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この本（とりあえず『北国の著名説話・小説集』としておく）は出版社と、おそらく編集者である J. H. BOHTE 以外は全て無記名で、各作品には作者名も訳者名もない。
あるいはヘイニングは、この点をついて作者は Anonymous （名無し）とした積もりかも知れない。しかし、前書きを読めばムゼーウスの作であり、Tales of the Dead に収録されていることは疑うべくもない。
昔々、ブレーメンの町にメルキオールという金持ちの商人がいた。福音書にある金持ちの話を牧師が読むのを聞くたびに、顎を撫でて軽蔑の笑みを浮かべるのが常だった。彼からすれば、そんなものはそこらの行商人以下にしか見えなかったからである。商人仲間や友人たちは、言う所の「この野心的な見せかけの行為」に大いに反感を抱いていた。ところが、実は単なる自慢ではなく、商魂逞しい思惑があったのだ。この狡猾な市民は、彼の虚栄心を妬んだり非難したりする人々こそが、彼の富の噂を広めてくれるのに役立つことをよく知っていた。そうすることで、より信用を高めていたのである。彼の目論見は見事に達成された。これ見よがしに広間に飾られた古めかしいターラー銀貨が、支払いに対する無言の保証となって、この商人の仕事に大きな利子をもたらしていたのだ。それが後に、この家の経営を台無しにする切欠ともなったのだが。
MANY years ago there lived in the good town of Bremen, a rich merchant, named Melchior, who was wont to stroke his chin and smile scornfully whenever he heard the parson read in the gospel of the rich man, whom, in comparison with himself, he regarded as a mere pedlar. Although the fellow citizens and friends of our merchant were much displeased at this piece of ambitious display, as they called it, yet it was, in reality, meant more as a mercantile speculation, than a mere boast.
The cunning citizen was well aware, that those who envied and censured his apparent vanity would serve to spread reports of his wealth, and, by that means, add to his credit. His aim was completely attained ; the idle capital of old dollars, wisely exposed to view in the hall, brought a large interest, by means of the silent bond for payment which it gave in all the merchant's undertakings. It became, however, at last a rock on which the welfare of the house was wrecked.
メルキオール翁は、街の宴会で若返りのコーディアルなどを飲み過ぎたか、あるいは急いで飲み過ぎたか、身辺整理ができないまま急逝し、その全財産は一人息子に託された。息子はまだ若く、法律で定められた相続権を持つ年齢に達したばかりだった。そのフランシスは、生まれながらにして優れた資質を備えた高貴な人物であった。体格がよく、丈夫で、陽気で幸せそうな性格で、まるで生まれる前からフランスの高級ワインと霜降り牛肉で育ったかのようであった。
Old Melchior died suddenly, from swallowing too much or too hastily, of some renovating cordial at a city feast, without being able to settle his affairs, and left all his property to his only son, in the full bloom of youth, who had just attained the age fixed by law for entering into possession of his inheritance. Francis was a noble fellow, endowed by nature with excellent qualities. He was well made, strong and robust, with a jovial, happy disposition, as if old French wine and hung beef had largely contributed to call him into existence.
その頬は健康に輝き、その黒い瞳には満足感と若々しさが宿っていた。痩せた土地でも水さえあればよく育つ、生命力の強い植物のようで、反面、豊かな土地では実を結ばず、無駄に生い茂るもののようでもあった。父親の財産が息子の破滅につながるなんて、よくある話。莫大な財産の唯一の所有者であり主人であることの喜びを味わい始めたばかりであったのに、まるで重荷を取り除こうと全力を尽くすような有様。聖書の中の金持ちでも真似たか、「毎日ぜいたくに遊び暮していた。」。
Health glowed on his cheeks, and content and youthful cheerfulness shone in his dark eyes. He was like a vigorous plant, which needs only water and a poor soil to thrive well, but which, in rich land, shoots into wasteful luxuriance without bearing fruit. The father's wealth became, as often happens, the ruin of the son. He had scarcely begun to taste the pleasure of being the sole possessor and master of a princely fortune, when he did all in his power to get rid of it, as if it were a heavy burthen. He imitated the rich man in the scriptures, to a tittle, " and fared sumptuously every day. "
司教の祝宴ですら、その豪華さと贅沢さにおいて、彼が開いた祝宴に遠く及ぶまい。ブレーメンの町がいつまで有ろうと、彼が毎年行っていたような祝宴を見ることは二度とあるまい。市民は皆、大きなローストビーフとスペインワインの瓶を受け取り、メルキオールの息子の健康を祝って乾杯し、フランシスはその日の英雄となった。
The feasts of the bishop were far surpassed in splendour and luxuries by those he gave; and, as long as the town of Bremen stands, it will never again see such a feast as he was accustomed to give yearly. Every citizen received a large joint of roast beef, and a flask of Spanish wine; all the people drank the health of old Melchior's son, and Francis was the hero of the day.
このように快楽に酔いしれながら、彼は帳尻合わせを考えなかった。これは現代ではかなり廃れてしまったが、古き良き時代には、まさに商人の盲腸であった。それゆえ、商人の秤は往々にして、道標を辿る旅人のように、破産と破滅に向かうのである。
しかし、メルキオール翁が金庫を十分に満たしておいたので、この浪費家は何年もの間、傷手を感じなかった。貪欲な食卓仲間、善良な仲間、賭博師、怠け者、要するにこの放蕩息子の無頓着さによって利益を得たすべての人々は、彼に反省の時間を与えないように細心の注意を払った。皆して彼を快楽から快楽へと導き、いつまでも放蕩の限りを尽くした。彼が一瞬でも冷静になれば理性に目覚め、戦利品が彼らの手から逃げ出すことを恐れたからである。
In this continual intoxication of pleasure, he never thought of balancing his accounts, which, in those good old times, was the very vade mecum of merchants, but which, in the present day, has got much out of fashion; and hence the mercantile scale often tends, as if attracted by the loadstone, towards bankruptcy and ruin. Old Melchior had, however, left his strong box so well filled, that, for some years, our spendthrift felt no diminution in his yearly income. The number of his voracious table companions, the army of good fellows, gamesters and idlers, in short, all those who profited by the heedlessness of this prodigal son, took great care never to allow him time for reflection. They led him from pleasure to pleasure, and kept him in an eternal round of dissipation, for fear he might, in a single sober moment, awake to reason and the booty escape from their eager grasp.
しかし突然、湧いてくる富の流れが止まってしまった。父親の金庫にあった財産がことごとく尽きたのだ。ある日、フランクが大金を支払うよう命じたところ、出納係はその要求に応えられる状態ではないとして、未払い手形を返してきた。これは若い放蕩者には大きな打撃だった。しかし彼の最大の感情は、この出納係に対する不愉快と怒りであり、自分ではなくこの出納係のせいで財政が破綻したとまで考えた。
しかし、彼はそれ以上、その原因を突き止めるのに時間はかけず、自由主義者にありがちな愚かな行為に走った。何ダースもの誓いを立てた後、肩をすくめてそばに立っていた部下に、ぞんざいな言葉遣いでこう命じた。「金もってこい」
But, on a sudden, the fountain of wealth ceased to flow. The hidden stores of his father's strong box were every one of them exhausted. Frank one day commanded a large sum to be paid, his cashier was not in a condition to meet the demand, and returned the bill un paid. This was a severe blow to the young prodigal, yet his chief feelings were those of displeasure and anger towards the cashier, to whom alone, and not to his own extra vagance, he ascribed the disorder in his finances. He gave himself no further trouble to find out the cause; but, after having had recourse to the common folly of libertines, and swore a few dozen of oaths, he gave his man, who stood near him, shrugging up his shoulders, the laconic command, to " get money. "
直ちに金貸しのユダヤ人や高利貸しが頼られた。程なく、法外な利子で貸された大金が、再び空の財布を満たした。当時の債権者の目には、ターラー銀貨を敷き詰めた部屋は、現在のイギリスの銀行に対する手形にも優る、返済のためのより良い担保に映っていたのだ。しばらくの間、この緩和剤は大いに役立ったが、すぐに、銀の舗装が秘密裏に持ち去られ、その代わりに石が嵌めてあるという、誰も知らない報告が海外に流れた。債権者の要求に応じて司法官が調べたところ、この報告は事実であることが判明した。しかし債権者たちは、侘び寂びに走った所有者の趣味を理解せず、金銭の即時支払を要求した。これが叶わなかったため、直ちに破産宣告が行われ、母屋と雑誌、庭園、地面、家具は競売にかけられ、法律の助けを借りてできる限りの備えをしていた所有者は、それらすべてを奪われるのを目の当たりにした。
The money-lending jews and usurers were immediately applied to. In a short time large sums, taken up at exorbitant interest, again filled the empty purse. A room paved with dollars was at that period in the eyes of creditors, a better security for repayment than a draft on the bank of England at the present day. For a short time this palliative was of great use, but a report soon got abroad, nobody knew how that the silver pavement had been taken up in secresy, and its place supplied with stone. On the demand of the creditors, Justice examined into the matter, and the report was found to be true. It was not indeed to be denied, that a pavement of variegated marble like mosaic, was more suitable in a banquetting room, than one of old and worn down dollars; but the creditors had so little respect for the improv ed taste of the owner, that they demanded imme diate payment of their money. As this could not be made, a commission of bankruptcy was immediately taken out, and the parental house, with the magazines, gardens, ground, and furni ture was put up to auction, and their possessor, who had fortified himself as well as he could by the help of the law, saw himself deprived of them all.
軽率な行動について哲学的に考えるには、もはや遅すぎる。最も賢明な考察と最も賢明な決議であっても、やらかした悪さを無かったことにはできない。
この文明時代の考え方に従えば、この英雄は今こそ威厳をもって、人生の舞台から退場することができたかもしれない。もう故郷の街で名誉ある生活はできない以上、永遠にこの街を捨てるか、銃殺、首吊り、溺死などの流行の方法で自分の存在に終止符を打ったかもしれないのである。
しかし、フランクはその何れをもしなかった。「世間はどう思うだろう？」という言葉は、ガリア人がある種の愚かさに歯止めをかけ、他の種類の愚かさに拍車をかけるために考案したようだが、この軽率な若者は、調子に乗っている時には一度もそんな事は思いつかなかったし、自分の浪費の結果を恥じるようなデリカシーは持たなかった。
最初のうちは二日酔いから目覚めたばかりの酔っぱらいのようで、自分に何が起こったのかほとんど意識していなかった。その後、多くの不幸な浪費家のように、悲しみも恥も感じずに生きていた。幸運にも破産から、母親の形見である宝石少々は遺されたおかげで、しばらくの間は困る事もなかった。町の最もわかりにくい場所に宿をとり、狭い通りに出ると、太陽の光はほとんど差し込まない。ここで、現在の窮屈な状況で必要なものはすべて手に入れた。大家の質素な食卓が空腹を満たし、炉辺で寒さから守られ、屋根と壁が雨や風から守ってくれた。
It was now too late to philosophise over his thoughtlessness, as the most judicious reflections and the wisest resolutions could not undo the mischief which had been done. According to the mode of thinking in this civilized age, our hero might now have made his exit from the scene of life with dignity he might, as he could no longer live in his native city with honour, have deserted it for ever, or have put an end to his existence in any one of the many fashionable modes of shooting, hanging or drowning. Frank, however, did neither one nor the other. The " what will the world say ? " which our gallic neighbours seem to have invented to bridle some kinds of folly, and spur men on to other kinds, had never once occurred to the thoughtless wight in his prosperity, and his feelings were not sufficiently deli cate to make him ashamed of the consequences of his extravagance. At first he was like a drunkard, just awoke from intoxication, nearly unconscious of what had happened to him; and afterwards, like most unfortunate spendthrifts, he lived on and felt neither grief nor shame. He had luckily saved a few relics of his mother's jewels from the general wreck of his fortune; and they kept him for a time from absolute want. He took lodgings in one of the most obscure parts of the town, in a narrow street, into which the beams of the sun rarely penetrated, but on the very longest days, when they glanced for a short time over the high roofs, Here he found all he wanted in his present circumscribed situation. The frugal table of his landlord satiated his hunger; at the fireside he was protected from the cold; and the roof and walls sheltered him from rain and wind.
The Bottle Imp に関する論文を訳したら、The Fatal Marksman 共々、ド・クインシー Thomas Penson De Quincey (1785–1859)による英訳とする注釈があった。題名含めてそっくりそのまま、ド・クインシーの著作集にあるものが、『北国の著名説話・小説集』に含まれているという。今までド・クインシーは読んでおらず、どこにあるのかまだ探し出せていないが、とりあえずド・クインシーによる英訳と見て良さそうだ。
Thomas de Quincey (1785–1859)
Francis: 主人公の名は、アターソン英訳では Francis。ド・クインシー英訳では最初に「フランシス」としながら、以降はフランク Frank で通す。
ムゼーウスの原作ではフランツ Franz。
dollar: 米$ではないらしい。Oxford Dictionary に拠ると、dollar はドイツの Thaler (銀鉱山 Joachimsthaler の略) 大銀貨に由来する。米$は、独立戦争の際に広く使われたスペイン・ドルの影響を受けて出来たという。
ORIGIN from early Flemish or Low German daler, from German T(h)aler, short for Joachimsthaler, a coin from the silver mine of Joachimsthal (‘Joachim's valley’), now Jáchymov in the Czech Republic. The term was later applied to a coin used in the Spanish American colonies, which was also widely used in the British North American colonies at the time of the American War of Independence, hence adopted as the name of the US monetary unit in the late 18th century.
"and fared sumptuously every day.": ルカによる福音書16章
19 ある金持がいた。彼は紫の衣や細布を着て、毎日ぜいたくに遊び暮していた。
