The Straw, the Coal, and the Bean

In a village dwelt a poor old woman, who had gathered together a dish of beans and wanted to cook them. So she made a fire on her hearth, and that it might burn the quicker, she lighted it with a handful of straw. When she was emptying the beans into the pan, one dropped without her observing it, and lay on the ground beside a straw, and soon afterwards a burning coal from the fire leapt down to the two. Then the straw began and said: ‘Dear friends, from whence do you come here?’ The coal replied: ‘I fortunately sprang out of the fire, and if I had not escaped by sheer force, my death would have been certain,--I should have been burnt to ashes.’ The bean said: ‘I too have escaped with a whole skin, but if the old woman had got me into the pan, I should have been made into broth without any mercy, like my comrades.’ ‘And would a better fate have fallen to my lot?’ said the straw. ‘The old woman has destroyed all my brethren in fire and smoke; she seized sixty of them at once, and took their lives. I luckily slipped through her fingers.’

ある村に貧しい老婆が住んでいた。老婆は豆をひと皿集めて煮ようとした。そこで炉に火を起こし、早く燃えるようにと藁をひとつかみ使って点けた。豆を鍋へ空けているとき、一粒が気づかれずにこぼれ落ちて、一本の藁のそばの地面に転がった。そしてまもなく、火から燃える炭が一つ、この二人のそばへ跳び下りた。そこで藁が口を開いて言った。「親しい友よ、あなたがたはどこから来たのです」炭は答えた。「わたしは運よく火から跳び出しました。力ずくで逃げなければ、わたしの死は確かなものでした。灰になって燃え尽きていたでしょう」豆は言った。「わたしも無傷で逃げてきました。でも老婆に鍋へ入れられていたら、仲間たちと同じように情け容赦もなく煮物にされていたでしょう」「わたしの身の上はもっとましだったとでも」と藁は言った。「あの老婆はわたしの兄弟をみな火と煙で滅ぼしました。一度に六十本もつかんで、その命を奪ったのです。わたしは運よく指のあいだをすり抜けました」

‘But what are we to do now?’ said the coal.

「でも、これからどうしましょう」と炭は言った。

‘I think,’ answered the bean, ‘that as we have so fortunately escaped death, we should keep together like good companions, and lest a new mischance should overtake us here, we should go away together, and repair to a foreign country.’

「わたしが思うに」と豆は答えた。「こんなに運よく死を逃れたのですから、よい仲間として一緒にいるべきです。そしてここでまた新しい災いに遭わないように、一緒に立ち去って、よその国へ移りましょう」

The proposition pleased the two others, and they set out on their way together. Soon, however, they came to a little brook, and as there was no bridge or foot-plank, they did not know how they were to get over it. The straw hit on a good idea, and said: ‘I will lay myself straight across, and then you can walk over on me as on a bridge.’ The straw therefore stretched itself from one bank to the other, and the coal, who was of an impetuous disposition, tripped quite boldly on to the newly-built bridge. But when she had reached the middle, and heard the water rushing beneath her, she was after all, afraid, and stood still, and ventured no farther. The straw, however, began to burn, broke in two pieces, and fell into the stream. The coal slipped after her, hissed when she got into the water, and breathed her last. The bean, who had prudently stayed behind on the shore, could not but laugh at the event, was unable to stop, and laughed so heartily that she burst. It would have been all over with her, likewise, if, by good fortune, a tailor who was travelling in search of work, had not sat down to rest by the brook. As he had a compassionate heart he pulled out his needle and thread, and sewed her together. The bean thanked him most prettily, but as the tailor used black thread, all beans since then have a black seam.

この提案はほかの二人の気に入り、三人は一緒に旅に出た。だがまもなく小さな川に来たが、橋も踏み板もないので、どうやって渡ればよいか分からなかった。藁がよい考えを思いついて言った。「わたしがまっすぐ横に渡りましょう。そうすれば橋のようにわたしの上を歩いて渡れます」そこで藁は一方の岸からもう一方へ体を伸ばし、性急な気性の炭はたいそう大胆に、できたばかりの橋の上をとことこ歩いていった。ところがまんなかまで来て、下で水が流れる音を聞くと、やはり怖くなって立ち止まり、それ以上進もうとしなかった。だが藁は燃えはじめ、二つに折れて流れに落ちた。炭も滑り落ち、水に入るとじゅっと音を立てて息絶えた。用心して岸に残っていた豆は、この出来事に笑わずにいられず、止まらなくなって、あまりに激しく笑ったので体が裂けてしまった。もし幸いにも、仕事を探して旅をしていた仕立屋が川のほとりに腰を下ろして休んでいなければ、豆もそれでおしまいだっただろう。仕立屋は情け深い心の持ち主だったので、針と糸を取り出して豆を縫い合わせた。豆はこの上なく丁寧に礼を言ったが、仕立屋が黒い糸を使ったので、それ以来すべての豆には黒い縫い目があるのである。