異教徒、トルコ説話の一片 The Giaour, A Fragment of a Turkish Tale. (1813)

僧院にて

30

「夏の潮(うしお)も三年を二度

　我等の仲間に加わってより。

　籠れる此処こそ慰安なれ

　話そうともせぬ暗い過去への。

“'Tis twice three years at summer tide

Since first among our freres he came;

And here it soothes him to abide

For some dark deed he will not name.

　但し断じて晩祷共にせず、

　告解の椅子の前に跪かず、

　立つに気にすることもない

　天に賛美も、香を焚くこともない。

　ただ僧房に独り瞑想するばかり

　その信仰も人種も窺い知れぬ。

But never at our vesper prayer,

Nor e'er before confession chair

Kneels he, nor recks he when arise

Incense or anthem to the skies,

But broods within his cell alone,

His faith and race alike unknown.

　異教の国から海を渡り来て、

　海岸からここまで上り来て。

　だが見るからに、オスマンの人種に非ず、

　よくあるキリスト教徒の顔に在らずや。

The sea from Paynim land he crost,

And here ascended from the coast;

Yet seems he not of Othman race,

But only Christian in his face:

　見定めるに迷える背教者ならん、

　為した変節悔(くや)むならん、

　我等が聖堂避くるを於きては

　聖体拝領もせぬに於ては。

I'd judge him some stray renegade,

Repentant of the change he made,

Save that he shuns our holy shrine,

Nor tastes the sacred bread and wine.

　この城壁に大金齎すにより

　斯く大修道院長の寵愛受く。

　我先任者なれば、一日たりとも

　斯く見知らぬ者の滞在さらに許すまじ、

　あるいは懺悔の独房閉じ込めん、

　いつまでもそこに住まわさん。

Great largess to these walls he brought,

And thus our abbot's favour bought;

But were I prior, not a day

Should brook such stranger's further stay,

Or pent within our penance cell

Should doom him there for aye to dwell.

　彼が呟く幻影もっぱら、

　沈める乙女、海の底。

　砕けるサーベル、吹き飛ぶ敵、

　討たれた仇、厶スリム死にゆき。

Much in his visions mutters he

Of maiden whelmed beneath the sea;

Of sabres clashing, foemen flying,

Wrongs avenged, and Moslem dying.

　もうずっと崖に立つので有名、

　血まみれの手だ何だと譫言(うわごと)を言い

　腕から切り落とされたばかりの

　でも他の誰にも見えないものが、

　墓に向かえと手招きするとか、

　波に飛び込めと誘(いざな)うのだとか。」

On cliff he hath been known to stand,

And rave as to some bloody hand

Fresh severed from its parent limb,

Invisible to all but him,

Which beckons onward to his grave,

And lures to leap into the wave.'