小泉八雲 桝井幹生
<昭和46[1971]年4月から平成10[1998]年3月まで>

あしかけ9年間勤務した四日市の高校から、京都に帰り、京都府立大学に併設されていた女子短期大学部に講師として移った。ブリカンは銀閣寺近くに移転しており、私はブリカン給費留学生を対象とした同窓会組織の委員の一人として、15年の長きにわたり、年次同窓会の世話をさせてもらった。
 バラッドへの興味も薄れることなく続いていた。英語の視聴覚教育担当として、小さなLL(Language Laboratory)の維持・資料収集にあたった。そのとき、かなりのバラッドやフォーク・ソングの蔵書、音声資料などが増えた。
 最初のころ、昭和47(1972)年4月から一年間、京大研修員となり、少々アカデミックな雰囲気を味わった。菅泰男教授のシェイクスピアの演習に出るためである。直接の指導教官は岡照雄先生だったが、一度も挨拶に伺わない無礼を犯してしまった。後に岡先生は福岡女子大学学長となられ、現在福岡女子大ゆかりの人たちとキプリングでお世話になろうとは夢にも思わなかった。
 この結果生まれたのが、シェイクスピアに関する、二本の紀要論文と一冊の英語教科書『シナリオ版 ロミオとジュリエット』(三修社, 1990[絶版])である。大学というところは授業ばかりではダメ。“Publish or Perish” で、シコシコ公刊物で点を稼がないと、相撲界でいうなら序の口から上へは絶対登れないのである。
 さて、京都では小さなライブ・ハウスがあり、外国のミュージシャンが演奏を聴かせてくれる。私は次の三人の演奏会を聴いた。「拾得(じっとく)」という店では、ペンタングルのジョン・レンボーンとアメリカの民謡歌手ジーン・リッチー、「磔(たく)磔(たく)」では、ソウル歌手のアン・ピーブルズであった。(アン・ピーブルズのライブの夜、さきごろ日本バラッド協会に入会された三井徹さんも一緒だったが、覚えておられるであろうか?)
 いつのころか記憶は定かでないが、東京大学で初めてバラッドを講じたのが小泉八雲だと知り、ちょっとバラッドを離れ、その後ずっと続けているのが小泉八雲研究である。小泉八雲のことならわざわざ外国に行かなくても日本で研究できると思ったからである。碩学、梶谷泰之先生の指導を受け、初めて日本英文学会中国・四国支部の山口大会で「ラフカディオ・ハーンの『島根・九州だより』について」と題し口頭発表した。それ以後、中国・四国支部での発表にもとづく紀要論文が公刊物としての点稼ぎになった。
 今回は小泉八雲の「兄(あに)さん寒かろう、おまえ寒かろう」で有名な「鳥取のふとん」を思わせるような、ジーン・リッチーの「みなしご」を紹介しよう。例により、英語の歌詞の節ごとに大意をつける。

"The Orphan‘s( sic ) Lament" (Two Little Children)

Two little children, a boy and a girl
Sat down by the old church door
The little girl’s cheek was as brown as the curl
That fell on the dress that she wore

幼い子供二人 姉と弟が
古い教会の戸口に座っていました
女の子のほっぺたは褐色に汚れ
着ている服に垂れる 髪の色と同じでした

The little boy’s coat was all ragged and torn
A tear shone in each little eye
Why don’t you go home to your mama, they said
And this was the maiden’s reply

男の子の服はボロボロにちぎれています
ちっちゃな両の眼には泪が一粒光っていました
「お家のお母さんのところへ帰りなさい」と人々は言いました
すると女の子はこう答えました

Mama’s in heaven, angels took her away
Left Jim and I all alone
And Papa got lost on the sea long ago
We have no mama nor home

「母さんは天国です 天使様たちが連れていきました
ジムとあたいを残して
父さんはずっと前 海で亡くなりました
だから 母さんもお家もないのです

We can’t earn our bread, we’re too little, she said
Jim’s five and I’m only seven
We’ve no one to love us since Papa’s away
And darling mama’s in heaven

あたいたちは幼くて パンを買うお金が稼げません
ジムは五つ あたいはたった七つ
だれも可愛がってくれません お父さんは行方不明
お母さんは天国です」

The sexton came early to ring the church bell
And found them beneath the snow white
The angels made room for two orphans to dwell
In heaven with their mama that night.

墓守が翌朝早く 教会の鐘を鳴らしにやってきて
降り積もった雪の下に 二人を発見しました
昨夜 天使が二人の孤児に
天国で母親と暮らす場所を見つけてやったのです

この英語の歌詞は下のサイトから取った。
http://www.traditionalmusic.co.uk/folk-song-lyrics/Orphans_Lament.htm
なお、ここを開き、“Click here to listen to the original recording” の青い文字をクリックし、また次の、
https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=53496
をクリックして、左側の“In Mudcat MIDIs: The Orphans’ Lament(Two Little Children)”をクリックし、さらにアルファベットのOで検索し、曲名を探しクリックするとリッチー版のミディが聴ける。ちょっと面倒だが、トライされたい。
 このフォーク・ソングは、もとは移民たちが持ってきたアイルランドの古謡らしい。別のバージョンでは、お父さんが救命船の船長で、救命任務の最中、海で遭難したくだりもある。リッチーはその部分を詳しく歌わずに省略している。また、語り手が孤児たちを助けずに放置したことを疑問視する声もある。他人の不幸に干渉しない風潮があったのだろう。こうした不幸な孤児たちは奴隷としてカナダあたりに運ばれ、こき使われたこともあるそうだ。同じアイルランドの移民の一人で孤児同然のラフカディオ・ハーンも、日本にきて鳥取で次のような民話を聞いた。

小泉八雲の『鳥取のふとん』(The Story of the Futon of Tottori)
   Many years ago, a very small yadoya in Tottori town received its first guest, an itinerant merchant. He was received with more than common kindness, for the landlord desired to make a good name for his little inn. It was a new inn, but as its owner was poor, most of its dogu — furniture and utensils — had been purchased from the furuteya. Nevertheless, everything was clean, comforting, and pretty. The guest ate heartily and drank plenty of good warm sake; after which his bed was prepared on the soft floor, and he laid himself down to sleep.
   Now, as a rule, one sleeps soundly after having drunk plenty of warm sake, especially if the night be cool and the bed very snug. But the guest, having slept but a very little while, was aroused by the sound of voices in his room — voices of children, always asking each other the same questions: — 'Ani-San samukaro?' 'Omae samukaro?' The presence of children in his room might annoy the guest, but could not surprise him, for in these Japanese hotels there are no doors, but only papered sliding screens between room and room. So it seemed to him that some children must have wandered into his apartment, by mistake, in the dark. He uttered some gentle rebuke. For a moment only there was silence; then a sweet, thin, plaintive voice queried, close to his ear, 'Ani-San samukaro?' (Elder Brother probably is cold?), and another sweet voice made answer caressingly, 'Omae samukaro?' [Nay, thou probably art cold?]
   He arose and rekindled the candle in the andon, and looked about the room. There was no one. The shoji were all closed. He examined the cupboards; they were empty. Wondering, he lay down again, leaving the light still burning; and immediately the voices spoke again, complainingly, close to his pillow:
'Ani-San samukaro?'
'Omae samukaro?'
Then, for the first time, he felt a chill creep over him, which was not the chill of the night. Again and again he heard, and each time he became more afraid. For he knew that the voices were in the futon! It was the covering of the bed that cried out thus.
   He gathered hurriedly together the few articles belonging to him, and, descending the stairs, aroused the landlord and told what had passed. Then the host, much angered, made reply: 'That to make pleased the honourable guest everything has been done, the truth is; but the honourable guest too much august sake having drank, bad dreams has seen.' Nevertheless the guest insisted upon paying at once that which he owed, and seeking lodging elsewhere.
   Next evening there came another guest who asked for a room for the night. At a late hour the landlord was aroused by his lodger with the same story. And this lodger, strange to say, had not taken any sake. Suspecting some envious plot to ruin his business, the landlord answered passionately: 'Thee to please all things honourably have been done: nevertheless, ill-omened and vexatious words thou utterest. And that my inn my means-of-livelihood is — that also thou knowest. Wherefore that such things be spoken, right-there-is-none!' Then the guest, getting into a passion, loudly said things much more evil; and the two parted in hot anger.
   But after the guest was gone, the landlord, thinking all this very strange, ascended to the empty room to examine the futon. And while there, he heard the voices, and he discovered that the guests had said only the truth. It was one covering—only one—which cried out. The rest were silent. He took the covering into his own room, and for the remainder of the night lay down beneath it. And the voices continued until the hour of dawn: 'Ani-San samukaro?' 'Omae samukaro?' So that he could not sleep.
   But at break of day he rose up and went out to find the owner of the furuteya at which the futon had been purchased. The dealer knew nothing. He had bought the futon from a smaller shop, and the keeper of that shop had purchased it from a still poorer dealer dwelling in the farthest suburb of the city. And the innkeeper went from one to the other, asking questions.
   Then at last it was found that the futon had belonged to a poor family, and had been bought from the landlord of a little house in which the family had lived, in the neighbourhood of the town. And the story of the futon was this:—
   The rent of the little house was only sixty sen a month, but even this was a great deal for the poor folks to pay. The father could earn only two or three yen a month, and the mother was ill and could not work; and there were two children—a boy of six years and a boy of eight. And they were strangers in Tottori.
   One winter's day the father sickened; and after a week of suffering he died, and was buried. Then the long-sick mother followed him, and the children were left alone. They knew no one whom they could ask for aid; and in order to live they began to sell what there was to sell.
   That was not much: the clothes of the dead father and mother, and most of their own; some quilts of cotton, and a few poor household utensils— hibachi, bowls, cups, and other trifles. Every day they sold something, until there was nothing left but one futon. And a day came when they had nothing to eat; and the rent was not paid.
The terrible Dai-kan had arrived, the season of greatest cold; and the snow had drifted too high that day for them to wander far from the little house. So they could only lie down under their one futon, and shiver together, and compassionate each other in their own childish way —'Ani-San, samukaro?' 'Omae samukaro?'
   They had no fire, nor anything with which to make fire; and the darkness came; and the icy wind screamed into the little house.
   They were afraid of the wind, but they were more afraid of the house-owner, who roused them roughly to demand his rent. He was a hard man, with an evil face. And finding there was none to pay him, he turned the children into the snow, and took their one futon away from them, and locked up the house.
   They had but one thin blue kimono each, for all their other clothes had been sold to buy food; and they had nowhere to go. There was a temple of Kwannon not far away, but the snow was too high for them to reach it. So when the landlord was gone, they crept back behind the house. There the drowsiness of cold fell upon them, and they slept, embracing each other to keep warm. And while they slept, the gods covered them with a new futon—ghostly-white and very beautiful. And they did not feel cold any more. For many days they slept there; then somebody found them, and a bed was made for them in the hakaba of the Temple of Kwannon-of-the-Thousand-Arms.
   And the innkeeper, having heard these things, gave the futon to the priests of the temple, and caused the kyo to be recited for the little souls. And the futon ceased thereafter to speak.

 八雲は、よく似た話もあるものだと感じたにちがいない。
 添付した翻訳(「ある宿屋の布団」ふとん1ふとん2ふとん3ふとん4ふとん5)は、大正14年、すでに刊行されていた『郷土讀本』が、鳥取第一中学校第一年学年の課外読物として再版され、昭和54年に翻刻再販されたもののp.132~141、 5枚である。この「郷土シリーズ」は現在も続刊中らしく、この『讀本』は、第九巻にあり、現在手元にあるのは、第24巻古田恵紹著『鳥取ことばは愉し — その特色 —』(昭和58年)で、著者自身から戴いたものである。もしこの物語を子供たちに読み聞かせるのなら、古田さんにお願いしたらと思う。私事にわたり恐縮だが、筆者の妹は、出雲の人と結婚、鳥取で15年暮らした。いまでも、「ケン」とか「ガ」という訛りが出る。物語の「兄さん寒かろう」「お前寒かろう」を言ってもらったが、訛りが違った。「ろう」が右肩あがりになるのである。
 古田さんの本から一つテレビ・ドラマ「ゲゲゲの女房」でおなじみの山陰方言を紹介しておこう。「だらず」である。

 「お前がダラズだケエ、そいで損すッだいナ」と因幡男が言うところを、西伯耆では、「ワイがダアだケン、そいで損スーだがナ」と言うことになる。「ダラズ」というのは、江戸中期にでたあの『物類称呼』という方言辞典に、「おろかにあさましきを、因幡にてダラズといふ」とあるところをみると、なんだか因幡国専売特許語みたいだ。語源は「(脳ミソ)が足らず」ということである。(p.89)すごく「愉しい」本である。