2
しかしながら、倦怠という敵からは、いつも頼りになる屋根も壁も、火のそばも、食卓の節制された楽しみも、彼を守れはしなかった。ろくでもない寄生虫の群れは、彼の富とともに消え去り、かつての友人たちとはもはや行き来がない。当時、読書は一般的な娯楽ではなかった。あるいは、浅はかな頭脳から紡ぎ出される、脳を病む空想の産物で時間をつぶす方法を、人々は理解していなかった。感傷的な小説も、教育的な小説も、心理的な小説も、コミカルな小説も、大衆的な物語も、道徳的な物語も、娯楽的な物語も、家族史も、修道院史も、ロビンソンも、新しいものも古いものもなく、うんざりするような夢見る小説の編集者たちが、良質の紙を台無しにし、八百屋やタバコ屋のために働くというありがたくない仕事を印刷屋に押しつけることも、まだ始まっていなかった。
高貴な騎士たちは、槍を壊すも厭わず馬上槍試合に勤しみ、ベルンのディートリッヒ、ヒルデブランド、角のジークフリート、強靭なルンボルトは、ドラゴンその他のモンスターを探しに行き、巨人や小人を倒し、めいめいが12人力だった。当時、由緒正しいテウエルダルクは、ドイツの芸術と技術の偉大な模範であり、彼の作品はわが国の知性の最新の産物であったが、その時代の美男子、詩人、哲学者にのみ賞賛された。フランクは以上の何れの階級にも属さなかったので、リュートをかき鳴らすか、窓から外を眺めて気象観測をする以外にする事はなかった。しかし、それは現代の風流な気象学者の愉快な理論ほど正しい結論には至らなかった。幸いなことに、彼はすぐにもっと魅力的な観察対象を見つけ、それが彼の頭と心の空白を一気に埋めてくれたのである。
From one enemy, however, ennui, neither the roof nor the walls, neither the fire-side, nor the temperate enjoyments of the table, could al ways protect him. The crowd of worthless parasites had disappeared with his wealth, and his former friends knew him no longer. Reading was not, at that time, a general amusement, nor did the people understand how to kill their hours with those brain-sick creations of the fancy, which are usually spun from the shallowest heads. There were neither sentimental, pedagogical, psychological, nor comical romances, neither popular, moral, nor entertaining tales, neither family nor monastic histories, no Robinsons either new or old, and the whole tribe of tiresome, dreaming novel inditers had not then begun to spoil good paper, and impose on printers, the ungrateful task of labouring for the grocers and tobacconists. Noble knights, in deed, even then broke their lances, and jousted in tournaments, Dietrich of Berne, Hildebrand, and Siegfried the Horny, Rumbold the Strong, went in search of dragons and other monsters, and slew giants and dwarfs, each of whom was equal in strength to twelve ordinary men. The venerable Theuerdauk, was at that time, the great model of German art and skill, and his work was the latest production of our country's intellect but he was only admired by the beaux esprits, poets and philosophers of the age. Frank belonged to neither of these classes, and had, therefore, no other occupation but to strum on his lute, or to look out of the window, and make observations on the weather; which led, however, to no more just conclusions, than the nu merous theories of the airy meteorologists of the present day. Fortunately, he soon found a more attractive object for his observations, which filled at once the empty space in his head and heart.
彼の窓の向かいの狭い通りに、立派な未亡人が住んでいた。彼女は、より良い時代を期待して、紡ぎ車で倹しく生計を立てていた。一人娘になる美しい乙女の助けを借りて紡ぎ車を回し、溝や壁や郊外などを含む、ブレーメンの街全体を包み込むほど大量の糸を、毎日のように紡いでいた。
この二人の女性は、紡ぎ車には無縁なはずの、つまり良家の生まれ育ちで、一時は豊かな生活を送っていた。母ブリギッタの夫にして幼いメラの父は、商船の持ち主で、自ら貨物を積み、毎年アントワープに航海していた。しかし、メラがまだ幼い頃、恐ろしい嵐に見舞われ、船と乗組員、そして豊かな積荷が波にのまれてしまった。
Opposite his windows, in the same narrow street, lived a respectable widow, who, in expectation of better times, gained a scanty livelihood, by means of her spinning-wheel, on which, with the assistance of an exquisitely beautiful maiden, her only daughter, she produced every day such a quantity of yarn, that it would have reached round the whole city of Bremen, ditch, walls, suburbs and all. These two females were born for a better fate than the spinning-wheel, they came of a good family, and had lived, at one time, in opulence and prosperity. The husband of mother Brigitta, and the father of young Mela, had been the owner of a merchant - vessel, which he freighted himself, and in which he made every year a voyage to Antwerp. But while Mela was yet a child, a dreadful storm, buried him and his ship, with the crew and a rich cargo in the waves.
母親は分別のある立派な女性で、夫と全財産を失っても、賢く冷静に受け止めていた。
貧しさにもかかわらず、彼女は友人や親戚の同情や博愛に基づく援助の申し出を、高貴な誇りをもってすべて拒否した。自分の手仕事で生活の糧を得ようとする限り、施しを受けることは不名誉なことだと考えたのだ。大きな家と高価な家具を亡き夫の心ない債権者に譲り、現在の質素な住まいに移り住み、朝から晩まで紡績業に打ち込んだのである。最初はこの仕事がとても苦痛に思え、しばしば涙で糸を湿らせた。しかし、その努力によって、自立を保ち、不愉快な義務を負わずにすむようになった。娘にも同じような生活をさせ、質素に暮らし、小金を貯めて糸くずを買うようになった。以来、その品物の商売を細々と続けていた。
Her mother, a sensible well-principled woman, bore the loss of her husband and of her whole property with wise composure. Not withstanding her poverty, she refused, with a noble pride, all the offers of assistance, which the compassion or benevolence of her friends and relations prompted them to make; deeming it dishonourable to receive alms, as long as she could hope to obtain the means of subsistance by the labour of her hands. She resigned her large house and its costly furniture, to the hard-hearted creditors of her late husband, took her present humble dwelling, and spun from morning till night. At first, this occupation appeared very irksome; and she often moistened the thread with her tears. By her industry, however, she was enabled to preserve herself independent, and to save herself from incurring unpleasant obligations; she accustomed her daughter to the same mode of life, and lived so sparingly, that she even saved a small sum, which she laid out in buying lint, and, from that time, carried on a trade in that article on a small scale.
しかし、この優れた女性は、このような質素な状態で一生を過ごそうなどという積もりはさらさらなかった。それどころか、より良い時代に目を向け、勇気を奮い立たせ。いつの日か、奪われた豊かさを取り戻し、人生の秋には、春を謳歌した陽光を享受したいと願っていた。この希望は空しい夢ではなく、理性的な観察から生まれたものだった。娘が成長するにつれ、咲き誇るバラのように、しかしバラのように美しく熟した途端に色あせて散ってしまうのではなく、娘の魅力が開花していくのを見たのだ。娘が控えめで高潔で、優れた資質を備えていることを知っていたので、すでに彼女の社会に慰めと幸福を見出していた。
だから娘に立派な教育を受けさせるためなら、時には生活必需品も拒否した。もし乙女が良き妻として、女性の友たるソロモン王の眼鏡に適ってさえいれば、高価な真珠が求められ、正直な男性が持ちうる最も輝かしい装飾品として選ばれるだろうと確信していたのである。
This excellent woman was, however, far from thinking she should spend her life in this humble state; on the contrary, she strengthened her courage, by looking forward to better times; and she hoped, one day, to be restored to that prosperity she had been deprived of, and to enjoy, in the autumn of her life, some of that sunshine which had gladdened its spring. Nor was this hope altogether an empty dream; it sprung from rational observation. She saw her daughter's charms unfold as she grew up, like a blooming rose, but not like it, to fade and fall as soon as it is ripened into beauty. She knew her to be modest and virtuous, and gifted with such excellent qualities, that she already found, in her society, consolation and happiness. She therefore denied herself, sometimes, the common necessaries of life, to give her daughter the advantages of a respectable education; being convinced that, if a maiden only answered the description which Solomon, the royal friend of women, has given of a good wife, such a costly pearl would be sought after, and selected as the brightest ornament an honest man could possess.
美と結びついた徳は、当時、若い男性の目には、現在の強力な関係や大きな財産と同じくらいに価値があった。同様に、乙女の手を狙う競争相手もはるかに多く、当時は妻が最も必要不可欠な存在であり、（現在の洗練された経済理論が言うような）家庭の最も不必要な部分とは考えられていなかったのである。美しいメラが花開く様は、自由な空気にある健康な灌木というよりも、温室にある珍しい高価な植物のようであった。
彼女は現在の結婚観のすべての原則に反し、母親の世話と保護の下で、静かにひっそりと生活し、公共の散歩道も集会場も訪れず、月に一度でも街の外に出ることはほとんどなかった。
今日の母親連中は、自分の娘を、利子を生むために流通させなければならない資本のように考えている。対してその昔、貧しい娘たちは鍵のかかった宝物のように大事にされていた。しかし銀行家は、その宝がどこに隠されているか、どうやって手に入れるかを知っていた。母ブリギッタは、いつか金持ちの婿を見つけて、狭い通りにある長いバビロニア虜囚の身から解放し、娘と一緒に乳と蜜の国へ連れ帰ってくれることを望んでいたのだ。
Virtue, united with beauty, were then quite as valuable in the eyes of young men, as powerful relations and a large fortune are at present. There were likewise a far greater number of competitors for a maiden's hand, a wife being then considered as the most essential, and not, as (according to the present refined economical theory), the most unnecessary part of the household. The beauteous Mela, it is true, bloomed more like a rare costly plant in a green-house than a healthy shrub in the free air. She lived quietly and in retirement, under the maternal care and protection; visited neither the public walks nor assembly rooms, and scarcely once in a twelvemonth went outside of her native city, contrary to all the present principles of marrying policy. Mother's, now a-days know better, they look upon their daughters as on a capital, which must circulate to produce interest; in those times, the poor girls were kept under lock and key, like hoarded treasure; but bankers knew where it was hidden, and how to obtain it. Mother Brigitta hoped she should, one day, find a rich son-in-law to release her from her long Babylonian captivity in the narrow street, and take her and her daughter back to the land of milk and honey.
メラには、高い地位にふさわしい魅力がたくさん備わっているように思えたので、当然あるべきと思われたものを満たすため、母は自分の力の及ぶ限り、教育と作法を叩き込んだ。
Mela seemed to her to be endowed with so many charms, only to make her worthy of a high station; and she therefore did all in her power, by the great care she took of her education and manners, to fulfil what she thought the decree of nature.
ある日、フランクが窓辺で空模様を観察していると、魅力的なメラが母親と一緒に、定期的にミサに参加している教会から戻ってくるのが見えた。
恵まれた当時には、異性にはほとんど全く、注意を払わなかったものだから、細かい感情の和音はまだ打ち鳴らされたことがなかった。悪友どもが絶やさずにいた快楽の酩酊によって、彼の感覚は鈍くなっていたのだ。
One day, as Frank was at the window, observing the weather, he saw the charming Mela returning from church, where she regularly accompanied her mother to hear mass. In his days of prosperity, he had paid little or no attention to the other sex; the chords of his finer feelings had never yet been struck, his senses having been blunted and bewildered by the incessant intoxication of pleasure, in which his companions had kept him.
今はしかし、若さゆえの荒波は静まり返り、ごく密やかなそよ風が、彼の魂の鏡のような水面を揺らしている。今まで見たこともないような美しい女性を見て魅了され、すぐにつまらない気象学の研究をやめて、もっと面白い仕事に取りかかったのだ。手始めに、彼の美しい隣人とその母親について家主に質問し、上述の事情をこまごまと教わった事であった。
Now, however, the stormy waves of youthful turbulence were still, and the slightest breeze ruffled the mirror-like surface of his soul. He was enchanted at the sight of the most lovely woman he had ever seen, and immediately gave up his dry meteoreological studies, for a more interesting occupation. He began by questioning his landlord concerning his fair neighbour and her mother, and from him learnt the greater part of what the reader already knows.
Solomon, the royal friend of women: ソロモン王には、数多く妃があったという。
列王記上 第11章
1 ソロモン王は多くの外国の女を愛した。すなわちパロの娘、モアブびと、アンモンびと、エドムびと、シドンびと、ヘテびとの女を愛した。
2 主はかつてこれらの国民について、イスラエルの人々に言われた、「あなたがたは彼らと交わってはならない。彼らもまたあなたがたと交わってはならない。彼らは必ずあなたがたの心を転じて彼らの神々に従わせるからである」。しかしソロモンは彼らを愛して離れなかった。
3 彼には王妃としての妻七百人、そばめ三百人があった。その妻たちが彼の心を転じたのである。
