A Story
A translation of Hans Christian Andersen's
"En Historie" by Jean Hersholt
All the apple trees in the garden were blooming. They had hastened to cover themselves with blossoms before their green leaves were fully unfolded. All the ducklings were in the farmyard, and so was the cat; it basked in the sun and tried to lick the sunshine from its own paws.
庭のどの林檎の木も、満開だった。緑の葉が十分芽吹く前に、急いで自らを花で覆った。アヒルの子は、農家の中庭に勢揃い。もちろん猫も。日向ぼっこをしながら、その自分の足から、日光を舐めようとしていた。
And to look across the fields was a pleasing sight; there stood the corn, so beautifully green, while all the small birds chirped and twittered as happily as if they were having a great holiday.
そして畑を見渡すと、気持ちのよい眺めが広がっていた。そこには、実に鮮やかで青い玉蜀黍（とうもろこし）が並んでいた。同時に、小鳥達は揃って囀り、まるで、素晴らしい休日を迎えているかのように、幸せそうに鳴いた。
And, indeed, people could rightly think of this as a holiday, for it was Sunday. The bells were chiming while people in their best clothes were walking to church and looking so cheerful. It was such a bright, warm day that one might well say: "How good God is to grant us so many blessings!"
それに実祭、人々が、この日を休日と思っても一向に構わなかった。というのも、今日は日曜日だったから。鐘が鳴っていた。一帳羅を着た人々が、教会に向かって歩いていた。それは、実に元気そうに見えた。今日は、こんなよく晴れた、暖かい日だったから、誰もが、満足げにロにする。「何と心強い。神は、一通りではない多くの祝福を僕達に授ける為におられるとは！」
But inside the church the preacher in the pulpit spoke in a loud and angry tone; he said that all humans were wicked and that God would certainly punish them by sending them to the eternal torments of hell when they died. He said that they would never find peace or rest in hell, for their consciences would never die nor would the fires ever be extinguished.
ところで、教会の中では、説教檀の牧師が、声高に怒りを込めて語り掛けていた。彼は、人間というものは、性悪だと、そして、神は、人々が死ぬと、地獄という果てしない苦痛の在り処に彼らを送り込む事によって、確実に人を罰そうとすると言った。人々は、地獄では安心はおろか休息すら見出せない。何故なら、人々の良心は、決して消滅出来ないどころか、その劫火は永遠に消せないからだ。と彼は、言った。
This was terrible to hear, but still he went on as if the subject he was explaining were really true. He described hell to them as a stagnant cave, where all the impure and sinful of the world would be; there would be no air, only the hot sulphur flames, and no bottom there, and the wicked would sink deeper and deeper into eternal silence forever!
これは、聞く程に恐くなった。それにも拘らず、更に、彼は、まるで彼が説いていた主題は、全く間違いがないとでも言いたげに続けた。彼は、人々に、地獄を、淀んだ洞窟、と描写した。そしてそこには、この世の穢れや罪深さがあるべくしてある。そこには、全<空気もなく、只、熱い硫黄の炎のみで、そこに水底などあろう筈もない。又、悪徳は、永遠に、果てしない沈黙の中へ、深みへ、深みへと引き摺り込もうとする。
It was horrible to hear this, but the preacher spoke from his heart, and all the people in the church were terrified.
これを聞いてぞっとした。が、牧師は、思いの丈を語った。そして、教会の人々の誰もが、脅えた。
But the birds outside the church sang joyously, and the sun was shining warmly; it was as if each little bird were saying, "Nothing is so great as the loving-kindness of the Almighty!"
それでも、教会の外では、鳥が嬉しそうに囀り、陽が強く照っていた。一羽一羽の小鳥は、まるで、「神の情愛を慈しむ事程、貴い事は、何一つない！」とでも言いたそうだった。
Yes, outside the church, it was not at all like the preacher's sermon.
そう、教会の外では、牧師の説教のような事など、起こりそうもなかった。
Before the preacher went to bed that evening he noticed that his wife sat silent and thoughtful. "What's the matter with you?" he said to her.
牧師は、その晩、寝る前に、妻が黙り込んで、物思いに沈んでいる事に気付いた。「どうしたの？」と、彼は、彼女に尋ねた。
"Why," she replied, "the matter with me is that I can't quite bring myself to agree with what you said today in your sermon. It doesn't seem right to say that so many sinners will be condemned to everlasting fire forever. Forever! Ah, how long! I'm only a poor sinful creature myself, but I can't believe in my heart that even the vilest sinner will be condemned to burn in torment forever! We know the mercy of the Almighty is as great as His power; He knows how people are tempted from without and within by their own evil natures. No, I do not believe it, even if you said so."
「何故。」彼女は、返事をした。「私が気になるのは、貴方が、今日説教で話した事に賛成する気になれないという事。そんなに沢山の罪人が、永遠に消えない火に罰せられるなどと、言ってよいとは思えない。永遠に！ああ、どれ程長いのでしょう！私は、単なる哀れな罪深い生き物、ほんとに。でも私は、最も下劣な罪人でさえ、永遠に耐え難い苦悩にひりひりする事を必ず運命づけられるなんて、心の底では信じられない！私達は、全能の神の慈悲は、彼の人の力と同じ位貴い、と知っている。彼の人は、人々が、自らの生まれながらの不幸な性質によって、如何に、外面も内面も惑わされるか、御存知だわ。いいえ、私は、喩え貴方がそう仰っても、それでいいとは思わない。」
It was autumn, the trees scattering their leaves on the ground, and the severe but earnest preacher sat beside the bed of a dying person. A faithful soul closed her eyes forever; it was the preacher's wife.
秋だった。地面に葉を撒き散らしている樹木。やがて厳格だが、熱心な牧師が、死に瀕した人の床の傍らに座った。誠実な魂は、永遠に目を閉じた。それは、牧師の妻だった。
"If anyone can find peace and rest in the grave, through God's mercy, it is you!" sighed the preacher, as he folded her hands and read a psalm over the dead woman.
彼は、彼女の手を折り畳みながら、「もし一人でも、神の慈悲によって、安心と休息を墓の中に見出せるとすると、それは、お前だ！」牧師は、安堵した。そして、死んだ女に詩篇を通読した。
She was laid in her grave. Two large tears rolled down the cheeks of the sincere man, and in the parsonage everything seemed so empty and still. The sunshine of his home had vanished, for she had gone.
彼女は、墓に横えられた。二つの大粒の涙が、正直者の頬を転げ落ちた。そして、牧師館の全てが、何故か虚しく、しんとしているように思われた。彼女が去ってしまって、彼の家の陽光が影を潜めた。
It was night, and a cold wind blew over the head of the preacher. He opened his eyes and it seemed to him that the moon was shining into the room, but there was no moonlight. A figure stood beside his bed, and the spirit of his deceased wife shone upon him. Earnestly and sadly she looked at him, as if she had something on her mind that she wanted to say to him.
夜になると、冷たい風が牧師の頭上に吹いた。彼が目を開けると、月の光が部屋の中に差しているように彼には思えた。が、月光は、どこにもなかった。彼のべッドの傍に一つの影が立ち、亡き妻の魂は、彼を照らした。真剣に、悲しそうに
彼女は、彼を見た。何か言いたかった事でもあるかのように。
He half raised himself in bed, stretched out his arms to her, and cried, "Then even you aren't permitted to rest in peace forever? Must you suffer, too? You, the best, the most pious!"
彼は、べッドで半分身を持ち上げ、彼女の方に腕を伸ばして声を上げた。「するとお前でも永遠に安心して休む事を許されないの？お前も、心を痛めるしかないの？お前は、最も望ましく、最も信心深い人だ。
The dead bowed her head as if to say "yes," and laid her hand on her heart.
死者は、「そう。」とでも言いたげに頭を下げ、彼女の胸の上にその手を置いた
"And can I give you peace in the grave?" he asked.
「それで、僕は、墓の中でお前に安らぎ
を上げられないんだね？」と彼は尋ねた。
"Yes," was the distinct reply.
「そうよ。」きっぱりとした答えだった。
"And how?"
「じゃあ、どうしよう?」
"Bring me a hair, just one single hair, from the head of just one sinner whom God will condemn to eternal torture in hell."
「私に髪の毛を一本持って来て。神様が地獄での果てしない拷問を宣告しようとしているほんの一人の罪人の頭から只一本だけ髪の毛を。」
"Yes, you should be freed that easily, you pure, you pious woman!" he said.
「分かった。お前は、放面されるべきだ。確かに、お前は、穢れていない、お前は、信心深い女だ！」と彼は言った。
"Then follow me," said the dead. It has been granted us that you can fly through the air by my side, wherever your thoughts are directed. To mortals we shall be invisible, and able to pass unseen through the closed and bolted doors of inner rooms. But you must be certain that the man you point out to me as eternally damned is really one whom God will condemn to the torments of hell-fire forever, and he must be found before the cock crows."
「では私について来て。」と死者は言った。「貴方には、私と並んで宙を飛んでも構わないという許可が下りたばかり。貴方が心に思い浮かべれば、どこへでも向けられる。人には、私達が見えない。室内の閉められ、差金で閉じられたドアを、見られずにすり抜けられる。けれど、貴方が永遠に地獄に落ちた、と貴方が私に教える人は、神が永遠に地獄の火という責め道具を運命付けようとする人で、雄鶏が鬨を作る前に見つけられるに違いないという事を、貴方は、きっと確心している。」
And quickly, as if carried by the wings of thoughts, they arrived at the great city. On the walls of the houses letters of living flame gave the names of the deadly sins: Arrogance, Greed, Drunkenness, Wantonness-in fact, the whole seven-colored bow of sin.
"Yes, in these houses, as I thought, as I knew," said the preacher, "live those who will be punished forever."
And then they stood before a brilliantly lighted gate. The broad steps were covered with flowers and carpets, while from the festive rooms came the sounds of music and dancing.
A footman dressed in velvet and silk, with a large silverhandled stick in his hand, stood erect near the door.
"Our ball is as splendid as those at the palace of the king," said he, and turned toward the people outside. From tip to toe his thoughts were evident: "Poor beggars who stare in at the gate; compared to me, you people are only cattle!"
"Arrogance," said the dead wife. "Do you see him?"
"Him!" replied the preacher. "Yes, but this man is only a fool and a simpleton. He'll not be condemned to everlasting fire or eternal torment."
"Only a fool!" echoed through the whole house of Arrogance; they were all fools there.
Then they flew within the four bare walls of a miser's room-where, skinny, shivering with cold, hungry and thirsty, an old, old man clung desperately with all his thoughts to his gold. They saw how he, as in a fever, sprang from his miserable bed and took a loose stone out of the wall. There lay a stocking crammed full of gold pieces. The man kept fumbling in his ragged pockets, where he had sewn more gold, and his clammy fingers trembled.
"He is ill; it is insanity, a dreadful insanity. Haunted by terrors and evil dreams!"
Swiftly they left the miser's room, and stood before a dormitory of a jail, where the prisoners slept close together in long rows. Suddenly one of them started up in his sleep and uttered the terrible cry of a wild beast! With his pointed elbow, he gave his companion a ferocious blow, and the latter turned around sleepily: "Shut up, you beast, and go to sleep! You go on like this every night!"
"Every night!" the man repeated. "Yes, every night he howls and torments me like this. I have committed many wrongs because of the passionate temper with which I was born. Twice my wicked temper has brought me here, but if I have done wrong, I am certainly being punished for it.
"There is only one thing I have not confessed. The last time I went out from here and passed by my master's farm, evil thoughts rose within me. I struck a match against the wall; it came a bit too close to the thatched roof. The heat seized onto the straw, as it often seizes onto me, and everything was burned. I helped to rescue the house property and the animals; no living creature perished, except a flock of pigeons which flew right into the fire, and also the yard dog, which was chained up. I had not thought of him. One could hear him howl, and that howl I can still hear when I want to sleep, and when I do fall asleep, the dog comes also. He is very large, with thick, shaggy fur, and he lies on me and howls and squeezes me until I am nearly choked. Now listen to what I tell you! You all can sleep and snore the whole night, but I can sleep for only a short quarter of an hour." And the blood rose to the head of the tormented; he threw himself upon his comrade and struck him in the face with his clenched fist.
"The madman is raging again!" everyone cried. Then the other criminals threw themselves on him, wrestled with him, bent his body down until his head was forced between his legs, and then bound him so tightly that the blood seemed about to burst from his eyes and his pores.
"You're killing him!" cried the preacher, and stretched his protecting hand over the sinner who had already suffered severely.
Then the scene changed. Unseen they glided through rich homes, as well as through the huts of the poor. Wantonness and envy, and all the deadly sins, passed before them.
An angel from the judgment seat appeared, to read to each of them their sins and their excuses. These excuses meant little to God, for He reads the hearts; He knows every hidden sin that dwells there; He knows the temptations that are before us in the outer world as well as in our own hearts, and knows when to show mercy and pitying love.
The preacher's hand trembled, and now he dared not stretch it out to pluck a single hair from the head of any sinner. Tears streamed from his eyes as he thought of the fountain of mercy and love, which can quench even the everlasting fire of hell.
And then the cock crowed!
"All-merciful God, I pray Thee grant her that peace in the grave which I have not been able to produce for her!"
"I have it now," said the dead wife. "It was your hard words and your gloomy belief in God and His creatures that drove me to you. Learn to know mankind. Even the soul of the wicked is a part of God Himself, a part that will conquer and extinguish even hell-fire forever."
The preacher felt a kiss upon his lips, and a light streamed about him. God's bright sunshine shone into the room, and his living wife stood beside him, tender and loving. She had awakened him from a dream sent him by God.
20:12 2015/1/06水曜日