瓶入り魔物。その4
しかし、朝が来ると、彼はすっかり元気を取り戻し、まだ魔物から十分に搾り取っていないのではないかと自問し始めた。即座に大量のドゥカートを枕元に要求し、それがすぐに見つかると、次にお守りをどう処分するのが最善かと考え始めた。彼の医師は偉大な博物学者であり、あらゆる怪物や、アルコール漬けにして保管されているようなあらゆる素晴らしい生物を探求する人であるとは知っていた。そこで、この瓶詰めを、この種の珍品として学者に渡すことはできないか。欺瞞は確かに無邪気とは言い難い。しかし、きれいごとを言う必要はない。
When, however, the morning came, he felt his spirits so much revived, that he began to ask himself whether he had yet turned the bottle imp sufficiently to account. Palace and villas, and all the luxuries wherewith they were furnished, seemed hardly enough ; he, therefore, instantly demanded a great heap of ducats to be placed beneath his pillow, and, on finding them there instantaneously, he then began to reflect how best to dispose of the talisman. He knew that his physician was a great naturalist, and one who sought much after all monsters, and all such wonderful productions as are generally kept in spirits ; he hoped, therefore, that he should be able to pass off the bottle-imp to the learned man as a curiosity of this des cription ; for else the doctor was too good a christian to have any thing to do with the evil creature. The deceit indeed could hardly be termed an innocent one, but need knows no niceties.
そこで、彼は博士にこの小さな精霊を差し出した。この精霊は今また非常に生き生きと、瓶の中を飛び跳ねていた。博士はこの素晴らしい「自然の力」を調べたいと思い、要求された価格が高すぎなければ購入することに同意した。
リヒャルトは、なけなしの良心に、それでもできるだけ従って、5ドゥカートに近い金額を求めた。しかし医者は、3以上は出さないぞと頑張ったので、顧客を失うことを恐れた相手は最終的に受け入れ、しかし貧しい人々に施しとして、売上のすべてを与えるように配慮した。ただし、枕元にあったお金は、将来の富と繁栄のための唯一の資金として、大切にしまっておいた。
Accordingly he offered the doctor the little spirit which was now become again exceedingly lively, jumping to and fro in the bottle with great vivacity ; insomuch that, anxious to examine what he considered a wonderful lusus naturæ, the learned man agreed to purchase it, if the price demanded for it were not too high. In order to satisfy his conscience as well as he could, Richard asked a sum as nearly approaching to five ducats as was possible: the doctor, however, would give no more than three, which, fearing to lose his customer altogether, the other at last accepted, taking care, however, to bestow it all in alms upon the poor. But the money which he had found under his pillow, he carefully laid by, as the only fund upon which his future wealth and prosperity depended.
この間、彼の病状はますますひどくなり、常に譫妄状態にあり、もし彼がまだ瓶の悪魔に悩まされていたなら、恐怖と不安で本当に死んでしまったに違いない。しかし、やがて彼は次第に快方に向かい、今や回復を遅らせる唯一のものは、枕の下に見つからなくなったドゥカートに対する不安であった。その行方を追うとなると、当初は人に聞くのも随分と躊躇われたが、いざ調べてみると、誰もそのことを知らない。金貨の在り処が解らない以上、今度は屋敷や別荘をどのようにお金に換えるのが最善かを考えることになった。しかし、ここでも重要な点を見落としていた。債権者の群れが、彼の財産に対するさまざまな請求書を持って現れ、それも全て彼自身が署名し、封印したものばかり。無限の繁栄の時に、適当にやっておけとルクレティアに渡した書類だった。もはや彼としては、このハゲタカ共の牙から救うことができるものを僅かながら確保し、つまり豪華の悉くを捨て去り、ほとんど乞食のような有様で、できるだけ早く出ていくしかなかった。
In the mean while, his disorder continued to increase ; he lay in a constant delirium, and had he still been tormented by the possession of the bottle-devil, there is no doubt but that he would have actually died of terror and anxiety. At length, however, he gradually grew better ; and now the only thing that seemed to retard his recovery, was his solicitude about the ducats, which he could no longer find beneath his pillow. At first he was very loth to make any enquiry after them ; when, however, he did so, no one could give any account of them. Being able to obtain no information respecting the gold, it now remained for him to consider how he might best convert his mansion and villas into money. But here, too, he was reckoning without his host, for a throng of creditors appeared with various claims upon his estates, all duly signed by himself, and sealed with his own signet, he having, at the time of his boundless prosperity, given these papers to Lucretia to fill up as she judged proper: all that he could do, therefore, was to depart as quickly as possible with the little he could save from the fangs of these harpies ; so that he quitted all his splendour very nearly a beggar.
この土壇場に、主治医が深刻な不快感も露わに登場した。「先生」と、不運な若い商人は叫んだ。「もし、あなたが他の友愛団体と同じように、多額の請求書を持ってここに来たのなら、ぜひとも勘定に別の項目を追加してください。できればアヘンか、同等に強力な薬物でありますように。だって最後のパンが焼けたのに、もう買うお金がないのです」
At this juncture, his physician made his appearance, with a countenance betokening serious displeasure. " Doctor, " exclaimed the unfortunate young merchant, " if it so be, that you are come hither like the rest of your fraternity with a large bill, I prithee, add another item to the account, and see, good doctor, that it be for opium, or some equally potent drug: for my last bread is now baked, as I know but too well, I having no money to buy more. "
「いや、いや、」 医師は答えた、「事態はまだそれ程悪くはない。儂はそなたへのあらゆる要求を放棄する準備ができているだけでなく、この意気消沈からすぐに復活させる、ある最も効果的な薬も用意している。しめて2ドゥカートで結構。」
" Nay, nay, " replied the physician, " things are not yet so bad as that. I am not only ready to renounce every demand upon you, but have also prepared a certain, most efficacious medicine, that will quickly revive you from this despondency ; all that I ask for it is, two ducats. "
「それでは、すぐにでも支払います。」と青年は答え、実行すると、医者は事を済ませて出ていった。
強力わかも○な回復剤を期待していた彼が箱を開けると、薬瓶が入っている。しかしそれが、小さな瓶の悪魔が入っているものであると気づいたとき、彼の狼狽ぶりはいかばかりであったか。その瓶には、次のような詩句のラベルが貼られていた。
" And most readily will I pay them, " replied the youth, which, having done, the doctor forth with departed. On opening the box wherein he expected to find this cordial restorative, he discovered a phial, but how great was his dismay on perceiving that it was that which contained the little bottle-devil ; and that, affixed to it, it had a label containing the following lines:
我が治さんと務むるは汝が身体を、
汝が殺めんと企めるは我が魂を。
されど我が技、凌ぐは汝が作り事
即ち察すは、賤しき汝が謀。
今度は此方が報いてくれん、
汝に再び運命返さん。
今一度、恐るべき妖精の持ち主となれ、
堕落し切った彼が力をその身に味わえ。
Thy body I strove to cure from ill,
But thou my soul hast sought to kill ;
Yet, has my art, 'bove craft of thine,
Perceived full soon thy base design.
Let me then now retaliate,
To thee again revert thy fate:
Be thine once more the dreadful sprite ;
And may'st thou feel his fellest might.
不味い、マズイぞ！とリヒャルト狼狽。やっと気がつく、薬瓶を買戻してしまった事に、それもあまりにも安くしてしまった事に。もはや腹いせに使うにしても、裏切り者の愛人に仕返しする道具にするくらい。その程度の男ではあったから、以下、それを本当にやろうとしたものだ。
Great, indeed, was Richard's alarm, at finding that he had re-purchased his phial, at so much lower a price. The only consolation that now remained, was to employ it as an instrument of revenging himself upon his treacherous paramour, which he effected in the following manner.
taking care,-: 自分のことしか考えていない放蕩者が、貧民を思いやって喜捨するという行動は不自然に見える。調べたら、中世ヨーロッパの病院は、救貧院を兼ねるのが一般的だったようだ。つまり、病み上がりの浪費家が、わざわざ貧民のもとに足を運んだのではなく。目の前の医師に、ご機嫌伺いとして「これは喜捨だから」と、払われた額をそっくり押し付けた訳である。
reckon without his host: [成句]肝腎な人に相談しないで計算する。重要な点を見落として判断する。
