ジョン・ミリングトン・シング著姉崎正見訳「アラン島」（１）

　　第　一　部

　私はアランモア〔アランの三島中最北に位する島〕にゐる。泥炭の火にあたり、部屋の下の小さな酒場から聞こえて來るゲール語の話し聲に耳傾けながら。
　アランに來る汽船は潮時を見てやつて來る。私たちが深い霧に蔽はれたゴルウェーの波止場を見捨てたのは今朝六時であつた。
　最初は右の方、波と霧の動く間に低い丘の連りが見えてゐたが、行くに從つてその影もなくなり、ただ索具にまつはる霧と小さな泡の渦卷のほか何も見えなくなつてしまつた。
　乗客は少かつた。袋の中にゆるく小豚を縛りつけてやつて來た二人の男。首をすつぽりと襟卷に包んで船室に坐つてゐた三四人の少女。キルロナンの波止場を修繕に行く一人の大工、此の人は歩きまはつたり、私と話をしたりした。
　三時間ばかりすると、アランが見え出した。先づ最初に荒涼たる岩が霧の中に海から盛り立つて現はれ、それから近づくに從つて、水上警察署や村が現はれて來た。
　それから少し後、私は島の立派な道路に沿うて、両側の低い石垣越しに裸岩の僅かな平い畑地をのぞき込みながら歩いてゐた。私はこんな荒涼たる樣をかつて見たことがなかつた。灰色の水の溢れは、到る所で石灰岩の上を洗つて、時時道を激湍となしてゐた。それは、絶えず低い丘や岩の凹みの上をうねうねしたり、或ひは馬鈴薯畑や草原の間を通つて、隠れ場となつた隅の方へ失せ去つてゐた。雲が霽れる度ごとに、右手の下の方には海の端が見え、左手には高く島の裸かの隆起が見えた。たまに淋しい禮拜堂や學校の前を通つたり、また上に十字架がついて、祀つてある人の靈魂のために祈りをしてくれと銘を彫つてある石柱の列の前を通つたりもした。
　人にはあまり逢はなかつた。ただ時時、キルロナンへ行く背の高い娘たちの群が通り過ぎて、樂しさうないぶかりの気持で私に呼びかけて、ゴルウェーの訛とはかなり違つた聞き馴れぬ抑揚の英語を話した。雨も寒さも物ともせず、彼女たちは元氣に笑ひ、ゲール語で大いにしやべりながら、私の傍を騒け過ぎて行き、濡れた岩の群を前より一層荒涼たらしめた。
　正午少し過ぎて歸つて來る途中、一人の半盲の老人が私にゲール語で話しかけたが、大體からいつて、私はその方言の夥多と流暢に驚いた。
　午後も雨が降り續いたので、私は此の宿にゐて、霧の中を數人の男がコニマラ〔愛蘭土本島、ゴルウェー州にある町〕から泥炭を積んで來た（フツカー）〔愛蘭土及びイギリス西南岸で用ひられる一本マストの漁船〕から荷を下ろしてゐるのを眺めたり、脚長豚が波間に遊んでゐるのを眺めたりしてゐた。部屋の下の酒場から漁夫が出入りする度に、壞れた窓ガラスから彼等の多くが今でも使つてゐるゲール語が聞こえて來た。尤もゲール語は此の村の若い人たちの間で、次第に使はれなくなつたやうだが。
　宿の婆さんが會話の教師を見付けてくれると約束してあつたが、少したつと、階段の上に足を引き摺る音がして、今朝話しかけた半盲の老人が部屋の中へ手探りではひつて來た。
　彼を爐の所まで連れて行き、私たちは何時間も話した。彼はピートリもサー・ウィリアム・ワイルドも、その他現代の考古學者を知つてゐると云つた。それから、フィンク博士やペダーソン博士に愛蘭土語を教へた事もあれば、アメリカのカーティン氏に昔話を聞かした事もあると云つた。中年を少し過ぎて彼は崖から落ち、その時以來視力を失ひ、手や首が震へるやうになつたのであつた。
　話してゐる時に、彼は火の上にのしかかり、震へながら目をつぶつてゐるが、顏は云ふに云はれぬやさしみがあつて、機智や惡意のこもつた話をする時は愉快の絶頂に達して輝き出し、宗教や妖精の事を話す時は暗く淋しくなつてしまつた。
　彼は自分の力量と才能にも、自分の話す話が世界中のどの話よりもすぐれてゐることにも大きな自信を持つてゐた。話がカーティン氏の事になつた時、その人はアメリカでアランの物語を本にして、それを賣つて五百ポンド儲けたと云つた。
　「それから、どうしたと思いますか？」彼は續けた。「私の話でうんと金を儲けた後、今度は自分で話を作つて本を書いた。そしてそれを出したのですが、半ペンスだつて儲かりませんや。どうです？」
　その後、彼は一人の子供が妖精にとられた話をした。
　或る日、近所の女が通つてゐた。道ばたで彼女が其奴を見た時、「まあ綺麗な子供」と云つた。
　その子の母親が、「神さまお惠みください」と云はうとすると、聲が喉につかへて出なかつた。少したつてその子供の頸に傷のあるのに氣づいた。三日三晩、家の中が騒がしかつた。
　「私は夜分シャツを着ないのです。」と彼は云つた。「でも家の騒ぎを聞くと、裸か同然で床から飛び起きて、燈（あかり）つけたが、なんにもありませんでした。」
　すると一人の啞がやつて棺に釘を打ちつける手眞似をした。
　次の日は種芋に花が一杯咲いて、子供は母親にアメリカへ行くと云つた。
　その晩子供は死んだ。「全くですよ、妖精に取られたのです。」と老人は云つた。
　彼が歸つて行くと、小さい跣足の女の子が泥炭と火を起す鞴（ふいご）を持つて來た。その火は夜ぢう保（も）つた。
　その女の子ははにかみやあつたが、話し好きで、立派な愛蘭土語が話せるとか、學校で愛蘭土語を教はつてゐるとか、此處では大人の女でも本土に足を踏み入れたことのない者が澤山あるのに、自分はゴルウェーに二度も行つたことがあるとか話した。

＊
Part I

I AM IN Aranmor, sitting over a turf fire, listening to a murmur of Gaelic that is rising from a little public-house under my room.
The steamer which comes to Aran sails according to the tide, and it was six o'clock this morning when we left the quay of Galway in a dense shroud of mist.
A low line of shore was visible at first on the right between the movement of the waves and fog, but when we came further it was lost sight of, and nothing could be seen but the mist curling in the rigging, and a small circle of foam.
There were few passengers; a couple of men going out with young pigs tied loosely in sacking, three or four young girls who sat in the cabin with their heads completely twisted in their shawls, and a builder, on his way to repair the pier at Kilronan, who walked up and down and talked with me.
In about three hours Aran came in sight. A dreary rock appeared at first sloping up from the sea into the fog; then, as we drew nearer, a coast-guard station and the village.
A little later I was wandering out along the one good roadway of the island, looking over low walls on either side into small flat fields of naked rock. I have seen nothing so desolate. Grey floods of water were sweeping everywhere upon the limestone, making at limes a wild torrent of the road, which twined continually over low hills and cavities in the rock or passed between a few small fields of potatoes or grass hidden away in corners that had shelter. Whenever the cloud lifted I could see the edge of the sea below me on the right, and the naked ridge of the island above me on the other side. Occasionally I passed a lonely chapel or schoolhouse, or a line of stone pillars with crosses above them and inscriptions asking a prayer for the soul of the person they commemorated.
I met few people; but here and there a band of tall girls passed me on their way to Kilronan, and called out to me with humorous wonder, speaking English with a slight foreign intonation that differed a good deal from the brogue of Galway. The rain and cold seemed to have no influence on their vitality and as they hurried past me with eager laughter and great talking in Gaelic, they left the wet masses of rock more desolate than before.
A little after midday when I was coming back one old half-blind man spoke to me in Gaelic, but, in general, I was surprised at the abundance and fluency of the foreign tongue.
In the afternoon the rain continued, so I sat here in the inn looking out through the mist at a few men who were unlading hookers that had come in with turf from Connemara, and at the long-legged pigs that were playing in the surf. As the fishermen came in and out of the public-house underneath my room, I could hear through the broken panes that a number of them still used the Gaelic, though it seems to be falling out of use among the younger people of this village.
The old woman of the house had promised to get me a teacher of the language, and after a while I heard a shuffling on the stairs, and the old dark man I had spoken to in the morning groped his way into the room.
I brought him over to the fire, and we talked for many hours. He told me that he had known Petrie and Sir William Wilde, and many living antiquarians, and had taught Irish to Dr. Finck and Dr. Pedersen, and given stories to Mr. Curtin of America. A little after middle age he had fallen over a cliff, and since then he had had little eyesight, and a trembling of his hands and head.
As we talked he sat huddled together over the fire, shaking and blind, yet his face was indescribably pliant, lighting up with an ecstasy of humour when he told me anything that had a point of wit or malice, and growing sombre and desolate again when he spoke of religion or the fairies.
He had great confidence in his own powers and talent, and in the superiority of his stories over all other stories in the world. When we were speaking of Mr. Curtin, he told me that this gentleman had brought out a volume of his Aran stories in America, and made five hundred pounds by the sale of them.
'And what do you think he did then?' he continued; 'he wrote a book of his own stories after making that lot of money with mine. And he brought them out, and the divil a half-penny did he get for them. Would you believe that?'
Afterwards he told me how one of his children had been taken by the fairies.
One day a neighbor was passing, and she said, when she saw it on the road, 'That's a fine child.'
Its mother tried to say 'God bless it,' but something choked the words in her throat.
A while later they found a wound on its neck, and for three nights the house was filled with noises.
'I never wear a shirt at night,' he said, 'but I got up out of my bed, all naked as I was, when I heard the noises in the house, and lighted a light, but there was nothing in it.'
Then a dummy came and made signs of hammering nails in a coffin. The next day the seed potatoes were full of blood, and the child told his mother that he was going to America.
That night it died, and 'Believe me,' said the old man, 'the fairies were in it.'
When he went away, a little bare-footed girl was sent up with turf and the bellows to make a fire that would last for the evening.
She was shy, yet eager to talk, and told me that she had good spoken Irish, and was learning to read it in the school, and that she had been twice to Galway, though there are many grown women in the place who have never set a foot upon the mainland.

［やぶちゃん注：「脚長豚」原文“long-legged pigs”はそういう豚の品種ではないと思われる。所謂、子ブタや若い豚ではなく、親豚のことであろう。「彼は一人の子供が妖精にとられた話をした。」ちょっとわかりにくいが、後のシャツの附言部分から、以下の、妖精に攫われた子供というのはこの話し手の老人の子であり、この「母親」とは彼の妻であることが分かる。］