第一夜
The First Night
こんな夢を見た。
I dreamt this dream.
腕組をして枕元に坐っていると、仰向に寝た女が、静かな声でもう死にますと云う。女は長い髪を枕に敷いて、輪郭の柔らかな瓜実顔をその中に横たえている。真白な頬の底に温かい血の色がほどよく差して、唇の色は無論赤い。とうてい死にそうには見えない。しかし女は静かな声で、もう死にますと判然云った。自分も確にこれは死ぬなと思った。そこで、そうかね、もう死ぬのかね、と上から覗き込むようにして聞いて見た。死にますとも、と云いながら、女はぱっちりと眼を開けた。大きな潤のある眼で、長い睫に包まれた中は、ただ一面に真黒であった。その真黒な眸の奥に、自分の姿が鮮に浮かんでいる。
Sitting by her pillow with my arms folded, I heard the woman lying on her back say, in a quiet voice, that she was going to die now. She had spread her long hair over the pillow, and laid within it a face, oval and softly contoured. Beneath the pure white of her cheeks a warm tinge of blood showed through just enough, and her lips were of course red. She did not look in the least like someone about to die. And yet she said, clearly, in that quiet voice, that she was going to die now. I too felt sure — this woman is going to die. So I bent down and looked into her face and asked, is that so, are you going to die now. Yes, I am going to die, she said, and opened her eyes wide. They were large, moist eyes, and within the long lashes that framed them there was nothing but a solid black. In the depths of that black pupil my own form floated up, vivid and clear.
自分は透き徹るほど深く見えるこの黒眼の色沢を眺めて、これでも死ぬのかと思った。それで、ねんごろに枕の傍へ口を付けて、死ぬんじゃなかろうね、大丈夫だろうね、とまた聞き返した。すると女は黒い眼を眠そうに睜たまま、やっぱり静かな声で、でも、死ぬんですもの、仕方がないわと云った。
Gazing at the sheen of these black eyes, which seemed to run so deep I could see clear through them, I thought — can someone like this really be dying. So I brought my mouth close to her pillow and asked her again, tenderly, you're not really going to die, are you, you'll be all right, won't you. But the woman, her black eyes still open as if drowsy, said again, in that same quiet voice, but I am going to die, it can't be helped.
じゃ、私の顔が見えるかいと一心に聞くと、見えるかいって、そら、そこに、写ってるじゃありませんかと、にこりと笑って見せた。自分は黙って、顔を枕から離した。腕組をしながら、どうしても死ぬのかなと思った。
Then can you see my face, I asked her intently, and she said, can I see it — why, look, isn't it right there, reflected, and smiled at me. I said nothing, and drew my face back from the pillow. Folding my arms again, I thought — so she really is going to die, no matter what.
しばらくして、女がまたこう云った。
After a while the woman spoke again, like this.
「死んだら、埋めて下さい。大きな真珠貝で穴を掘って。そうして天から落ちて来る星の破片を墓標に置いて下さい。そうして墓の傍に待っていて下さい。また逢いに来ますから」
"When I die, bury me. Dig the hole with a great pearl shell. And for a grave-marker, set upon it a fragment of a star fallen from heaven. And wait beside the grave. I will come to see you again."
自分は、いつ逢いに来るかねと聞いた。
I asked her when she would come.
「日が出るでしょう。それから日が沈むでしょう。それからまた出るでしょう、そうしてまた沈むでしょう。――赤い日が東から西へ、東から西へと落ちて行くうちに、――あなた、待っていられますか」
"The sun will rise. Then the sun will set. Then it will rise again, and set again. — While the red sun falls from east to west, from east to west, — will you be able to wait?"
自分は黙って首肯いた。女は静かな調子を一段張り上げて、
I nodded without speaking. The woman raised her quiet tone a degree,
「百年待っていて下さい」と思い切った声で云った。
"Wait for a hundred years," she said, in a voice that had made up its mind.
「百年、私の墓の傍に坐って待っていて下さい。きっと逢いに来ますから」
"For a hundred years, sit beside my grave and wait. I will surely come to see you."
自分はただ待っていると答えた。すると、黒い眸のなかに鮮に見えた自分の姿が、ぼうっと崩れて来た。静かな水が動いて写る影を乱したように、流れ出したと思ったら、女の眼がぱちりと閉じた。長い睫の間から涙が頬へ垂れた。――もう死んでいた。
I only answered that I would wait. Then my own form, which had shown so vivid and clear in her black pupils, began dimly to dissolve. Just as I thought it had begun to run, the way still water stirs and blurs the reflection upon it, the woman's eyes shut with a click. A tear fell down her cheek from between the long lashes. — She was already dead.
自分はそれから庭へ下りて、真珠貝で穴を掘った。真珠貝は大きな滑かな縁の鋭どい貝であった。土をすくうたびに、貝の裏に月の光が差してきらきらした。湿った土の匂もした。穴はしばらくして掘れた。女をその中に入れた。そうして柔らかい土を、上からそっと掛けた。掛けるたびに真珠貝の裏に月の光が差した。
I then went down into the garden and dug the hole with the pearl shell. It was a large, smooth shell with sharp edges. Each time I scooped up the earth, moonlight fell on the inside of the shell and glittered. There was the smell of damp soil too. In time the hole was dug. I laid the woman inside it. Then I gently covered her over with the soft earth from above. Each time I heaped the earth, moonlight fell on the inside of the pearl shell.
それから星の破片の落ちたのを拾って来て、かろく土の上へ乗せた。星の破片は丸かった。長い間大空を落ちている間に、角が取れて滑かになったんだろうと思った。抱き上げて土の上へ置くうちに、自分の胸と手が少し暖くなった。
Then I went and picked up a fallen fragment of star and set it lightly upon the earth. The fragment of star was round. I thought that in its long fall through the great sky its edges must have worn away and grown smooth. As I lifted it up and set it on the earth, my chest and hands grew a little warm.
自分は苔の上に坐った。これから百年の間こうして待っているんだなと考えながら、腕組をして、丸い墓石を眺めていた。そのうちに、女の云った通り日が東から出た。大きな赤い日であった。それがまた女の云った通り、やがて西へ落ちた。赤いまんまでのっと落ちて行った。一つと自分は勘定した。
I sat down on the moss. Thinking that I would now go on waiting like this for a hundred years, I folded my arms and gazed at the round gravestone. Presently, just as the woman had said, the sun rose in the east. It was a great red sun. And then, just as she had said, it soon fell in the west. It went down still red, sinking heavily. I counted, one.
しばらくするとまた唐紅の天道がのそりと上って来た。そうして黙って沈んでしまった。二つとまた勘定した。
After a while the crimson sun rose again, heavily. And then it sank in silence. I counted again, two.
自分はこう云う風に一つ二つと勘定して行くうちに、赤い日をいくつ見たか分らない。勘定しても、勘定しても、しつくせないほど赤い日が頭の上を通り越して行った。それでも百年がまだ来ない。しまいには、苔の生えた丸い石を眺めて、自分は女に欺されたのではなかろうかと思い出した。
Counting in this way, one, two, I lost count of how many red suns I had seen. However much I counted, and counted, more red suns than I could ever finish counting passed over my head. And still the hundred years had not come. At last, gazing at the round, moss-grown stone, I began to think that perhaps the woman had deceived me.
すると石の下から斜に自分の方へ向いて青い茎が伸びて来た。見る間に長くなってちょうど自分の胸のあたりまで来て留まった。と思うと、すらりと揺ぐ茎の頂に、心持首を傾けていた細長い一輪の蕾が、ふっくらと弁を開いた。真白な百合が鼻の先で骨に徹えるほど匂った。そこへ遥の上から、ぽたりと露が落ちたので、花は自分の重みでふらふらと動いた。自分は首を前へ出して冷たい露の滴る、白い花弁に接吻した。自分が百合から顔を離す拍子に思わず、遠い空を見たら、暁の星がたった一つ瞬いていた。
Just then, from beneath the stone, a green stem grew slantwise toward me. Even as I watched it lengthened, and came to a stop just about the level of my chest. And then, at the top of the slender swaying stem, a single long, narrow bud that had been tilting its head ever so slightly opened its petals in a soft fullness. A pure white lily gave off a scent so strong, so close to my face, that it seemed to pierce to the very bone. Just then a drop of dew fell from far above, and the flower swayed unsteadily under its own weight. I put my head forward and kissed the white petals, cold with the falling dew. As I drew my face back from the lily, I happened to look up at the distant sky, and saw a single star of dawn, twinkling alone.
「百年はもう来ていたんだな」とこの時始めて気がついた。
"The hundred years had already come," I realized, only then, for the first time.
第二夜
The Second Night
こんな夢を見た。
I dreamt this dream.
和尚の室を退がって、廊下伝いに自分の部屋へ帰ると行灯がぼんやり点っている。片膝を座蒲団の上に突いて、灯心を掻き立てたとき、花のような丁子がぱたりと朱塗の台に落ちた。同時に部屋がぱっと明かるくなった。
Withdrawing from the priest's room, I made my way back along the corridor to my own room, where a paper lantern burned dimly. As I set one knee on the cushion and trimmed up the wick, a clove-like snuff, like a little flower, dropped onto the vermilion-lacquered stand with a small patter. At the same moment the room grew suddenly bright.
襖の画は蕪村の筆である。黒い柳を濃く薄く、遠近とかいて、寒むそうな漁夫が笠を傾けて土手の上を通る。床には海中文殊の軸が懸っている。焚き残した線香が暗い方でいまだに臭っている。広い寺だから森閑として、人気がない。黒い天井に差す丸行灯の丸い影が、仰向く途端に生きてるように見えた。
The painting on the sliding doors was by the hand of Buson. Black willows were drawn in shading light and dark, near and far, and a fisherman, looking cold, passed along the embankment with his sedge hat tilted down. In the alcove hung a scroll of Monju in the sea. Incense left half-burned still gave off its smell somewhere in the dark. Being a great temple, it was hushed and silent, with no sign of anyone about. The round shadow that the round paper lantern cast on the black ceiling seemed, the instant I looked up at it, to come alive.
立膝をしたまま、左の手で座蒲団を捲って、右を差し込んで見ると、思った所に、ちゃんとあった。あれば安心だから、蒲団をもとのごとく直して、その上にどっかり坐った。
Still with one knee raised, I turned back the cushion with my left hand and reached my right hand under it, and there it was, just where I had expected. Once I knew it was there I was easy in my mind, so I set the cushion back as it had been and sat myself heavily down upon it.
お前は侍である。侍なら悟れぬはずはなかろうと和尚が云った。そういつまでも悟れぬところをもって見ると、御前は侍ではあるまいと言った。人間の屑じゃと言った。ははあ怒ったなと云って笑った。口惜しければ悟った証拠を持って来いと云ってぷいと向をむいた。怪しからん。
You are a samurai, the priest had said. If you are a samurai, there is no reason you should not be able to attain enlightenment. Seeing that you have failed to attain it for so long, he said, perhaps you are no samurai after all. You are the dregs of humanity, he said. Ha, so you're angry now, he said, and laughed. If it galls you, then bring me proof that you have attained it, he said, and turned sharply away. Outrageous.
隣の広間の床に据えてある置時計が次の刻を打つまでには、きっと悟って見せる。悟った上で、今夜また入室する。そうして和尚の首と悟りと引替にしてやる。悟らなければ、和尚の命が取れない。どうしても悟らなければならない。自分は侍である。
Before the clock standing in the alcove of the next hall strikes the next hour, I will surely show that I have attained it. Once I have attained it, I will go in to him again tonight. And I will trade my enlightenment for the priest's head. If I do not attain it, I cannot take the priest's life. I absolutely must attain it. I am a samurai.
もし悟れなければ自刃する。侍が辱しめられて、生きている訳には行かない。綺麗に死んでしまう。
If I cannot attain it, I will take my own life. A samurai who has been shamed cannot go on living. I will die cleanly.
こう考えた時、自分の手はまた思わず布団の下へ這入った。そうして朱鞘の短刀を引き摺り出した。ぐっと束を握って、赤い鞘を向へ払ったら、冷たい刃が一度に暗い部屋で光った。凄いものが手元から、すうすうと逃げて行くように思われる。そうして、ことごとく切先へ集まって、殺気を一点に籠めている。自分はこの鋭い刃が、無念にも針の頭のように縮められて、九寸五分の先へ来てやむをえず尖ってるのを見て、たちまちぐさりとやりたくなった。身体の血が右の手首の方へ流れて来て、握っている束がにちゃにちゃする。唇が顫えた。
Thinking this, my hand went again, without my meaning it to, under the bedding. And I dragged out the short sword in its vermilion sheath. Gripping the hilt hard, I threw off the red sheath, and the cold blade flashed at once in the dark room. It seemed as though something terrible were slipping away, hissing, from my grasp. And it seemed to gather itself entirely into the point, concentrating its murderous intent into a single spot. Seeing this keen blade, cruelly narrowed down as if to a needle's head, coming inevitably to a point at the tip of its nine and a half sun, I felt a sudden urge to drive it in at once. The blood in my body rushed toward my right wrist, and the hilt I gripped grew slick. My lips trembled.
短刀を鞘へ収めて右脇へ引きつけておいて、それから全伽を組んだ。――趙州曰く無と。無とは何だ。糞坊主めとはがみをした。
I put the short sword back in its sheath, drew it close to my right side, and then sat in full lotus. — Jōshū said, mu. What is mu. Damned priest, I thought, grinding my teeth.
奥歯を強く咬み締めたので、鼻から熱い息が荒く出る。こめかみが釣って痛い。眼は普通の倍も大きく開けてやった。
I clenched my back teeth so hard that hot breath came roughly through my nose. My temples were drawn tight and ached. I forced my eyes open twice as wide as usual.
懸物が見える。行灯が見える。畳が見える。和尚の薬缶頭がありありと見える。鰐口を開いて嘲笑った声まで聞える。怪しからん坊主だ。どうしてもあの薬缶を首にしなくてはならん。悟ってやる。無だ、無だと舌の根で念じた。無だと云うのにやっぱり線香の香がした。何だ線香のくせに。
I can see the hanging scroll. I can see the lantern. I can see the tatami. I can see, vividly, the priest's kettle-bald head. I can even hear the sound of his mocking laugh, his wide mouth open. Outrageous priest. I absolutely must have that kettle-head off his neck. I will attain it. Mu, mu, I repeated fiercely under my tongue. Even as I said mu, the smell of incense still came to me. What is this — and it is only incense.
自分はいきなり拳骨を固めて自分の頭をいやと云うほど擲った。そうして奥歯をぎりぎりと噛んだ。両腋から汗が出る。背中が棒のようになった。膝の接目が急に痛くなった。膝が折れたってどうあるものかと思った。けれども痛い。苦しい。無はなかなか出て来ない。出て来ると思うとすぐ痛くなる。腹が立つ。無念になる。非常に口惜しくなる。涙がほろほろ出る。ひと思に身を巨巌の上にぶつけて、骨も肉もめちゃめちゃに砕いてしまいたくなる。
I suddenly clenched my fist and struck my own head as hard as I could bear. And I ground my back teeth together. Sweat broke out from both my armpits. My back grew stiff as a rod. The joints of my knees began suddenly to ache. I thought, what does it matter if my knees give way. But it hurt. It was agony. Mu would not come out, no matter what. Just as I thought it was coming, the pain flared up again. I grew angry. I grew resentful. I grew bitterly, terribly mortified. Tears fell in streams. I wanted, all at once, to hurl my body against some great boulder and smash my bones and flesh to pieces.
それでも我慢してじっと坐っていた。堪えがたいほど切ないものを胸に盛れて忍んでいた。その切ないものが身体中の筋肉を下から持上げて、毛穴から外へ吹き出よう吹き出ようと焦るけれども、どこも一面に塞がって、まるで出口がないような残刻極まる状態であった。
And yet I bore it and sat perfectly still. I held within my chest something almost unbearably painful, and endured it. That painful thing pushed up from beneath at every muscle in my body, straining to burst out through the pores, and yet everywhere it was blocked, shut in on every side, in a state of the most extreme and cruel confinement, as if there were no outlet anywhere at all.
そのうちに頭が変になった。行灯も蕪村の画も、畳も、違棚も有って無いような、無くって有るように見えた。と云って無はちっとも現前しない。ただ好加減に坐っていたようである。ところへ忽然隣座敷の時計がチーンと鳴り始めた。
Presently my head began to feel strange. The lantern, and Buson's painting, and the tatami, and the staggered shelves, all seemed at once to be there and not there, not there and yet there. And yet mu did not appear before me in the least. I seemed only to be sitting there in some indifferent, halfhearted way. Just then, all at once, the clock in the next room began to strike, ding.
はっと思った。右の手をすぐ短刀にかけた。時計が二つ目をチーンと打った。
I gave a start. My right hand went at once to the short sword. The clock struck a second time, ding.
第三夜
The Third Night
こんな夢を見た。
I dreamt this dream.
六つになる子供を負ってる。たしかに自分の子である。ただ不思議な事にはいつの間にか眼が潰れて、青坊主になっている。自分が御前の眼はいつ潰れたのかいと聞くと、なに昔からさと答えた。声は子供の声に相違ないが、言葉つきはまるで大人である。しかも対等だ。
I am carrying a six-year-old child on my back. It is certainly my own child. Only, strangely, its eyes have gone blind at some point without my knowing, and it has become a shaven-headed little priest of a boy. When I ask, when did your eyes go blind, it answers, oh, long ago. The voice is unmistakably a child's voice, but the manner of speaking is exactly that of a grown man. And what is more, an equal.
左右は青田である。路は細い。鷺の影が時々闇に差す。
On either side lie green rice fields. The path is narrow. From time to time the shadow of a heron falls across the darkness.
「田圃へかかったね」と背中で云った。
"We've come to the rice fields, haven't we," it said from my back.
「どうして解る」と顔を後ろへ振り向けるようにして聞いたら、
"How can you tell," I asked, turning my face back toward it,
「だって鷺が鳴くじゃないか」と答えた。
"Why, can't you hear the heron crying," it answered.
すると鷺がはたして二声ほど鳴いた。
And sure enough the heron cried, twice.
自分は我子ながら少し怖くなった。こんなものを背負っていては、この先どうなるか分らない。どこか打遣ゃる所はなかろうかと向うを見ると闇の中に大きな森が見えた。あすこならばと考え出す途端に、背中で、
Even though it was my own child, I began to feel a little afraid. Carrying a thing like this on my back, I could not tell what would become of me from here on. Wondering if there were not somewhere I could throw it off, I looked ahead and saw, in the darkness, a great forest. Just as I began thinking, there, that would do, from my back,
「ふふん」と云う声がした。
"Heh heh," came a voice.
「何を笑うんだ」
"What are you laughing at."
子供は返事をしなかった。ただ
The child gave no answer. Only,
「御父さん、重いかい」と聞いた。
"Father, am I heavy," it asked.
「重かあない」と答えると
"Not heavy at all," I answered, and
「今に重くなるよ」と云った。
"I'll grow heavy soon enough," it said.
自分は黙って森を目標にあるいて行った。田の中の路が不規則にうねってなかなか思うように出られない。しばらくすると二股になった。自分は股の根に立って、ちょっと休んだ。
I walked on in silence, keeping the forest as my mark. The path through the fields wound about so irregularly that I could not go where I meant to. After a while it forked into two. I stood at the fork and rested a little.
「石が立ってるはずだがな」と小僧が云った。
"There ought to be a stone standing here," the boy said.
なるほど八寸角の石が腰ほどの高さに立っている。表には左り日ヶ窪、右堀田原とある。闇だのに赤い字が明かに見えた。赤い字は井守の腹のような色であった。
Sure enough, a stone about eight sun square stood there, about waist-high. On its face was written, left to Higakubo, right to Hottahara. Though it was dark, the red characters showed clear. The red of the characters was the color of a newt's belly.
「左が好いだろう」と小僧が命令した。左を見るとさっきの森が闇の影を、高い空から自分らの頭の上へ抛げかけていた。自分はちょっと躊躇した。
"Left will do, I think," the boy commanded. Looking left, I saw that the forest from before was casting its shadow of darkness down from the high sky onto our heads. I hesitated a moment.
「遠慮しないでもいい」と小僧がまた云った。自分は仕方なしに森の方へ歩き出した。腹の中では、よく盲目のくせに何でも知ってるなと考えながら一筋道を森へ近づいてくると、背中で、「どうも盲目は不自由でいけないね」と云った。
"No need to hold back," the boy said again. I had no choice but to start walking toward the forest. Thinking to myself, blind as it is, how well it seems to know everything, as I came nearer to the forest along the single path, it said from my back, "Being blind really is a great inconvenience, isn't it."
「だから負ってやるからいいじゃないか」
"That's why I'm carrying you, isn't that enough."
「負ぶって貰ってすまないが、どうも人に馬鹿にされていけない。親にまで馬鹿にされるからいけない」
"I'm grateful to be carried, but it's a bad thing to be made a fool of by people. It's a bad thing to be made a fool of even by one's own parent."
何だか厭になった。早く森へ行って捨ててしまおうと思って急いだ。
Somehow I began to feel sick of it. I hurried on, thinking I would get to the forest quickly and throw it away.
「もう少し行くと解る。――ちょうどこんな晩だったな」と背中で独言のように云っている。
"You'll understand if you go on a little further. — It was just a night like this," it said from my back, as though talking to itself.
「何が」と際どい声を出して聞いた。
"What was," I asked, my voice sharp with something dangerous.
「何がって、知ってるじゃないか」と子供は嘲けるように答えた。すると何だか知ってるような気がし出した。けれども判然とは分らない。ただこんな晩であったように思える。そうしてもう少し行けば分るように思える。分っては大変だから、分らないうちに早く捨ててしまって、安心しなくってはならないように思える。自分はますます足を早めた。
"What was, you say — don't you know already," the child answered, mockingly. Then I began somehow to feel that I did know. But it was not clear. I only felt that it had been a night like this. And that if I went on a little further I would understand. And since it would be terrible to understand, it seemed I must throw it away quickly, before I understood, and be at ease. I hurried my steps all the more.
雨はさっきから降っている。路はだんだん暗くなる。ほとんど夢中である。ただ背中に小さい小僧がくっついていて、その小僧が自分の過去、現在、未来をことごとく照して、寸分の事実も洩らさない鏡のように光っている。しかもそれが自分の子である。そうして盲目である。自分はたまらなくなった。
It had been raining for some time now. The path grew steadily darker. I was scarcely aware of myself. Only the small boy clung fast to my back, and that boy shone like a mirror that illuminated my past, my present, my future, entirely, letting not the smallest fact escape. And moreover he was my own child. And he was blind. It became more than I could bear.
「ここだ、ここだ。ちょうどその杉の根の処だ」
"Here, here. Right at the root of that cedar."
雨の中で小僧の声は判然聞えた。自分は覚えず留った。いつしか森の中へ這入っていた。一間ばかり先にある黒いものはたしかに小僧の云う通り杉の木と見えた。
In the rain the boy's voice came through clear. I stopped without meaning to. I had, without noticing, come into the forest. The black shape about one ken ahead certainly looked, just as the boy said, like a cedar tree.
「御父さん、その杉の根の処だったね」
"Father, it was at the root of that cedar, wasn't it."
「うん、そうだ」と思わず答えてしまった。
"Yes, that's right," I answered, before I could stop myself.
「文化五年辰年だろう」
"It would be the Year of the Dragon, Bunka five, wouldn't it."
なるほど文化五年辰年らしく思われた。
It did indeed seem to be the Year of the Dragon, Bunka five.
「御前がおれを殺したのは今からちょうど百年前だね」
"It was exactly a hundred years ago from now that you killed me, wasn't it."
自分はこの言葉を聞くや否や、今から百年前文化五年の辰年のこんな闇の晩に、この杉の根で、一人の盲目を殺したと云う自覚が、忽然として頭の中に起った。おれは人殺であったんだなと始めて気がついた途端に、背中の子が急に石地蔵のように重くなった。
The instant I heard these words, the awareness rose up suddenly in my mind that a hundred years ago from now, on just such a dark night in the Year of the Dragon, Bunka five, I had killed a blind man at the root of this cedar. The moment I realized, for the first time, that I had been a murderer, the child on my back suddenly grew as heavy as a stone jizō.
第四夜
The Fourth Night
広い土間の真中に涼み台のようなものを据えて、その周囲に小さい床几が並べてある。台は黒光りに光っている。片隅には四角な膳を前に置いて爺さんが一人で酒を飲んでいる。肴は煮しめらしい。
In the middle of the wide earthen-floored room stood something like a cooling bench, and small stools were arranged around it. The bench had a black, gleaming shine. In one corner an old man sat drinking sake alone, a square tray set before him. The food with it looked to be simmered vegetables.
爺さんは酒の加減でなかなか赤くなっている。その上顔中つやつやして皺と云うほどのものはどこにも見当らない。ただ白い髯をありたけ生やしているから年寄と云う事だけはわかる。自分は子供ながら、この爺さんの年はいくつなんだろうと思った。ところへ裏の筧から手桶に水を汲んで来た神さんが、前垂で手を拭きながら、
The old man had grown quite flushed from the sake. Moreover his whole face was smooth and glossy, and nowhere on it could I find anything you might call a wrinkle. Only, since he wore as much white beard as he could grow, one could tell he was old. Child though I was, I wondered how old this old man might be. Just then the innkeeper's wife, who had come from drawing water at the bamboo pipe out back into a pail, was wiping her hands on her apron,
「御爺さんはいくつかね」と聞いた。爺さんは頬張った煮〆を呑み込んで、
"How old are you, Grandfather," she asked. The old man swallowed down the mouthful of simmered food he had been chewing,
「いくつか忘れたよ」と澄ましていた。神さんは拭いた手を、細い帯の間に挟んで横から爺さんの顔を見て立っていた。爺さんは茶碗のような大きなもので酒をぐいと飲んで、そうして、ふうと長い息を白い髯の間から吹き出した。すると神さんが、
"I've forgotten how old," he said, quite unconcerned. The wife tucked her wiped hands into her narrow sash and stood there looking sideways at the old man's face. The old man took a great gulp of sake from some big thing like a rice bowl, and let out a long breath through his white beard, whoosh. Then the wife,
「御爺さんの家はどこかね」と聞いた。爺さんは長い息を途中で切って、
"Where is your home, Grandfather," she asked. The old man cut short his long breath halfway,
「臍の奥だよ」と云った。神さんは手を細い帯の間に突込んだまま、
"Behind my navel," he said. The wife, her hands still tucked into her narrow sash,
「どこへ行くかね」とまた聞いた。すると爺さんが、また茶碗のような大きなもので熱い酒をぐいと飲んで前のような息をふうと吹いて、
"Where are you going, then," she asked again. Then the old man, again taking a great gulp of hot sake from the bowl-like cup and blowing out a breath just as before, whoosh,
「あっちへ行くよ」と云った。
"I'm going over there," he said.
「真直かい」と神さんが聞いた時、ふうと吹いた息が、障子を通り越して柳の下を抜けて、河原の方へ真直に行った。
"Straight there?" the wife asked, and just then the breath he had blown, whoosh, passed straight through the paper screen, out beneath the willow, and away toward the riverbank.
爺さんが表へ出た。自分も後から出た。爺さんの腰に小さい瓢箪がぶら下がっている。肩から四角な箱を腋の下へ釣るしている。浅黄の股引を穿いて、浅黄の袖無しを着ている。足袋だけが黄色い。何だか皮で作った足袋のように見えた。
The old man went outside. I followed after him. A small gourd hung at his hip. A square box hung from his shoulder under his arm. He wore light blue leggings and a light blue sleeveless jacket. Only his socks were yellow. They looked, somehow, like socks made of leather.
爺さんが真直に柳の下まで来た。柳の下に子供が三四人いた。爺さんは笑いながら腰から浅黄の手拭を出した。それを肝心綯のように細長く綯った。そうして地面の真中に置いた。それから手拭の周囲に、大きな丸い輪を描いた。しまいに肩にかけた箱の中から真鍮で製らえた飴屋の笛を出した。
The old man came straight to beneath the willow. There were three or four children under the willow. Smiling, the old man took a light blue hand-towel from his waist. He twisted it, long and thin, like a paper cord. And he laid it in the middle of the ground. Then around the towel he drew a great round circle. Finally, from the box slung at his shoulder, he took out a brass whistle of the sort candy-sellers use.
「今にその手拭が蛇になるから、見ておろう。見ておろう」と繰返して云った。
"That towel will turn into a snake before long, so watch, watch," he said, over and over.
子供は一生懸命に手拭を見ていた。自分も見ていた。
The children watched the towel with all their might. I watched too.
「見ておろう、見ておろう、好いか」と云いながら爺さんが笛を吹いて、輪の上をぐるぐる廻り出した。自分は手拭ばかり見ていた。けれども手拭はいっこう動かなかった。
"Watch, watch, are you ready," the old man said, blowing on his whistle, and began going round and round upon the circle. I kept my eyes fixed on nothing but the towel. But the towel did not move in the least.
爺さんは笛をぴいぴい吹いた。そうして輪の上を何遍も廻った。草鞋を爪立てるように、抜足をするように、手拭に遠慮をするように、廻った。怖そうにも見えた。面白そうにもあった。
The old man blew his whistle, shrilly, again and again. And he went round the circle over and over. He went round as though standing on tiptoe in his straw sandals, as though tiptoeing softly, as though out of deference to the towel. He looked frightened. He also looked as if he were enjoying himself.
やがて爺さんは笛をぴたりとやめた。そうして、肩に掛けた箱の口を開けて、手拭の首を、ちょいと撮んで、ぽっと放り込んだ。
At length the old man stopped his whistle abruptly. Then he opened the mouth of the box slung at his shoulder, pinched up the towel by its neck, and dropped it in with a plop.
「こうしておくと、箱の中で蛇になる。今に見せてやる。今に見せてやる」と云いながら、爺さんが真直に歩き出した。柳の下を抜けて、細い路を真直に下りて行った。自分は蛇が見たいから、細い道をどこまでも追いて行った。爺さんは時々「今になる」と云ったり、「蛇になる」と云ったりして歩いて行く。しまいには、
"Left like this, it will turn into a snake inside the box. I'll show you soon. I'll show you soon," the old man said, and set off walking straight ahead. He passed beneath the willow and went straight down the narrow path. Wanting to see the snake, I followed him along the narrow path, however far it went. As he walked the old man said now and then, "soon now," or "it will be a snake," and at last,
「今になる、蛇になる、
"Soon it comes, a snake it comes,
きっとなる、笛が鳴る、」
Surely it comes, the whistle sounds,"
と唄いながら、とうとう河の岸へ出た。橋も舟もないから、ここで休んで箱の中の蛇を見せるだろうと思っていると、爺さんはざぶざぶ河の中へ這入り出した。始めは膝くらいの深さであったが、だんだん腰から、胸の方まで水に浸って見えなくなる。それでも爺さんは
— singing this, he came at last to the bank of the river. Since there was neither bridge nor boat, I thought he would rest here and show us the snake in the box, but the old man began wading straight into the river with a splash. At first the water came only to his knees, but gradually it rose past his waist, up toward his chest, until he could no longer be seen. And still the old man
「深くなる、夜になる、
"Deeper it comes, night it comes,
真直になる」
Straight on it comes,"
と唄いながら、どこまでも真直に歩いて行った。そうして髯も顔も頭も頭巾もまるで見えなくなってしまった。
— singing this, he went on walking straight ahead, however far. And at last his beard, his face, his head, his hood, all of it, vanished entirely from sight.
自分は爺さんが向岸へ上がった時に、蛇を見せるだろうと思って、蘆の鳴る所に立って、たった一人いつまでも待っていた。けれども爺さんは、とうとう上がって来なかった。
Thinking that the old man would show us the snake once he climbed up on the far bank, I stood where the reeds rustled and waited, alone, for as long as it took. But the old man never did come up out of the water.
第五夜
The Fifth Night
こんな夢を見た。
I dreamt this dream.
何でもよほど古い事で、神代に近い昔と思われるが、自分が軍をして運悪く敗北たために、生擒になって、敵の大将の前に引き据えられた。
It seems to have been some very ancient time, close, I think, to the age of the gods, when I, having gone to war and been unlucky enough to be defeated, was taken captive and brought, made to kneel, before the enemy general.
その頃の人はみんな背が高かった。そうして、みんな長い髯を生やしていた。革の帯を締めて、それへ棒のような剣を釣るしていた。弓は藤蔓の太いのをそのまま用いたように見えた。漆も塗ってなければ磨きもかけてない。極めて素樸なものであった。
The people of that age were all tall of stature. And they all wore long beards. They fastened leather belts about them, from which hung sword-like rods. Their bows looked as though a thick wisteria vine had simply been used as it was. Neither lacquered nor polished, they were things of the most extreme simplicity.
敵の大将は、弓の真中を右の手で握って、その弓を草の上へ突いて、酒甕を伏せたようなものの上に腰をかけていた。その顔を見ると、鼻の上で、左右の眉が太く接続っている。その頃髪剃と云うものは無論なかった。
The enemy general gripped the middle of his bow with his right hand, planted it in the grass, and sat with his hips on something like an upturned sake jar. Looking at his face, I saw that above his nose his two eyebrows joined together, thick and unbroken. In that age there was, of course, no such thing as a razor.
自分は虜だから、腰をかける訳に行かない。草の上に胡坐をかいていた。足には大きな藁沓を穿いていた。この時代の藁沓は深いものであった。立つと膝頭まで来た。その端の所は藁を少し編残して、房のように下げて、歩くとばらばら動くようにして、飾りとしていた。
Being a captive, I was not permitted to sit on anything raised. I sat cross-legged on the grass. On my feet I wore large straw boots. The straw boots of that age were deep things. Standing, they came up to my kneecaps. At the top the straw was left half-woven, hanging down like a tassel, so that it swung loosely as I walked, as an ornament.
大将は篝火で自分の顔を見て、死ぬか生きるかと聞いた。これはその頃の習慣で、捕虜にはだれでも一応はこう聞いたものである。生きると答えると降参した意味で、死ぬと云うと屈服しないと云う事になる。自分は一言死ぬと答えた。大将は草の上に突いていた弓を向うへ抛げて、腰に釣るした棒のような剣をするりと抜きかけた。それへ風に靡いた篝火が横から吹きつけた。自分は右の手を楓のように開いて、掌を大将の方へ向けて、眼の上へ差し上げた。待てと云う相図である。大将は太い剣をかちゃりと鞘に収めた。
The general, looking at my face by the light of the watch-fire, asked whether I would die or live. This was, at that time, the custom, and every captive was asked this once, as a matter of course. To answer that one would live meant one surrendered; to say one would die meant one refused to submit. I answered, in a single word, that I would die. The general threw aside the bow he had planted in the grass, and began to draw, with a slither, the rod-like sword hung at his waist. The watch-fire, blown by the wind, gusted sideways across it as he did. I opened my right hand wide, like a maple leaf, and turned my palm toward the general, raising it above my eyes. It was a signal meaning, wait. The general clicked the thick sword back into its sheath.
その頃でも恋はあった。自分は死ぬ前に一目思う女に逢いたいと云った。大将は夜が開けて鶏が鳴くまでなら待つと云った。鶏が鳴くまでに女をここへ呼ばなければならない。鶏が鳴いても女が来なければ、自分は逢わずに殺されてしまう。
Even in that age there was love. I said that before I died I wished to see, just once, the woman I loved. The general said he would wait until the night broke and the cock crowed. The woman must be summoned here before the cock crowed. If the cock crowed and she had not come, I would be killed without having seen her.
大将は腰をかけたまま、篝火を眺めている。自分は大きな藁沓を組み合わしたまま、草の上で女を待っている。夜はだんだん更ける。
The general, still seated, gazed at the watch-fire. I, my great straw boots crossed one over the other, waited on the grass for the woman. The night grew steadily later.
時々篝火が崩れる音がする。崩れるたびに狼狽えたように焔が大将になだれかかる。真黒な眉の下で、大将の眼がぴかぴかと光っている。すると誰やら来て、新しい枝をたくさん火の中へ抛げ込んで行く。しばらくすると、火がぱちぱちと鳴る。暗闇を弾き返すような勇ましい音であった。
From time to time came the sound of the watch-fire collapsing. Each time it collapsed the flames surged toward the general as if in alarm. Beneath his pitch-black brows the general's eyes gleamed and flashed. Then someone would come and throw a great many fresh branches into the fire. After a while the fire would begin to crackle, sharply. It was a valiant sound, as if beating back the darkness.
この時女は、裏の楢の木に繋いである、白い馬を引き出した。鬣を三度撫でて高い背にひらりと飛び乗った。鞍もない鐙もない裸馬であった。長く白い足で、太腹を蹴ると、馬はいっさんに駆け出した。誰かが篝りを継ぎ足したので、遠くの空が薄明るく見える。馬はこの明るいものを目懸けて闇の中を飛んで来る。鼻から火の柱のような息を二本出して飛んで来る。それでも女は細い足でしきりなしに馬の腹を蹴っている。馬は蹄の音が宙で鳴るほど早く飛んで来る。女の髪は吹流しのように闇の中に尾を曳いた。それでもまだ篝のある所まで来られない。
At this moment the woman led out a white horse that had been tethered to an oak tree out back. She stroked its mane three times and leapt lightly onto its high back. It was a bare horse, with neither saddle nor stirrup. With her long white legs she kicked its round belly, and the horse broke at once into a full gallop. Since someone had fed the watch-fire, the distant sky showed faintly bright. The horse flew through the darkness, making straight for this brightness. From its nostrils came two pillars of breath like fire as it flew. Still the woman kept kicking the horse's belly, without pause, with her slender legs. The horse flew so fast that the sound of its hooves seemed to ring in midair. The woman's hair trailed a tail through the darkness like a streaming banner. And still she could not reach the place where the watch-fire burned.
すると真闇な道の傍で、たちまちこけこっこうという鶏の声がした。女は身を空様に、両手に握った手綱をうんと控えた。馬は前足の蹄を堅い岩の上に発矢と刻み込んだ。
Then, beside the pitch-black road, there suddenly came the crow of a cock, cock-a-doodle-doo. The woman threw her body back and hauled hard on the reins gripped in both hands. The horse dug the hooves of its forelegs, with a sharp crack, into the hard rock.
こけこっこうと鶏がまた一声鳴いた。
Cock-a-doodle-doo, the cock crowed once again.
女はあっと云って、緊めた手綱を一度に緩めた。馬は諸膝を折る。乗った人と共に真向へ前へのめった。岩の下は深い淵であった。
The woman cried out, and let the reins she had drawn tight go slack all at once. The horse's forelegs both buckled. It pitched forward headlong, together with the one who rode it. Beneath the rock was a deep pool.
蹄の跡はいまだに岩の上に残っている。鶏の鳴く真似をしたものは天探女である。この蹄の痕の岩に刻みつけられている間、天探女は自分の敵である。
The mark of the hooves remains on the rock to this day. It was Amanojaku who mimicked the crow of the cock. So long as this hoofmark stays carved into the rock, Amanojaku is my enemy.
第六夜
The Sixth Night
運慶が護国寺の山門で仁王を刻んでいると云う評判だから、散歩ながら行って見ると、自分より先にもう大勢集まって、しきりに下馬評をやっていた。
There was a report going about that Unkei was carving the Nio at the temple gate of Gokoku-ji, so I strolled over to have a look, and there, ahead of me, a large crowd had already gathered and were busy giving their opinions.
山門の前五六間の所には、大きな赤松があって、その幹が斜めに山門の甍を隠して、遠い青空まで伸びている。松の緑と朱塗の門が互いに照り合ってみごとに見える。その上松の位地が好い。門の左の端を眼障にならないように、斜に切って行って、上になるほど幅を広く屋根まで突出しているのが何となく古風である。鎌倉時代とも思われる。
Some five or six ken in front of the temple gate stood a great red pine, its trunk slanting across to hide the tiles of the gate's roof, stretching on up into the far blue sky. The green of the pine and the vermilion lacquer of the gate set each other off splendidly. And besides, the pine stood in just the right place. It cut slantwise past the left edge of the gate so as not to obstruct the view, growing wider the higher it went, until it thrust out over the roof itself, giving off a certain old-fashioned air. One might almost take it for the Kamakura period.
ところが見ているものは、みんな自分と同じく、明治の人間である。その中でも車夫が一番多い。辻待をして退屈だから立っているに相違ない。
And yet the people looking on were, every one of them, like myself, men of the Meiji era. Among them the rickshaw men were the most numerous. No doubt they were standing about, bored from waiting at their stands for a fare.
「大きなもんだなあ」と云っている。
"What a big thing it is," one of them was saying.
「人間を拵えるよりもよっぽど骨が折れるだろう」とも云っている。
"It must take a lot more effort than making a person," another was saying too.
そうかと思うと、「へえ仁王だね。今でも仁王を彫るのかね。へえそうかね。私ゃまた仁王はみんな古いのばかりかと思ってた」と云った男がある。
And then again there was a man who said, "So it's the Nio, is it. So they still carve the Nio these days. Is that right. I always thought all the Nio there were, were old ones."
「どうも強そうですね。なんだってえますぜ。昔から誰が強いって、仁王ほど強い人あ無いって云いますぜ。何でも日本武尊よりも強いんだってえからね」と話しかけた男もある。この男は尻を端折って、帽子を被らずにいた。よほど無教育な男と見える。
"He does look strong, doesn't he. Well, you know what they say. Since ancient times, they say, there's never been anyone stronger than the Nio. Stronger than Yamato Takeru himself, so they say," said a man who spoke up in this way. He had his hem tucked up at the waist and wore no hat. He looked a most uneducated sort of man.
運慶は見物人の評判には委細頓着なく鑿と槌を動かしている。いっこう振り向きもしない。高い所に乗って、仁王の顔の辺をしきりに彫り抜いて行く。
Unkei, paying not the slightest heed to the opinions of the onlookers, kept his chisel and mallet moving. He did not so much as glance around. Perched up high, he went on steadily cutting deep into the region of the Nio's face.
運慶は頭に小さい烏帽子のようなものを乗せて、素袍だか何だかわからない大きな袖を背中で括っている。その様子がいかにも古くさい。わいわい云ってる見物人とはまるで釣り合が取れないようである。自分はどうして今時分まで運慶が生きているのかなと思った。どうも不思議な事があるものだと考えながら、やはり立って見ていた。
On his head Unkei wore something like a small eboshi cap, and had tied back, behind his shoulders, a great sleeve of what might have been a suō robe or something else, I could not tell. His whole manner looked thoroughly old-fashioned. It seemed altogether out of keeping with the chattering onlookers. I wondered how it was that Unkei should still be alive at this late date. Thinking that this was a strange thing indeed, I nonetheless went on standing there and watching.
しかし運慶の方では不思議とも奇体ともとんと感じ得ない様子で一生懸命に彫っている。仰向いてこの態度を眺めていた一人の若い男が、自分の方を振り向いて、
But Unkei himself, showing not the slightest sign of finding anything strange or odd about it, went on carving with all his might. One young man, who had been gazing up at this manner of his, turned toward me,
「さすがは運慶だな。眼中に我々なしだ。天下の英雄はただ仁王と我れとあるのみと云う態度だ。天晴れだ」と云って賞め出した。
"Unkei's a marvel, isn't he. We don't exist in his eyes at all. It's the attitude of a man who thinks the only heroes under heaven are the Nio and himself. Splendid," he said, and began praising him.
自分はこの言葉を面白いと思った。それでちょっと若い男の方を見ると、若い男は、すかさず、
I found this remark amusing. So I glanced over at the young man, and the young man, without missing a beat,
「あの鑿と槌の使い方を見たまえ。大自在の妙境に達している」と云った。
"Just look at the way he uses that chisel and mallet. He's reached the marvelous state of perfect freedom," he said.
運慶は今太い眉を一寸の高さに横へ彫り抜いて、鑿の歯を竪に返すや否や斜すに、上から槌を打ち下した。堅い木を一と刻みに削って、厚い木屑が槌の声に応じて飛んだと思ったら、小鼻のおっ開いた怒り鼻の側面がたちまち浮き上がって来た。その刀の入れ方がいかにも無遠慮であった。そうして少しも疑念を挾んでおらんように見えた。
Just then Unkei carved out a thick eyebrow, a good sun in height, running sideways, and no sooner had he turned the edge of the chisel upright than, tilting it aslant, he brought the mallet down from above. He shaved off the hard wood in a single stroke, and just as a thick wood-chip flew off in answer to the mallet's blow, the side of a flared, angry nostril suddenly rose up into view. The way he drove in the blade was utterly without reserve. And he seemed to entertain not the slightest doubt.
「よくああ無造作に鑿を使って、思うような眉や鼻ができるものだな」と自分はあんまり感心したから独言のように言った。するとさっきの若い男が、
"How can he use the chisel so carelessly and still get just the eyebrow and nose he wants," I said, as though to myself, so struck with admiration was I. Then the young man from before,
「なに、あれは眉や鼻を鑿で作るんじゃない。あの通りの眉や鼻が木の中に埋っているのを、鑿と槌の力で掘り出すまでだ。まるで土の中から石を掘り出すようなものだからけっして間違うはずはない」と云った。
"Not at all, he isn't making the eyebrow and nose with the chisel. It's that an eyebrow and nose exactly like that are already buried in the wood, and all he does is dig them out with the strength of chisel and mallet. It's exactly like digging a stone out of the earth, so there's no possibility of a mistake," he said.
自分はこの時始めて彫刻とはそんなものかと思い出した。はたしてそうなら誰にでもできる事だと思い出した。それで急に自分も仁王が彫ってみたくなったから見物をやめてさっそく家へ帰った。
It was only then that I began to think, so that is what carving is. And if that were truly so, I began to think, then anyone could do it. So all at once I too wanted to try carving a Nio, and I stopped watching and hurried straight home.
道具箱から鑿と金槌を持ち出して、裏へ出て見ると、せんだっての暴風で倒れた樫を、薪にするつもりで、木挽に挽かせた手頃な奴が、たくさん積んであった。
I took a chisel and a hammer out of the toolbox, and going out back, found a great pile of convenient lengths of oak — timber that had blown down in the recent storm and had been sawn up by the sawyer, meant to be used for firewood.
自分は一番大きいのを選んで、勢いよく彫り始めて見たが、不幸にして、仁王は見当らなかった。その次のにも運悪く掘り当てる事ができなかった。三番目のにも仁王はいなかった。自分は積んである薪を片っ端から彫って見たが、どれもこれも仁王を蔵しているのはなかった。ついに明治の木にはとうてい仁王は埋っていないものだと悟った。それで運慶が今日まで生きている理由もほぼ解った。
I chose the largest of them and began carving away vigorously, but unfortunately no Nio was to be found. In the next one too, by ill luck, I failed to dig one out. In the third there was no Nio either. I went on carving through the piled firewood, one piece after another, but not one of them held a Nio hidden within it. In the end I realized that no Nio at all lay buried in the wood of the Meiji era. And with that I came to understand, more or less, the reason why Unkei was still alive to this day.
第七夜
The Seventh Night
何でも大きな船に乗っている。
I am, it seems, aboard some great ship.
この船が毎日毎夜すこしの絶間なく黒い煙を吐いて浪を切って進んで行く。凄じい音である。けれどもどこへ行くんだか分らない。ただ波の底から焼火箸のような太陽が出る。それが高い帆柱の真上まで来てしばらく挂っているかと思うと、いつの間にか大きな船を追い越して、先へ行ってしまう。そうして、しまいには焼火箸のようにじゅっといってまた波の底に沈んで行く。そのたんびに蒼い波が遠くの向うで、蘇枋の色に沸き返る。すると船は凄じい音を立ててその跡を追かけて行く。けれども決して追つかない。
This ship, day and night without the least pause, breathes out black smoke and cuts through the waves as it goes forward. It makes a tremendous noise. But where it is going, I cannot tell. Only, out of the depths of the waves rises the sun, like a red-hot poker. It comes up to just above the tall mast and seems to hang there a while, and then, before I know it, it overtakes the great ship and goes on ahead. And in the end it sinks, hissing, like a red-hot poker plunged into water, back into the depths of the waves. Each time this happens, the blue waves far off in the distance seethe up in a color like sappanwood. And then the ship, making its tremendous noise, goes chasing after it. But it never once catches up.
ある時自分は、船の男を捕まえて聞いて見た。
Once I caught hold of one of the ship's crew and asked him.
「この船は西へ行くんですか」
"Is this ship going west?"
船の男は怪訝な顔をして、しばらく自分を見ていたが、やがて、
The man made a puzzled face, and looked at me for a while, and then,
「なぜ」と問い返した。
"Why," he asked back.
「落ちて行く日を追かけるようだから」
"Because it seems to be chasing after the sun as it goes down."
船の男はからからと笑った。そうして向うの方へ行ってしまった。
The man laughed loudly. And he went off toward the other side.
「西へ行く日の、果は東か。それは本真か。東出る日の、御里は西か。それも本真か。身は波の上。楫枕。流せ流せ」と囃している。舳へ行って見たら、水夫が大勢寄って、太い帆綱を手繰っていた。
"The sun that goes west, does its journey end in the east — is that really true. The sun that rises in the east, is its home in the west — is that true too. My body rides upon the waves. My pillow is the rudder. Drift on, drift on," came the chanting. Going up to the bow, I found a great many sailors gathered together, hauling in a thick sail-rope.
自分は大変心細くなった。いつ陸へ上がれる事か分らない。そうしてどこへ行くのだか知れない。ただ黒い煙を吐いて波を切って行く事だけはたしかである。その波はすこぶる広いものであった。際限もなく蒼く見える。時には紫にもなった。ただ船の動く周囲だけはいつでも真白に泡を吹いていた。自分は大変心細かった。こんな船にいるよりいっそ身を投げて死んでしまおうかと思った。
I felt very forlorn. I had no idea when I would ever set foot on land. And I did not know where we were going. Only this much was certain — that the ship went on breathing black smoke and cutting through the waves. The sea was an exceedingly vast thing. It looked endlessly blue. At times it turned purple. Only around the moving ship itself did it always foam pure white. I felt very forlorn indeed. I thought that rather than stay aboard a ship like this, I would sooner throw myself in and die.
乗合はたくさんいた。たいていは異人のようであった。しかしいろいろな顔をしていた。空が曇って船が揺れた時、一人の女が欄に倚りかかって、しきりに泣いていた。眼を拭く手巾の色が白く見えた。しかし身体には更紗のような洋服を着ていた。この女を見た時に、悲しいのは自分ばかりではないのだと気がついた。
There were a great many fellow passengers. Most of them seemed to be foreigners. But they had all sorts of faces. When the sky clouded over and the ship rocked, one woman leaned against the rail and wept without ceasing. The handkerchief she wiped her eyes with looked white. But on her body she wore a dress like chintz. Seeing this woman, I realized that I was not the only one who was sad.
ある晩甲板の上に出て、一人で星を眺めていたら、一人の異人が来て、天文学を知ってるかと尋ねた。自分はつまらないから死のうとさえ思っている。天文学などを知る必要がない。黙っていた。するとその異人が金牛宮の頂にある七星の話をして聞かせた。そうして星も海もみんな神の作ったものだと云った。最後に自分に神を信仰するかと尋ねた。自分は空を見て黙っていた。
One night I went out onto the deck and was gazing alone at the stars, when a foreigner came and asked whether I knew any astronomy. I found life so tedious that I was even thinking of dying. I had no need to know astronomy. I said nothing. Then the foreigner told me about the seven stars at the top of Taurus. And he said that the stars and the sea, all of it, were things made by God. At last he asked me whether I believed in God. I looked at the sky and said nothing.
或時サローンに這入ったら派手な衣裳を着た若い女が向うむきになって、洋琴を弾いていた。その傍に背の高い立派な男が立って、唱歌を唄っている。その口が大変大きく見えた。けれども二人は二人以外の事にはまるで頓着していない様子であった。船に乗っている事さえ忘れているようであった。
Once, going into the saloon, I found a young woman in a gaudy dress, her back turned, playing the piano. Beside her stood a tall, handsome man, singing a song. His mouth looked very large indeed. But the two of them seemed utterly unconcerned with anything outside themselves. They seemed even to have forgotten that they were aboard a ship at all.
自分はますますつまらなくなった。とうとう死ぬ事に決心した。それである晩、あたりに人のいない時分、思い切って海の中へ飛び込んだ。ところが――自分の足が甲板を離れて、船と縁が切れたその刹那に、急に命が惜しくなった。心の底からよせばよかったと思った。けれども、もう遅い。自分は厭でも応でも海の中へ這入らなければならない。ただ大変高くできていた船と見えて、身体は船を離れたけれども、足は容易に水に着かない。しかし捕まえるものがないから、しだいしだいに水に近づいて来る。いくら足を縮めても近づいて来る。水の色は黒かった。
I found life more and more tedious. At last I resolved to die. And so one night, when there was no one about, I made up my mind and threw myself into the sea. But — the very instant my feet left the deck, and my ties with the ship were cut, I suddenly began to regret losing my life. From the bottom of my heart I thought, I should not have done this. But it was already too late. Whether I liked it or not, I now had to go into the sea. Only, the ship must have been built very high, for though my body had left it, my feet were slow to reach the water. But there was nothing for me to catch hold of, and I drew steadily nearer the water. However much I drew up my feet, it kept coming nearer. The color of the water was black.
そのうち船は例の通り黒い煙を吐いて、通り過ぎてしまった。自分はどこへ行くんだか判らない船でも、やっぱり乗っている方がよかったと始めて悟りながら、しかもその悟りを利用する事ができずに、無限の後悔と恐怖とを抱いて黒い波の方へ静かに落ちて行った。
Meanwhile the ship, breathing its black smoke as always, went on past and away. Realizing, only now, for the first time, that even a ship whose destination I did not know was better to be aboard after all, and yet unable to make any use of this realization, I fell quietly toward the black waves, holding within me an infinite regret and terror.
第八夜
The Eighth Night
床屋の敷居を跨いだら、白い着物を着てかたまっていた三四人が、一度にいらっしゃいと云った。
When I stepped over the threshold of the barbershop, three or four men in white clothes, standing bunched together, all said at once, welcome.
真中に立って見廻すと、四角な部屋である。窓が二方に開いて、残る二方に鏡が懸っている。鏡の数を勘定したら六つあった。
Standing in the middle and looking about, I saw it was a square room. Windows were open on two sides, and on the remaining two sides hung mirrors. When I counted the mirrors, there were six.
自分はその一つの前へ来て腰をおろした。すると御尻がぶくりと云った。よほど坐り心地が好くできた椅子である。鏡には自分の顔が立派に映った。顔の後には窓が見えた。それから帳場格子が斜に見えた。格子の中には人がいなかった。窓の外を通る往来の人の腰から上がよく見えた。
I came before one of them and sat myself down. My backside gave out a soft plump sound. It was a chair made to sit remarkably comfortably. In the mirror my face was reflected splendidly. Behind my face I could see the window. And beyond that, at a slant, the latticed counter. There was no one inside the lattice. Through the window I could see clearly, from the waist up, the passersby on the street outside.
庄太郎が女を連れて通る。庄太郎はいつの間にかパナマの帽子を買って被っている。女もいつの間に拵らえたものやら。ちょっと解らない。双方とも得意のようであった。よく女の顔を見ようと思ううちに通り過ぎてしまった。
Shotaro passed by with a woman. At some point Shotaro had bought and put on a Panama hat. And the woman — when had he got hold of her. I could not quite tell. Both of them seemed rather pleased with themselves. Just as I meant to get a good look at the woman's face, they had already passed out of sight.
豆腐屋が喇叭を吹いて通った。喇叭を口へあてがっているんで、頬ぺたが蜂に螫されたように膨れていた。膨れたまんまで通り越したものだから、気がかりでたまらない。生涯蜂に螫されているように思う。
A tofu seller passed by, blowing his horn. With the horn pressed to his mouth, his cheek was swollen as though stung by a bee. Since he passed on still swollen like that, I could not stop worrying about it. It seemed to me that he must go on being stung by that bee for the rest of his life.
芸者が出た。まだ御化粧をしていない。島田の根が緩んで、何だか頭に締りがない。顔も寝ぼけている。色沢が気の毒なほど悪い。それで御辞儀をして、どうも何とかですと云ったが、相手はどうしても鏡の中へ出て来ない。
A geisha appeared. She had not yet put on her makeup. The base of her shimada coiffure had come loose, and her head looked somehow slack and untidy. Her face too looked half asleep. Her complexion was pitifully poor. She made a bow and said something like, well, I really must, but the person she was speaking to would not, no matter what, come into view in the mirror.
すると白い着物を着た大きな男が、自分の後ろへ来て、鋏と櫛を持って自分の頭を眺め出した。自分は薄い髭を捩って、どうだろう物になるだろうかと尋ねた。白い男は、何にも云わずに、手に持った琥珀色の櫛で軽く自分の頭を叩いた。
Just then a big man in white clothes came up behind me, and holding scissors and a comb, began studying my head. I twisted my thin moustache and asked, well, do you think anything can be made of it. The man in white, without a word, tapped my head lightly with the amber-colored comb he held.
「さあ、頭もだが、どうだろう、物になるだろうか」と自分は白い男に聞いた。白い男はやはり何も答えずに、ちゃきちゃきと鋏を鳴らし始めた。
"Well now, the head and all — what do you think, can anything be made of it," I asked the man in white. The man in white, again without answering, began snipping his scissors, click-click.
鏡に映る影を一つ残らず見るつもりで眼を睜っていたが、鋏の鳴るたんびに黒い毛が飛んで来るので、恐ろしくなって、やがて眼を閉じた。すると白い男が、こう云った。
I kept my eyes wide open, meaning to watch every single reflection in the mirror without missing one, but each time the scissors clicked, black hairs came flying at me, and growing frightened, I presently shut my eyes. Then the man in white said this.
「旦那は表の金魚売を御覧なすったか」
"Did you happen to notice, sir, the goldfish seller out front?"
自分は見ないと云った。白い男はそれぎりで、しきりと鋏を鳴らしていた。すると突然大きな声で危険と云ったものがある。はっと眼を開けると、白い男の袖の下に自転車の輪が見えた。人力の梶棒が見えた。と思うと、白い男が両手で自分の頭を押えてうんと横へ向けた。自転車と人力車はまるで見えなくなった。鋏の音がちゃきちゃきする。
I said I had not seen it. The man in white said no more, and went on busily snipping his scissors. Then suddenly someone cried out, loudly, watch out. Startled, I opened my eyes, and beneath the man in white's sleeve I saw the wheel of a bicycle. I saw the shaft of a rickshaw. And just then the man in white pressed my head with both hands and turned it hard to one side. The bicycle and the rickshaw vanished from sight entirely. The scissors went on clicking.
やがて、白い男は自分の横へ廻って、耳の所を刈り始めた。毛が前の方へ飛ばなくなったから、安心して眼を開けた。粟餅や、餅やあ、餅や、と云う声がすぐ、そこでする。小さい杵をわざと臼へあてて、拍子を取って餅を搗いている。粟餅屋は子供の時に見たばかりだから、ちょっと様子が見たい。けれども粟餅屋はけっして鏡の中に出て来ない。ただ餅を搗く音だけする。
Presently the man in white came round to my side and began cutting near my ear. Since the hair no longer flew forward, I opened my eyes with an easy mind. A voice crying, millet-cakes, cakes, cakes, sounded close by, right there. Someone was deliberately striking a small pestle against a mortar, keeping time, pounding out cakes. I had only ever seen a millet-cake seller as a child, and I rather wanted to see how it looked now. But the millet-cake seller would not, no matter what, come into view in the mirror. Only the sound of pounding cakes came.
自分はあるたけの視力で鏡の角を覗き込むようにして見た。すると帳場格子のうちに、いつの間にか一人の女が坐っている。色の浅黒い眉毛の濃い大柄な女で、髪を銀杏返しに結って、黒繻子の半襟のかかった素袷で、立膝のまま、札の勘定をしている。札は十円札らしい。女は長い睫を伏せて薄い唇を結んで一生懸命に、札の数を読んでいるが、その読み方がいかにも早い。しかも札の数はどこまで行っても尽きる様子がない。膝の上に乗っているのはたかだか百枚ぐらいだが、その百枚がいつまで勘定しても百枚である。
I strained every bit of my eyesight to peer into the corner of the mirror. And there, inside the latticed counter, a woman had come to be sitting, at some point without my noticing. She was a large-framed woman with a dark complexion and thick eyebrows, her hair done up in a ginkgo-leaf knot, wearing an unlined kimono with a black satin collar-cover, one knee raised, counting out banknotes. The notes appeared to be ten-yen notes. Lowering her long lashes and pressing her thin lips together, she counted the notes with all her concentration, and her counting went remarkably fast. And yet, however far she went, the notes showed no sign of running out. What lay on her lap was at most a hundred sheets or so, but however long she counted, that hundred remained a hundred.
自分は茫然としてこの女の顔と十円札を見つめていた。すると耳の元で白い男が大きな声で「洗いましょう」と云った。ちょうどうまい折だから、椅子から立ち上がるや否や、帳場格子の方をふり返って見た。けれども格子のうちには女も札も何にも見えなかった。
I stared, dazed, at this woman's face and at the ten-yen notes. Then, close by my ear, the man in white said loudly, "let's wash it now." Since it was just the right moment, no sooner had I risen from the chair than I turned to look back at the latticed counter. But inside the lattice there was neither woman nor notes nor anything else to be seen.
代を払って表へ出ると、門口の左側に、小判なりの桶が五つばかり並べてあって、その中に赤い金魚や、斑入の金魚や、痩せた金魚や、肥った金魚がたくさん入れてあった。そうして金魚売がその後にいた。金魚売は自分の前に並べた金魚を見つめたまま、頬杖を突いて、じっとしている。騒がしい往来の活動にはほとんど心を留めていない。自分はしばらく立ってこの金魚売を眺めていた。けれども自分が眺めている間、金魚売はちっとも動かなかった。
When I had paid and gone outside, I found, on the left of the doorway, some five oval, coin-shaped tubs lined up, and in them were kept a great many goldfish — red ones, mottled ones, thin ones, fat ones. And the goldfish seller sat behind them. The goldfish seller, gazing steadily at the goldfish arranged before him, sat perfectly still, his chin propped on his hand. He paid almost no attention to the bustling activity of the street. I stood for a while watching this goldfish seller. But the whole time I watched, the goldfish seller did not move in the least.
第九夜
The Ninth Night
世の中が何となくざわつき始めた。今にも戦争が起りそうに見える。焼け出された裸馬が、夜昼となく、屋敷の周囲を暴れ廻ると、それを夜昼となく足軽共が犇きながら追かけているような心持がする。それでいて家のうちは森として静かである。
The world had somehow begun to grow unsettled. It looked as though war might break out at any moment. It felt as if horses, burned out of their stables and running loose, were rampaging around the mansion by day and by night, and as if foot soldiers, jostling together, were chasing after them by day and by night as well. And yet, within the house itself, all was hushed and still.
家には若い母と三つになる子供がいる。父はどこかへ行った。父がどこかへ行ったのは、月の出ていない夜中であった。床の上で草鞋を穿いて、黒い頭巾を被って、勝手口から出て行った。その時母の持っていた雪洞の灯が暗い闇に細長く射して、生垣の手前にある古い檜を照らした。
In the house lived a young mother and a three-year-old child. The father had gone off somewhere. It was in the middle of a moonless night that the father went off. On the bedding he put on straw sandals, put on a black hood, and went out by the kitchen door. At that moment the light of the paper lantern the mother was holding shot out, long and thin, into the dark night, and lit up an old cypress standing before the hedge.
父はそれきり帰って来なかった。母は毎日三つになる子供に「御父様は」と聞いている。子供は何とも云わなかった。しばらくしてから「あっち」と答えるようになった。母が「いつ御帰り」と聞いてもやはり「あっち」と答えて笑っていた。その時は母も笑った。そうして「今に御帰り」と云う言葉を何遍となく繰返して教えた。けれども子供は「今に」だけを覚えたのみである。時々は「御父様はどこ」と聞かれて「今に」と答える事もあった。
The father never came back after that. Every day the mother asked the three-year-old child, where is your father. The child said nothing at first. After some time it began answering, over there. Even when the mother asked, when will he come home, it still answered, over there, and laughed. At such times the mother laughed too. And she taught the child, over and over, the words, he'll come home soon. But the child learned only the soon part of it. Sometimes, when asked, where is your father, it would answer, soon, instead.
夜になって、四隣が静まると、母は帯を締め直して、鮫鞘の短刀を帯の間へ差して、子供を細帯で背中へ背負って、そっと潜りから出て行く。母はいつでも草履を穿いていた。子供はこの草履の音を聞きながら母の背中で寝てしまう事もあった。
When night came and the neighborhood grew quiet, the mother would retie her sash, thrust a short sword in a shark-skin sheath into the fold of her sash, tie the child onto her back with a narrow sash-cord, and slip quietly out through the wicket gate. The mother always wore straw sandals. The child, listening to the sound of these sandals, would sometimes fall asleep on the mother's back.
土塀の続いている屋敷町を西へ下って、だらだら坂を降り尽くすと、大きな銀杏がある。この銀杏を目標に右に切れると、一丁ばかり奥に石の鳥居がある。片側は田圃で、片側は熊笹ばかりの中を鳥居まで来て、それを潜り抜けると、暗い杉の木立になる。それから二十間ばかり敷石伝いに突き当ると、古い拝殿の階段の下に出る。鼠色に洗い出された賽銭箱の上に、大きな鈴の紐がぶら下がって昼間見ると、その鈴の傍に八幡宮と云う額が懸っている。八の字が、鳩が二羽向いあったような書体にできているのが面白い。そのほかにもいろいろの額がある。たいていは家中のものの射抜いた金的を、射抜いたものの名前に添えたのが多い。たまには太刀を納めたのもある。
Going west down a lane of mansions lined with earthen walls, and going all the way down a long gentle slope, one comes to a great ginkgo tree. Turning right by this ginkgo as a marker, there is a stone torii some one chō further in. Coming to the torii through a stretch where one side is rice fields and the other nothing but low bamboo grass, and passing beneath it, one enters a dark grove of cedars. Then, following the paving stones some twenty ken, one comes up against the foot of the steps of an old worship-hall. Above the offering box, weathered to a mouse-gray, hangs the cord of a great bell, and if one sees it by daylight, beside that bell hangs a plaque reading Hachiman-gū. It is amusing how the character for eight is written in a style that looks like two doves facing each other. There are various other plaques as well. Most of them bear the names of retainers of the household who shot a bull's-eye, attached to the target they pierced. Now and then there is one on which a sword has been dedicated.
鳥居を潜ると杉の梢でいつでも梟が鳴いている。そうして、冷飯草履の音がぴちゃぴちゃする。それが拝殿の前でやむと、母はまず鈴を鳴らしておいて、すぐにしゃがんで柏手を打つ。たいていはこの時梟が急に鳴かなくなる。それから母は一心不乱に夫の無事を祈る。母の考えでは、夫が侍であるから、弓矢の神の八幡へ、こうやって是非ない願をかけたら、よもや聴かれぬ道理はなかろうと一図に思いつめている。
Once she has passed beneath the torii, an owl is always crying somewhere in the treetops of the cedars. And the sound of the mother's straw sandals goes pit-a-pat. When that sound stops before the worship-hall, the mother first rings the bell, and at once crouches down and claps her hands together. It is usually at this moment that the owl suddenly falls silent. Then the mother prays, with her whole heart and without distraction, for her husband's safety. In the mother's thinking, since her husband is a samurai, if she makes this desperate plea in this way to Hachiman, the god of bow and arrow, surely there can be no reason it should go unheard — of this she is single-mindedly convinced.
子供はよくこの鈴の音で眼を覚まして、四辺を見ると真暗だものだから、急に背中で泣き出す事がある。その時母は口の内で何か祈りながら、背を振ってあやそうとする。すると旨く泣きやむ事もある。またますます烈しく泣き立てる事もある。いずれにしても母は容易に立たない。
The child often wakes at the sound of this bell, and finding everything around it pitch dark, sometimes suddenly bursts into crying on her back. At such times the mother, still praying something under her breath, tries to soothe it by swaying her back. Sometimes this works well and the crying stops. And sometimes it only cries all the more fiercely. Either way, the mother does not readily rise.
一通り夫の身の上を祈ってしまうと、今度は細帯を解いて、背中の子を摺りおろすように、背中から前へ廻して、両手に抱きながら拝殿を上って行って、「好い子だから、少しの間、待っておいでよ」ときっと自分の頬を子供の頬へ擦りつける。そうして細帯を長くして、子供を縛っておいて、その片端を拝殿の欄干に括りつける。それから段々を下りて来て二十間の敷石を往ったり来たり御百度を踏む。
Once she has finished a round of praying for her husband's welfare, she next unties the narrow sash-cord, and, sliding the child down off her back, brings it around from her back to her front, and, holding it in both arms, climbs up into the worship-hall, and says, be a good child now, and wait a little while, and never fails to rub her own cheek against the child's cheek. Then she lengthens the sash-cord, binds the child with it, and ties one end of it to the railing of the worship-hall. Then she comes back down the steps and walks the hundred-times pilgrimage, back and forth over the twenty ken of paving stones.
拝殿に括りつけられた子は、暗闇の中で、細帯の丈のゆるす限り、広縁の上を這い廻っている。そう云う時は母にとって、はなはだ楽な夜である。けれども縛った子にひいひい泣かれると、母は気が気でない。御百度の足が非常に早くなる。大変息が切れる。仕方のない時は、中途で拝殿へ上って来て、いろいろすかしておいて、また御百度を踏み直す事もある。
The child, tied to the worship-hall, crawls about on the wide veranda in the darkness, as far as the length of the sash-cord allows. On such a night things are quite easy for the mother. But when the bound child begins wailing and wailing, the mother cannot keep her mind at ease. Her feet on the hundred-times pilgrimage grow very fast. Her breath comes in gasps. When there is nothing else to be done, she comes back up into the worship-hall midway, soothes the child in various ways, and then starts the hundred-times pilgrimage over again.
こう云う風に、幾晩となく母が気を揉んで、夜の目も寝ずに心配していた父は、とくの昔に浪士のために殺されていたのである。
In this way, night after night, while the mother worried herself sick, lying awake through the night in her anxiety, the father had long since been killed by masterless samurai.
こんな悲い話を、夢の中で母から聞いた。
I heard this sad story, in the dream, from the mother's own mouth.
第十夜
The Tenth Night
庄太郎が女に攫われてから七日目の晩にふらりと帰って来て、急に熱が出てどっと、床に就いていると云って健さんが知らせに来た。
Ken came to bring word that Shotaro, who had been carried off by a woman, had drifted back home on the seventh night, and had suddenly come down with a fever and taken hard to his bed.
庄太郎は町内一の好男子で、至極善良な正直者である。ただ一つの道楽がある。パナマの帽子を被って、夕方になると水菓子屋の店先へ腰をかけて、往来の女の顔を眺めている。そうしてしきりに感心している。そのほかにはこれと云うほどの特色もない。
Shotaro was the best-looking man in the neighborhood, and an utterly decent, honest fellow. He had just one indulgence. Wearing a Panama hat, when evening came he would seat himself at the front of the fruit shop and gaze at the faces of the women passing in the street. And he would go on admiring them without pause. Apart from this he had no particular trait worth mentioning.
あまり女が通らない時は、往来を見ないで水菓子を見ている。水菓子にはいろいろある。水蜜桃や、林檎や、枇杷や、バナナを綺麗に籠に盛って、すぐ見舞物に持って行けるように二列に並べてある。庄太郎はこの籠を見ては綺麗だと云っている。商売をするなら水菓子屋に限ると云っている。そのくせ自分はパナマの帽子を被ってぶらぶら遊んでいる。
When few women passed by, he would look, instead of at the street, at the fruit. The fruit was of many kinds. Honey peaches, apples, loquats, bananas, arranged beautifully in baskets, set out in two rows so they could be carried off at once as gifts to the sick. Shotaro, looking at these baskets, would say how beautiful they were. He would say that if one were going into business, a fruit shop was the only thing to choose. And yet he himself went about idling in his Panama hat.
この色がいいと云って、夏蜜柑などを品評する事もある。けれども、かつて銭を出して水菓子を買った事がない。ただでは無論食わない。色ばかり賞めている。
He would say that this color was fine, and pass judgment on the summer oranges and the like. But he had never once paid money to buy a piece of fruit. Nor, of course, did he ever eat one for free. He only ever praised their color.
ある夕方一人の女が、不意に店先に立った。身分のある人と見えて立派な服装をしている。その着物の色がひどく庄太郎の気に入った。その上庄太郎は大変女の顔に感心してしまった。そこで大事なパナマの帽子を脱って丁寧に挨拶をしたら、女は籠詰の一番大きいのを指して、これを下さいと云うんで、庄太郎はすぐその籠を取って渡した。すると女はそれをちょっと提げて見て、大変重い事と云った。
One evening a woman suddenly stood before the shop. She looked like a person of some standing, being splendidly dressed. Shotaro was tremendously taken with the color of her kimono. And on top of that he was greatly struck with admiration for the woman's face. So he took off his precious Panama hat and made her a polite bow, whereupon the woman, pointing to the largest of the baskets, said, give me this, and Shotaro at once picked up the basket and handed it to her. The woman lifted it a little to test its weight, and said, my, how heavy this is.
庄太郎は元来閑人の上に、すこぶる気作な男だから、ではお宅まで持って参りましょうと云って、女といっしょに水菓子屋を出た。それぎり帰って来なかった。
Shotaro, being by nature a man of leisure, and moreover a remarkably easygoing fellow, said, well then, allow me to carry it to your home, and left the fruit shop together with the woman. He did not come back after that.
いかな庄太郎でも、あんまり呑気過ぎる。只事じゃ無かろうと云って、親類や友達が騒ぎ出していると、七日目の晩になって、ふらりと帰って来た。そこで大勢寄ってたかって、庄さんどこへ行っていたんだいと聞くと、庄太郎は電車へ乗って山へ行ったんだと答えた。
Even for Shotaro, this was far too carefree. Saying that this could hardly be an ordinary matter, his relatives and friends had begun to raise a commotion, when, on the night of the seventh day, he drifted back home. Then everyone crowded around him and asked, Sho, where in the world have you been, and Shotaro answered that he had taken a streetcar and gone to the mountains.
何でもよほど長い電車に違いない。庄太郎の云うところによると、電車を下りるとすぐと原へ出たそうである。非常に広い原で、どこを見廻しても青い草ばかり生えていた。女といっしょに草の上を歩いて行くと、急に絶壁の天辺へ出た。その時女が庄太郎に、ここから飛び込んで御覧なさいと云った。底を覗いて見ると、切岸は見えるが底は見えない。庄太郎はまたパナマの帽子を脱いで再三辞退した。すると女が、もし思い切って飛び込まなければ、豚に舐められますが好うござんすかと聞いた。庄太郎は豚と雲右衛門が大嫌だった。けれども命には易えられないと思って、やっぱり飛び込むのを見合せていた。ところへ豚が一匹鼻を鳴らして来た。庄太郎は仕方なしに、持っていた細い檳榔樹の洋杖で、豚の鼻頭を打った。豚はぐうと云いながら、ころりと引っ繰り返って、絶壁の下へ落ちて行った。庄太郎はほっと一と息接いでいるとまた一匹の豚が大きな鼻を庄太郎に擦りつけに来た。庄太郎はやむをえずまた洋杖を振り上げた。豚はぐうと鳴いてまた真逆様に穴の底へ転げ込んだ。するとまた一匹あらわれた。この時庄太郎はふと気がついて、向うを見ると、遥の青草原の尽きる辺から幾万匹か数え切れぬ豚が、群をなして一直線に、この絶壁の上に立っている庄太郎を目懸けて鼻を鳴らしてくる。庄太郎は心から恐縮した。けれども仕方がないから、近寄ってくる豚の鼻頭を、一つ一つ丁寧に檳榔樹の洋杖で打っていた。不思議な事に洋杖が鼻へ触りさえすれば豚はころりと谷の底へ落ちて行く。覗いて見ると底の見えない絶壁を、逆さになった豚が行列して落ちて行く。
It must, at any rate, have been a remarkably long streetcar ride. According to Shotaro's account, as soon as he got off the streetcar he came out onto a plain. It was an extremely wide plain, and wherever he looked there grew nothing but green grass. Walking with the woman over the grass, he suddenly came out at the top of a sheer cliff. There the woman said to Shotaro, try jumping in from here. Peeking over the edge, he could see the face of the cliff but not the bottom. Shotaro again took off his Panama hat and declined, again and again. Then the woman asked, if you don't make up your mind and jump, would it be all right if you were licked by a pig instead. Shotaro hated pigs, and Kumoemon, more than anything in the world. But thinking that this could hardly be worth his life, he still held off from jumping. Just then a pig came up, snorting through its nose. Shotaro, having no choice, struck the pig on the snout with the slender betel-palm walking stick he carried. The pig went, hmph, and rolled right over, and fell down the cliff. Shotaro had just let out a breath of relief when another pig came up and pressed its great snout against him. Shotaro, having no choice, again raised his walking stick. The pig cried, hmph, and again tumbled headlong into the pit. Then yet another appeared. At this point Shotaro happened to notice, and looking off into the distance, saw that from the far end of the green grass plain, tens of thousands of pigs beyond counting, in a great herd, in a straight line, were coming on with snorting noses, making straight for Shotaro standing atop this cliff. Shotaro was utterly overwhelmed with dismay. But there was nothing for it, so he went on striking, one by one, carefully, with his betel-palm walking stick, the snouts of the pigs as they drew near. Strange to say, the moment the stick so much as touched a snout, the pig would roll right over and fall to the bottom of the ravine. Peering over, he saw, down the bottomless cliff, an endless procession of upside-down pigs falling one after another.
自分がこのくらい多くの豚を谷へ落したかと思うと、庄太郎は我ながら怖くなった。けれども豚は続々くる。黒雲に足が生えて、青草を踏み分けるような勢いで無尽蔵に鼻を鳴らしてくる。
When he thought how many pigs he himself had sent falling into the ravine, Shotaro grew frightened even at himself. But still the pigs kept coming, one after another. They came on with a force like a black cloud sprouted with legs, trampling through the green grass, snorting on without end.
庄太郎は必死の勇をふるって、豚の鼻頭を七日六晩叩いた。けれども、とうとう精根が尽きて、手が蒟蒻のように弱って、しまいに豚に舐められてしまった。そうして絶壁の上へ倒れた。
Shotaro summoned up his desperate courage and struck at the pigs' snouts for seven days and six nights. But at last his strength gave out entirely, his hand grew as feeble as a piece of konnyaku, and in the end he was licked by a pig. And he collapsed there atop the cliff.
健さんは、庄太郎の話をここまでして、だからあんまり女を見るのは善くないよと云った。自分ももっともだと思った。けれども健さんは庄太郎のパナマの帽子が貰いたいと云っていた。
Ken, having told Shotaro's story this far, said, that's why it's no good to go on staring so much at women. I thought this only made sense. But Ken also said he wanted to have Shotaro's Panama hat.
庄太郎は助かるまい。パナマは健さんのものだろう。
Shotaro will probably not recover. The Panama will likely become Ken's.