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こんな感じでも当面は、対立勢力の情勢を変えるような出来事は特にないまま、時だけが過ぎていった。秋のある晴れた日の午後、物思いに耽りつつ高い腰掛けに座るイカボデは、いつものようにその視点から、ささやかながら己が文学の世界を睥睨していた。彼の手には専制的な権力の杖である木べらが握られ、玉座の背後には裁きの樺鞭が3本の釘の上に置かれ、悪人どもに絶え間ない恐怖を与えている。一方、机の上には、怠け者の悪童共が身につけている禁制品や禁止されている武器が並べられていた。リンゴ半切れ、飛び道具、独楽、虫かご、暴れ回る小さな紙軍鶏の大群等々。どうやら最近、何か恐ろしい正義の行為が行われたようだ。生徒たちは皆、忙しそうに本に向かったり、先生に片目を向けつつ後ろでひそひそと話し、教室はざわめきのような静けさに包まれていた。
そこへ突然、亜麻布の上着とズボンを身につけ、ヘルメスの帽子さながらの中折れ帽子を冠った黒人が現れた。見窄らしく荒れた、ズタボロ仔馬の背に乗り、手綱代わりの繩一本で引廻し。学校の扉の前までガチャガチャとやってきて、その晩にヴァン・タッセル様の家で開かれる陽気な催し、つまり「キルト縫い大会」へ、イカボデを招待するとの事。この種の取るに足りないお使いにも、得てして黒人が気取りがちな、重々しい雰囲気と丁寧な言葉遣いで用事を伝えるが早いか、突進して小川を渡り、重要緊急の任務を果たした様子で、窪地を駆け上っていくのが見えた。
In this way, matters went on for some time without producing any material effect on the relative situation of the contending powers. On a fine autumnal afternoon Ichabod, in pensive mood, sat enthroned on the lofty stool whence he usually watched all the concerns of his little literary realm. In his hand he swayed a ferule, that sceptre of despotic power; the birch of justice reposed on three nails behind the throne, a constant terror to evildoers; while on the desk before him might be seen sundry contraband articles and prohibited weapons detected upon the persons of idle urchins, such as half-munched apples, popguns, whirligigs, fly-cages, and whole legions of rampant little paper gamecocks. Apparently there had been some appalling act of justice recently inflicted, for his scholars were all busily intent upon their books or slyly whispering behind them with one eye kept upon the master, and a kind of buzzing stillness reigned throughout the school-room. It was suddenly interrupted by the appearance of a negro in tow-cloth jacket and trowsers, a round-crowned fragment of a hat like the cap of Mercury, and mounted on the back of a ragged, wild, half-broken colt, which he managed with a rope by way of halter. He came clattering up to the school door with an invitation to Ichabod to attend a merry-making or "quilting frolic" to be held that evening at Mynheer Van Tassel's; and, having delivered his message with that air of importance and effort at fine language which a negro is apt to display on petty embassies of the kind, he dashed over the brook, and was seen scampering away up the hollow, full of the importance and hurry of his mission.
静かにしていた教室中が、わいわいガヤガヤ。生徒たちは、細かい点には拘泥せず、授業を急いだ。察しの良い者は、半分くらいは飛ばしてもお咎めなし。ついて行けない生徒には後方からひっきりなしに、読むのを速めたり、手の届かない単語を乗り越える手助けをしたりするために、巧妙なヒントが飛んできた。本は棚にしまわれることなく脇に投げ飛ばされ、インクスタンドはひっくり返され、長椅子は投げ捨てられた。全校生徒が通常より1時間は早く終業となり、若い小鬼の軍団のように飛び出し、解放された喜びのあまり、野原に叫び声をあげて騒いだ。
All was now bustle and hubbub in the late quiet school-room. The scholars were hurried through their lessons without stopping at trifles; those who were nimble skipped over half with impunity, and those who were tardy had a smart application now and then in the rear to quicken their speed or help them over a tall word. Books were flung aside without being put away on the shelves, inkstands were overturned, benches thrown down, and the whole school was turned loose an hour before the usual time, bursting forth like a legion of young imps, yelping and racketing about the green in joy at their early emancipation.
颯爽たるイカボデは、トイレで少なくとも30分はかけ、錆黒の最高のスーツをブラッシングし、念入りに身繕いして、校舎に吊るされていた割れた姿見で髪を整えた。真の騎馬武者を装って恋人の前に姿を現すべく、居候先の農夫ハンス・ヴァン・リッパーという名の気難しいオランダ人の老人から馬を借りた。こうして勇ましく馬に乗り、冒険を求める騎士のように出発した。
さてしかし、ロマンチックな物語の真の精神に則り、主人公とその乗騎の外見及び装備について説明しなければなるまい。騎乗していたのは耄碌した耕作用の老馬で、ただ凶暴ゆえに生き延びたような代物だった。錆びたたてがみと尻尾は、イガイガに絡み合い、くっついていた。片方の目は瞳を失い、まぶしく妖しく、もう片方の目には本物の悪魔の輝きがあった。それでも、gunpowderの名から判断するに、嘗ては火と気概を持っていたに違いない。実際、主人である冷血漢ヴァン・リッパーお気に入りの駒だった。苛烈な乗り手である自身の性格を、そっくりこの馬に叩き込んだのだろう。老いて衰弱しているように見えながら、この国のどの若い牝馬よりも、中には悪魔が潜んでいたからだ。
The gallant Ichabod now spent at least an extra half hour at his toilet, brushing and furbishing up his best, and indeed only, suit of rusty black, and arranging his locks by a bit of broken looking-glass that hung up in the school-house. That he might make his appearance before his mistress in the true style of a cavalier, be borrowed a horse from the farmer with whom he was domiciliated, a choleric old Dutchman of the name of Hans Van Ripper, and, thus gallantly mounted, issued forth like a knight-errant in quest of adventures. But it is meet I should, in the true spirit of romantic story, give some account of the looks and equipments of my hero and his steed. The animal he bestrode was a broken-down plough-horse that had outlived almost everything but his viciousness. He was gaunt and shagged, with a ewe neck and a head like a hammer; his rusty mane and tail were tangled and knotted with burrs; one eye had lost its pupil and was glaring and spectral, but the other had the gleam of a genuine devil in it. Still, he must have had fire and mettle in his day, if we may judge from the name he bore of Gunpowder. He had, in fact, been a favorite steed of his master's, the choleric Van Ripper, who was a furious rider, and had infused, very probably, some of his own spirit into the animal; for, old and broken down as he looked, there was more of the lurking devil in him than in any young filly in the country.
イカボデこそは、そのような馬にふさわしい体型だった。鞍の柄まで膝が届きそうな短い鐙に乗り、鋭い肘はカマキリのように突き出し、鞭を杖のように垂直に手に持ち、馬が小走りに進むときの腕の動きは、一対の翼の羽ばたきに似ていなくもなかった。額の出ているところが無いに等しく、毛織物の小さな帽子は鼻の上に乗るとしか見えず、黒いコートの裾は馬の尻尾近くまで広がっていた。斯くしてハンス・ヴァン・リッパー邸の門をよろめき出たイカボデとその馬の勇姿ときたら、とても白昼堂々と見れたものではない。
Ichabod was a suitable figure for such a steed. He rode with short stirrups, which brought his knees nearly up to the pommel of the saddle; his sharp elbows stuck out like grasshoppers'; he carried his whip perpendicularly in his hand like a sceptre; and as his horse jogged on the motion of his arms was not unlike the flapping of a pair of wings. A small wool hat rested on the top of his nose, for so his scanty strip of forehead might be called, and the skirts of his black coat fluttered out almost to his horse's tail. Such was the appearance of Ichabod and his steed as they shambled out of the gate of Hans Van Ripper, and it was altogether such an apparition as is seldom to be met with in broad daylight.
前述の通り、その日は秋晴れ。空は穏やかに澄み渡り、自然の纏う黄金の衣が豊かな稔りを約束するかのよう。森は慎ましい茶色と黄色に、霜に打たれた木々はオレンジ・紫・緋の鮮やかな色に染まっていた。ブナやヒッコリーの木立からはリスの鳴き声が、隣の耕作地からは物思いにふけるようなウズラの口笛が時折聞こえてくる。
It was, as I have said, a fine autumnal day, the sky was clear and serene, and Nature wore that rich and golden livery which we always associate with the idea of abundance. The forests had put on their sober brown and yellow, while some trees of the tenderer kind had been nipped by the frosts into brilliant dyes of orange, purple, and scarlet. Streaming files of wild-ducks began to make their appearance high in the air; the bark of the squirrel might be heard from the groves of beech and hickory nuts, and the pensive whistle of the quail at intervals from the neighboring stubble-field.
小鳥たちは別れの宴を楽しんでいた。歓喜に満ちて、飛び回り、さえずり、戯れること、茂みから茂みへ、木から木へと移り気に、そこら中に生えるありとあらゆるものの中から。居たのは本物のコック・ロビン、けたたましい鳴き声を響かせる、スポーツ少年の大好物。囀るクロツグミは黒滔々たる雲を描いて飛んでいた。真紅の紋章、黒い広い喉当てと見事な羽を持つキツツキ。赤い先端の翼と黄色い先端の尾、小さなモンテロ帽を冠るスギドリ。そしてアオカケス、あの騒々しい見栄坊は、水色のコートと白い下着を身にまとい、叫び声をあげ、おしゃべりをし、体を揺らし、うなずき、お辞儀をし、木立のあらゆる歌い手と仲良くしているふりをする。
The small birds were taking their farewell banquets. In the fulness of their revelry they fluttered, chirping and frolicking, from bush to bush and tree to tree, capricious from the very profusion and variety around them. There was the honest cock robin, the favorite game of stripling sportsmen, with its loud querulous note; and the twittering blackbirds, flying in sable clouds; and the golden-winged woodpecker, with his crimson crest, his broad black gorget, and splendid plumage; and the cedar-bird, with its red-tipt wings and yellow-tipt tail and its little monteiro cap of feathers; and the blue jay, that noisy coxcomb, in his gay light-blue coat and white under-clothes, screaming and chattering, bobbing and nodding and bowing, and pretending to be on good terms with every songster of the grove.
イカボデはゆらゆらと馬を走らせ、目を見張って料理を豊かにするあらゆる兆候を探しては、陽気な秋の宝物に目を輝かせた。リンゴの木にたわわに実ったリンゴ、市場に出すためにカゴや樽に詰め込まれたリンゴ、リンゴ酒を搾るために山積みにされたリンゴなど、四方八方にリンゴの山が広がっていた。さらに進むと、インディアン・コーンの畑が広がり、葉の茂みから黄金色の穂が顔を出し、ケーキやプディングができそうな気配を漂わせている、その下には黄色いカボチャが丸いおなかを太陽にむけて横たわり、最も豪華なパイを十分に予感させる。やがて彼は、香ばしいソバ畑を通り過ぎ、ミツバチの巣箱の匂いを嗅ぎながら、カトリーナ・ヴァン・タッセルの繊細で小さなえくぼのある手によってバターが塗られ、蜂蜜やトレジャルが添えられている可憐なスラップジャックを想像した。
As Ichabod jogged slowly on his way his eye, ever open to every symptom of culinary abundance, ranged with delight over the treasures of jolly Autumn. On all sides he beheld vast store of apples, some hanging in oppressive opulence on the trees, some gathered into baskets and barrels for the market, others heaped up in rich piles for the cider-press. Farther on he beheld great fields of Indian corn, with its golden ears peeping from their leafy coverts and holding out the promise of cakes and hasty pudding; and the yellow pumpkins lying beneath them, turning up their fair round bellies to the sun, and giving ample prospects of the most luxurious of pies; and anon he passed the fragrant buckwheat-fields, breathing the odor of the beehive, and as he beheld them soft anticipations stole over his mind of dainty slapjacks, well buttered and garnished with honey or treacle by the delicate little dimpled hand of Katrina Van Tassel.
こうして彼は、甘すぎる考え多数と「砂糖漬けの仮説」を心に養いつつ、大いなるハドソン川の美しい景色を見渡す丘陵地帯を旅した。太陽は徐々にその広い円盤を西へと下ろしていった。タッパン・ジーの広い懐は不動のガラス張りになっており、例外はあちこちにある緩やかな起伏が、遠くの山の青い影を長く引き延ばしているくらい。空には数個の琥珀色の雲が浮かんでいた。地平線は黄金色に輝き、しだいにリンゴのような緑色に変わり、やがて中天の深い青色に変わった。斜光が川のいくつかの部分に張り出した断崖の木々の頂に残り、岩の側面の濃い灰色と紫色に深みを与えていた。遠くのほうに、潮の流れに乗ってゆっくりと下るスループが1隻漂っていた。帆はマストに無造作に垂れ下がり、静まり返った水面に空の反射がきらめくと、その船は宙に浮いているように見えた。
Thus feeding his mind with many sweet thoughts and "sugared suppositions," he journeyed along the sides of a range of hills which look out upon some of the goodliest scenes of the mighty Hudson. The sun gradually wheeled his broad disk down into the west. The wide bosom of the Tappan Zee lay motionless and glassy, excepting that here and there a gentle undulation waved and prolonged the blue shadow of the distant mountain. A few amber clouds floated in the sky, without a breath of air to move them. The horizon was of a fine golden tint, changing gradually into a pure apple green, and from that into the deep blue of the mid-heaven. A slanting ray lingered on the woody crests of the precipices that overhung some parts of the river, giving greater depth to the dark-gray and purple of their rocky sides. A sloop was loitering in the distance, dropping slowly down with the tide, her sail hanging uselessly against the mast, and as the reflection of the sky gleamed along the still water it seemed as if the vessel was suspended in the air.
