼻はむず痒い所を踏まれるので、痛いよりもかえって気もちのいいくらいだったのである。
Such was his answer. In truth, since the itching spot of the nose was being trodden upon, it felt, if anything, rather pleasant than painful.
しばらく踏んでいると、やがて、粟粒のようなものが、鼻へ出来はじめた。云わば毛をむしった小鳥をそっくり丸炙にしたような形である。弟子の僧はこれを見ると、足を止めて独り言のようにこう云った。
After the nose had been trodden upon for a while, presently something like millet-grains began to appear upon it — in shape, one might say, exactly like a small bird, plucked of its feathers, roasted whole. Seeing this, the disciple-monk stopped his feet and said, as though to himself:
――これを鑷子でぬけと申す事でござった。
— I was told these must be plucked out with tweezers.
内供は、不足らしく頬をふくらせて、黙って弟子の僧のするなりに任せて置いた。勿論弟子の僧の親切がわからない訳ではない。それは分っても、自分の鼻をまるで物品のように取扱うのが、不愉快に思われたからである。内供は、信用しない医者の手術をうける患者のような顔をして、不承不承に弟子の僧が、鼻の毛穴から鑷子で脂をとるのを眺めていた。脂は、鳥の羽の茎のような形をして、四分ばかりの長さにぬけるのである。
The Naigu, puffing out his cheeks as though discontented, said nothing and let the disciple-monk do as he pleased. It was not, of course, that he failed to appreciate the disciple's kindness. But even understanding this, he found it unpleasant to have his own nose handled as though it were some mere object. The Naigu, wearing the face of a patient submitting to the surgery of a physician he does not trust, watched with reluctance as the disciple-monk drew, with the tweezers, plugs of fat from the pores of his nose — each one, shaped like the quill of a bird's feather, coming out about four-tenths of an inch long.
やがてこれが一通りすむと、弟子の僧は、ほっと一息ついたような顔をして、
When this task was at last finished, the disciple-monk, with the look of a man breathing a sigh of relief, said:
――もう一度、これを茹でればようござる。
— Now if we boil it once more, it should do.
と云った。
So he said.
内供はやはり、八の字をよせたまま不服らしい顔をして、弟子の僧の云うなりになっていた。
The Naigu, still knitting his brows into a figure like the character for "eight," wore a face of dissatisfaction, but let himself be led as the disciple-monk bade.
さて二度目に茹でた鼻を出して見ると、成程、いつになく短くなっている。これではあたりまえの鍵鼻と大した変りはない。内供はその短くなった鼻を撫でながら、弟子の僧の出してくれる鏡を、極りが悪るそうにおずおず覗いて見た。
Now, when the nose, boiled a second time, was drawn out and examined, it had indeed grown shorter than ever before. It scarcely differed now from an ordinary hook-nose. The Naigu, stroking this shortened nose, peered timidly and with some embarrassment into the mirror the disciple-monk held out to him.
鼻は――あの顋の下まで下っていた鼻は、ほとんど嘘のように萎縮して、今は僅に上唇の上で意気地なく残喘を保っている。所々まだらに赤くなっているのは、恐らく踏まれた時の痕であろう。こうなれば、もう誰も哂うものはないにちがいない。――鏡の中にある内供の顔は、鏡の外にある内供の顔を見て、満足そうに眼をしばたたいた。
The nose — that nose which had hung down to below his chin — had shrunk as though it were almost a lie, and now barely eked out its feeble existence just above his upper lip. Here and there it was mottled red, no doubt the marks left by the treading. Now, surely, no one would laugh at him any longer. — The Naigu's face within the mirror, looking upon the Naigu's face outside it, blinked its eyes contentedly.
しかし、その日はまだ一日、鼻がまた長くなりはしないかと云う不安があった。そこで内供は誦経する時にも、食事をする時にも、暇さえあれば手を出して、そっと鼻の先にさわって見た。が、鼻は行儀よく唇の上に納まっているだけで、格別それより下へぶら下って来る景色もない。それから一晩寝てあくる日早く眼がさめると内供はまず、第一に、自分の鼻を撫でて見た。鼻は依然として短い。内供はそこで、幾年にもなく、法華経書写の功を積んだ時のような、のびのびした気分になった。
Yet all through that day, one anxiety remained — that the nose might grow long again. And so, whether chanting sutras or eating his meals, the Naigu would, whenever he had a free moment, reach out and gently touch the tip of his nose. But the nose merely sat, well-behaved, above his lip, showing no sign whatever of hanging down again below it. Then, after a night's sleep, waking early the next morning, the Naigu first of all felt his nose. It was still short. The Naigu, at this, felt a lightness of spirit such as he had not known in years — the same feeling as when he had once earned merit by copying out the Lotus Sutra.
所が二三日たつ中に、内供は意外な事実を発見した。それは折から、用事があって、池の尾の寺を訪れた侍が、前よりも一層可笑しそうな顔をして、話も碌々せずに、じろじろ内供の鼻ばかり眺めていた事である。それのみならず、かつて、内供の鼻を粥の中へ落した事のある中童子なぞは、講堂の外で内供と行きちがった時に、始めは、下を向いて可笑しさをこらえていたが、とうとうこらえ兼ねたと見えて、一度にふっと吹き出してしまった。用を云いつかった下法師たちが、面と向っている間だけは、慎んで聞いていても、内供が後さえ向けば、すぐにくすくす笑い出したのは、一度や二度の事ではない。
But within two or three days, the Naigu discovered an unexpected fact. It was that a certain samurai, who happened to visit the temple of Ike-no-o on some business, wore a face even more amused than before, and, scarcely troubling to talk with him, kept staring fixedly at the Naigu's nose. Nor was this all: the very acolyte who had once let the Naigu's nose fall into the rice gruel, passing him outside the lecture hall, at first bent his head, trying to hold back his laughter, but at last, unable to contain himself any longer, burst out laughing all at once. The lesser priests, too, whom the Naigu gave errands to, would listen respectfully enough while facing him directly, but no sooner had the Naigu turned his back than they would at once begin to titter — and this happened not once or twice only.
内供ははじめ、これを自分の顔がわりがしたせいだと解釈した。しかしどうもこの解釈だけでは十分に説明がつかないようである。――勿論、中童子や下法師が哂う原因は、そこにあるのにちがいない。けれども同じ哂うにしても、鼻の長かった昔とは、哂うのにどことなく容子がちがう。見慣れた長い鼻より、見慣れない短い鼻の方が滑稽に見えると云えば、それまでである。が、そこにはまだ何かあるらしい。
At first the Naigu interpreted this as merely the effect of his changed appearance. But this explanation alone did not seem quite sufficient. — Certainly, that was no doubt the reason the acolyte and the lesser priests laughed. But even granting that they laughed, there was something different, somehow, in the manner of their laughter compared with the days when his nose had been long. One might say simply that an unfamiliar short nose looks more comical than a long one grown familiar — and there the matter might rest. But it seemed there was still something more to it.
――前にはあのようにつけつけとは哂わなんだて。
— They never used to laugh so openly, so rudely, before.
内供は、誦しかけた経文をやめて、禿げ頭を傾けながら、時々こう呟く事があった。愛すべき内供は、そう云う時になると、必ずぼんやり、傍にかけた普賢の画像を眺めながら、鼻の長かった四五日前の事を憶い出して、「今はむげにいやしくなりさがれる人の、さかえたる昔をしのぶがごとく」ふさぎこんでしまうのである。――内供には、遺憾ながらこの問に答を与える明が欠けていた。
The Naigu, breaking off in the midst of the sutra he had begun to chant, tilting his bald head, would sometimes murmur thus to himself. And at such times, this endearing Naigu would invariably fall to gazing vacantly at the image of Fugen hung beside him, recalling the four or five days past when his nose had still been long, and would sink into gloom "as one grown wretched and abject now recalls the flourishing days of old." — The Naigu, alas, lacked the insight to give himself an answer to this question.
――人間の心には互に矛盾した二つの感情がある。勿論、誰でも他人の不幸に同情しない者はない。所がその人がその不幸を、どうにかして切りぬける事が出来ると、今度はこっちで何となく物足りないような心もちがする。少し誇張して云えば、もう一度その人を、同じ不幸に陥れて見たいような気にさえなる。そうしていつの間にか、消極的ではあるが、ある敵意をその人に対して抱くような事になる。――内供が、理由を知らないながらも、何となく不快に思ったのは、池の尾の僧俗の態度に、この傍観者の利己主義をそれとなく感づいたからにほかならない。
— In the human heart there are two feelings that stand in mutual contradiction. No one, of course, fails to sympathize with another's misfortune. But when that person somehow manages to overcome the misfortune, one finds oneself feeling, for some reason, a little unsatisfied. To put it with some exaggeration, one even comes to feel a wish to plunge that person into the same misfortune once again. And before one knows it, one comes to harbor toward that person a certain hostility — passive, perhaps, but hostility all the same. — That the Naigu, without knowing the reason, felt somehow discontented was due to nothing other than his having sensed, without quite realizing it, this very egoism of the bystander in the bearing of the monks and laymen of Ike-no-o.
そこで内供は日毎に機嫌が悪くなった。二言目には、誰でも意地悪く叱りつける。しまいには鼻の療治をしたあの弟子の僧でさえ、「内供は法慳貪の罪を受けられるぞ」と陰口をきくほどになった。殊に内供を怒らせたのは、例の悪戯な中童子である。ある日、けたたましく犬の吠える声がするので、内供が何気なく外へ出て見ると、中童子は、二尺ばかりの木の片をふりまわして、毛の長い、痩せた尨犬を逐いまわしている。それもただ、逐いまわしているのではない。「鼻を打たれまい。それ、鼻を打たれまい」と囃しながら、逐いまわしているのである。内供は、中童子の手からその木の片をひったくって、したたかその顔を打った。木の片は以前の鼻持上げの木だったのである。
And so the Naigu's temper grew worse day by day. He would scold anyone spitefully at the least provocation, until at last even that very disciple-monk who had treated his nose was heard to remark behind his back, "The Naigu will surely incur the sin of Dharma-stinginess for this." What angered the Naigu most of all, however, was that same mischievous acolyte. One day, hearing a dog barking furiously, the Naigu stepped outside without much thought, and saw the acolyte swinging about a stick some two feet long, chasing a long-haired, thin, shaggy dog. Nor was he merely chasing it. He was chasing it while chanting, "Mind your nose doesn't get hit! There now, mind your nose!" The Naigu snatched the stick from the acolyte's hand and struck him hard across the face with it. The stick, as it happened, was the very board that had once been used to hold up his nose.
内供はなまじいに、鼻の短くなったのが、かえって恨めしくなった。
The Naigu came, rather, to resent that his nose had ever been shortened at all.
するとある夜の事である。日が暮れてから急に風が出たと見えて、塔の風鐸の鳴る音が、うるさいほど枕に通って来た。その上、寒さもめっきり加わったので、老年の内供は寝つこうとしても寝つかれない。そこで床の中でまじまじしていると、ふと鼻がいつになく、むず痒いのに気がついた。手をあてて見ると少し水気が来たようにむくんでいる。どうやらそこだけ、熱さえもあるらしい。
Then, one night, it happened. It seemed that after dusk a wind had suddenly risen, for the sound of the wind-bells on the pagoda came ringing, troublesomely loud, to his pillow. Besides this, the cold too had grown noticeably sharper, so that the aged Naigu, try as he might to fall asleep, could not do so. And as he lay wide awake in his bed, he suddenly noticed that his nose itched more than usual. Putting his hand to it, he found it somewhat swollen, as though with fluid. It seemed, indeed, that just that spot even had a touch of fever.
――無理に短うしたで、病が起ったのかも知れぬ。
— Perhaps some ailment has come of forcing it short.
内供は、仏前に香花を供えるような恭しい手つきで、鼻を抑えながら、こう呟いた。
So the Naigu murmured, pressing his nose with hands as reverent as though offering incense and flowers before the Buddha.
翌朝、内供がいつものように早く眼をさまして見ると、寺内の銀杏や橡が一晩の中に葉を落したので、庭は黄金を敷いたように明るい。塔の屋根には霜が下りているせいであろう。まだうすい朝日に、九輪がまばゆく光っている。禅智内供は、蔀を上げた縁に立って、深く息をすいこんだ。
The next morning, when the Naigu woke early as usual, he found that the gingko and horse-chestnut trees within the temple grounds had, in a single night, shed all their leaves, so that the garden lay bright as though strewn with gold. Perhaps because frost had settled on the pagoda's roof, its spire gleamed dazzlingly in the still-pale morning sun. Zenchi Naigu, standing on the veranda with its shutters raised, drew a deep breath.
ほとんど、忘れようとしていたある感覚が、再び内供に帰って来たのはこの時である。
It was at this moment that a certain sensation, one he had all but managed to forget, came back to the Naigu once more.
内供は慌てて鼻へ手をやった。手にさわるものは、昨夜の短い鼻ではない。上唇の上から顋の下まで、五六寸あまりもぶら下っている、昔の長い鼻である。内供は鼻が一夜の中に、また元の通り長くなったのを知った。そうしてそれと同時に、鼻が短くなった時と同じような、はればれした心もちが、どこからともなく帰って来るのを感じた。
The Naigu, in alarm, put his hand to his nose. What his hand touched was not the short nose of the night before. It was the long nose of old, hanging down from above his upper lip to below his chin, a good five or six inches. The Naigu knew that, in the course of a single night, his nose had grown long again, just as it had been before. And at the same instant, he felt a lightness of heart, like that he had felt when the nose grew short, come back to him from he knew not where.
――こうなれば、もう誰も哂うものはないにちがいない。
— Now, surely, no one will laugh at me any longer.
内供は心の中でこう自分に囁いた。長い鼻をあけ方の秋風にぶらつかせながら。
So the Naigu whispered to himself, within his heart, letting his long nose dangle in the autumn wind of early dawn.
（大正五年一月）
(January, 1916)