Ouyan the Curlew

Bleargah the hawk, mother of Ouyan the curlew, said one day to her son: "Go, Ouyan, out, take your spears and kill an emu. The women and I are hungry. You are a man, go out and kill, that we may eat. You must not stay always in the camp like an old woman; you must go and hunt as other men do, lest the women laugh at you."

ダイシャクシギのウーヤンの母である鷹のビーアーガーが、ある日息子に言った。「お行き、ウーヤン、槍を持って出かけてエミューを仕留めておいで。女たちもわたしも腹を空かせている。おまえは男なのだから、出かけて仕留めておいで、わたしたちが食べられるように。老女のようにいつまでも野営地にいてはいけない。ほかの男たちのように狩りに行くのだ。でないと女たちに笑われるよ。」

Ouyan took his spears and went out hunting, but though he went far, he could not get an emu, yet he dare not return to the camp and face the jeers of the women. Well could they jeer, and angry could his mother grow when she was hungry. Sooner than return empty-handed he would cut some flesh off his own legs. And this he decided to do. He made a cut in his leg with his comebo and as he made it, cried aloud: "Yuckay! Yuckay," in pain. But he cut on, saying: "Sharper would cut the tongues of the women, and deeper would be the wounds they would make, if I returned without food for them." And crying: "Yuckay, yuckay," at each stroke of his comebo, he at length cut off a piece of flesh, and started towards the camp with it.

ウーヤンは槍を取って狩りに出た。けれども遠くまで行っても、エミューは捕れなかった。それでも野営地に戻って女たちのあざけりに顔を向ける気にはなれなかった。女たちのあざけりはきついし、腹を空かせた母の怒りようも激しい。手ぶらで帰るくらいなら、自分の脚の肉を削いだ方がましだ。そしてそうすることに決めた。コンボで脚に切り目を入れ、入れながら痛みに「ユッカイ! ユッカイ!」と声を上げた。それでも切り続けて、こう言った。「女たちの舌はもっと鋭く切るだろうし、食べ物を持たずに帰れば、あれが作る傷はもっと深いだろう。」そしてコンボを振るうたびに「ユッカイ、ユッカイ」と叫びながら、とうとう肉を一切れ削ぎ取って、それを持って野営地へ向かった。

As he neared the camp his mother cried out: "What have you brought us, Ouyan? We starve for meat, come quickly."

野営地に近づくと、母が叫んだ。「何を持って来た、ウーヤン? 肉に飢えている、早くおいで。」

He came and laid the flesh at her feet, saying: "Far did I go, and little did I see, but there is enough for all to-night; to-morrow will I go forth again."

ウーヤンは来て、肉を母の足もとに置いて言った。「遠くまで行きましたが、見つかったものは少しでした。それでも今夜みなで食べるには足ります。明日もまた出かけます。」

The women cooked the flesh, and ate it hungrily. Afterwards they felt quite ill, but thought it must be because they had eaten too hungrily. The next day they hurried Ouyan forth again. And again he returned bringing his own flesh back. Again the women ate hungrily of it, and again they felt quite ill.

女たちは肉を焼き、空腹のままがつがつ食べた。そのあとひどく具合が悪くなったが、あまりに空腹で食べすぎたせいだろうと思った。あくる日、女たちはまたウーヤンを急き立てて送り出した。そしてまたウーヤンは自分の肉を持って帰った。女たちはまたそれをがつがつ食べ、またひどく具合が悪くなった。

Then, too, Beeargah noticed for the first time that the flesh Ouyan brought looked different from emu flesh. She asked him what flesh it was. He replied: "What should it be but the flesh of emu?"

そのときビーアーガーは初めて、ウーヤンの持って来る肉がエミューの肉とは違って見えることに気づいた。何の肉かと尋ねた。ウーヤンは答えた。「エミューの肉のほかに何でありましょう。」

But Beeargah was not satisfied, and she said to the two women who lived with her: "Go you, to-morrow, follow Ouyan, and see whence he gets this flesh."

けれどもビーアーガーは納得せず、一緒に暮らす二人の女に言った。「明日、おまえたちがウーヤンについて行って、どこからこの肉を取って来るのか見ておいで。」

The next day, the two woman followed Ouyan when he went forth to hunt. They followed at a good distance, that he might not notice that they were following. Soon they heard him crying as if in pain: "Yuckay, yuckay, yuckay nurroo gay gay." When they came near they saw he was cutting the flesh off his own limbs. Before he discovered that they were watching him, back they went to the old woman, and told her what they had seen.

あくる日、二人の女はウーヤンが狩りに出るとき後をつけた。つけていると気づかれないよう、かなり離れてついて行った。まもなく、痛みに堪えかねたような叫びが聞こえた。「ユッカイ、ユッカイ、ユッカイ・ヌルー・ゲイ・ゲイ。」近づいてみると、ウーヤンは自分の手足の肉を削いでいた。見られていることにウーヤンが気づく前に、二人は老女のところへ戻って、見たことを告げた。

Soon Ouyan came back, bringing, as usual, the flesh with him. When he had thrown it down at his mother's feet, he went away, and lay down as if tired from the chase. His mother went up to him, and before he had time to cover his mutilated limbs, she saw that indeed the story of the women was true. Angry was she that he had so deceived her: and she called loudly for the other two women, who came running to her.

まもなくウーヤンが、いつものように肉を持って帰って来た。母の足もとにそれを放り出すと、離れて行って、狩りに疲れたかのように横になった。母が近づき、ウーヤンが傷ついた手足を隠す間も無く、女たちの話が本当だったことを見て取った。こんなふうに欺かれていたことに母は怒り、声高にもう二人の女を呼んだ。女たちは駆けつけた。

"You are right," she said. "Too lazy to hunt for emu, he cut off his own flesh, not caring that when we unwittingly ate thereof we should sicken. Let us beat him who did us this wrong."

「おまえたちの言うとおりだった」と母は言った。「エミューを狩るのが面倒で、自分の肉を削ぎ取ったのだ。知らずにそれを食べたわたしたちが具合を悪くしても構わずに。こんな仕打ちをした者を打ちすえよう。」

The three women seized poor Ouyan and beat him, though he cried aloud in agony when the blows fell on his bleeding legs.

三人の女は哀れなウーヤンを掴んで打った。血の流れる脚に打撃が落ちるたび、ウーヤンは苦痛に声を上げて叫んだのに。

When the women had satisfied their vengeance, Beeargah said: "You Ouyan shall have no more flesh on your legs, and red shall they be for ever; red, and long and fleshless." Saying which she went, and with her the other women. Ouyan crawled away and hid himself, and never again did his mother see him. But night after night was to be heard a wailing cry of, "Bou you gwai gwai. Bou you gwai gwai," which meant, "My poor red legs. My poor red legs."

女たちが恨みを晴らすと、ビーアーガーは言った。「ウーヤンよ、おまえの脚には二度と肉がつかず、いつまでも赤いままだ。赤く、長く、肉の無いままだ。」そう言って母は立ち去り、ほかの女たちも一緒に去った。ウーヤンは這って行って身を隠し、母は二度とその姿を見なかった。けれども夜ごとに、嘆きの叫びが聞こえた。「ボウ・ユー・グワイ・グワイ。ボウ・ユー・グワイ・グワイ。」その意味は「わたしの哀れな赤い脚。わたしの哀れな赤い脚」である。

But though Ouyan the man was never seen again, a bird with long thin legs, very red in colour under the feathers, was seen often, and heard to cry ever at night, even as Ouyan the man had cried: "Bou you gwai gwai. Bou you gwai gwai." And this bird bears always the name of Ouyan.

そして人であったウーヤンは二度と見られなかったが、細長い脚を持ち、羽の下がたいそう赤い鳥が、しばしば見られるようになった。そして夜になるといつも、人であったウーヤンが叫んだとおりに鳴くのが聞かれた。「ボウ・ユー・グワイ・グワイ。ボウ・ユー・グワイ・グワイ。」この鳥はいつもウーヤンという名を帯びている。