Rapunzel

There were once a man and a woman who had long in vain wished for a child. At length the woman hoped that God was about to grant her desire. These people had a little window at the back of their house from which a splendid garden could be seen, which was full of the most beautiful flowers and herbs. It was, however, surrounded by a high wall, and no one dared to go into it because it belonged to an enchantress, who had great power and was dreaded by all the world. One day the woman was standing by this window and looking down into the garden, when she saw a bed which was planted with the most beautiful rampion (rapunzel), and it looked so fresh and green that she longed for it, she quite pined away, and began to look pale and miserable. Then her husband was alarmed, and asked: ‘What ails you, dear wife?’ ‘Ah,’ she replied, ‘if I can’t eat some of the rampion, which is in the garden behind our house, I shall die.’ The man, who loved her, thought: ‘Sooner than let your wife die, bring her some of the rampion yourself, let it cost what it will.’ At twilight, he clambered down over the wall into the garden of the enchantress, hastily clutched a handful of rampion, and took it to his wife. She at once made herself a salad of it, and ate it greedily. It tasted so good to her--so very good, that the next day she longed for it three times as much as before. If he was to have any rest, her husband must once more descend into the garden. In the gloom of evening therefore, he let himself down again; but when he had clambered down the wall he was terribly afraid, for he saw the enchantress standing before him. ‘How can you dare,’ said she with angry look, ‘descend into my garden and steal my rampion like a thief? You shall suffer for it!’ ‘Ah,’ answered he, ‘let mercy take the place of justice, I only made up my mind to do it out of necessity. My wife saw your rampion from the window, and felt such a longing for it that she would have died if she had not got some to eat.’ Then the enchantress allowed her anger to be softened, and said to him: ‘If the case be as you say, I will allow you to take away with you as much rampion as you will, only I make one condition, you must give me the child which your wife will bring into the world; it shall be well treated, and I will care for it like a mother.’ The man in his terror consented to everything, and when the woman was brought to bed, the enchantress appeared at once, gave the child the name of Rapunzel, and took it away with her.

むかし、ひと組の男と女がいて、長いあいだ子を願っていたが甲斐がなかった。だがとうとう女は、神が自分の望みをかなえてくださりそうだと望みを持った。この二人の家の裏手には小さな窓があって、そこから見事な庭が見えた。庭はこの上なく美しい花と草でいっぱいだった。だがそれは高い塀に囲まれていて、誰も入る勇気がなかった。大きな力を持ち、世じゅうから恐れられている魔女のものだったからである。ある日、女がこの窓辺に立って庭を見下ろしていると、この上なく美しいのぢしゃ(ラプンツェル)を植えた花壇が目に入った。それがたいそう瑞々しく青々として見えたので、女はそれがほしくてたまらなくなり、すっかり衰えて、青ざめてみじめな顔つきになりはじめた。そこで夫は驚いて尋ねた。「どうしたのだ、おまえ」「ああ」と女は答えた。「うちの裏の庭にあるのぢしゃを食べられなければ、わたしは死んでしまいます」妻を愛していた夫は思った。「妻を死なせるくらいなら、自分でのぢしゃを取ってきてやろう。何を払うことになろうとも」夕暮れに彼は塀をよじ越えて魔女の庭へ下り、急いでのぢしゃをひとつかみ摘んで妻のところへ持っていった。妻はすぐにそれでサラダを作り、貪るように食べた。それがあまりにおいしかった——あまりにおいしかったので、翌日には前の三倍もほしくなった。妻を落ち着かせるには、夫はもう一度庭へ下りるほかなかった。そこで夕方の薄闇のなかで彼はまた下りていった。だが塀をよじ降りたところでひどく怯えた。魔女が目の前に立っているのが見えたからである。「よくも」と魔女は怒りの目で言った。「わたしの庭に下りてきて、泥棒のようにわたしののぢしゃを盗む気になったものだね。その報いは受けてもらう」「ああ」と彼は答えた。「どうか裁きに情けをお与えください。やむにやまれず決心しただけなのです。妻が窓からあなたののぢしゃを見て、それを食べられなければ死んでしまうほどの望みを覚えたのです」そこで魔女は怒りを和らげて彼に言った。「事情がおまえの言うとおりなら、のぢしゃは好きなだけ持っていってよい。ただし一つ条件がある。おまえの妻が産む子をわたしに渡すのだ。その子は大切に扱われるし、わたしが母親のように世話をする」男は恐ろしさのあまり何もかも承知した。そして妻が産の床につくと、たちまち魔女が現れて、その子にラプンツェルという名をつけ、連れ去っていった。

Rapunzel grew into the most beautiful child under the sun. When she was twelve years old, the enchantress shut her into a tower, which lay in a forest, and had neither stairs nor door, but quite at the top was a little window. When the enchantress wanted to go in, she placed herself beneath it and cried:

ラプンツェルは日の下でもっとも美しい子に育った。十二になると、魔女はこの子を森のなかにある塔に閉じ込めた。塔には階段も戸もなく、いちばん上に小さな窓が一つあるきりだった。魔女はなかに入りたいときには、その下に立ってこう叫んだ。

‘Rapunzel, Rapunzel, Let down your hair to me.’

「ラプンツェル、ラプンツェル、髪を下ろしておくれ」

Rapunzel had magnificent long hair, fine as spun gold, and when she heard the voice of the enchantress she unfastened her braided tresses, wound them round one of the hooks of the window above, and then the hair fell twenty ells down, and the enchantress climbed up by it.

ラプンツェルは紡いだ金のように細い、見事な長い髪をしていた。そして魔女の声が聞こえると、編んだ髪をほどいて上の窓の鉤の一つに巻きつけた。すると髪は二十エレの深さまで垂れ下がり、魔女はそれをつたって上がっていった。

After a year or two, it came to pass that the king’s son rode through the forest and passed by the tower. Then he heard a song, which was so charming that he stood still and listened. This was Rapunzel, who in her solitude passed her time in letting her sweet voice resound. The king’s son wanted to climb up to her, and looked for the door of the tower, but none was to be found. He rode home, but the singing had so deeply touched his heart, that every day he went out into the forest and listened to it. Once when he was thus standing behind a tree, he saw that an enchantress came there, and he heard how she cried:

一、二年たったころ、王の息子が森を馬で通りかかり、その塔のそばを過ぎることがあった。すると歌声が聞こえてきて、それがあまりに愛らしかったので、彼は立ち止まって聴き入った。それはラプンツェルが、ひとりきりの寂しさのなかで、美しい声を響かせて時を過ごしていたのだった。王の息子は彼女のところへ登りたくて塔の戸を探したが、どこにも見つからなかった。彼は馬で家へ帰ったが、その歌が深く心を打ったので、毎日森へ出かけて聴くようになった。あるとき彼がそうして木の陰に立っていると、魔女がそこへ来るのが見え、こう叫ぶのが聞こえた。

‘Rapunzel, Rapunzel, Let down your hair to me.’

「ラプンツェル、ラプンツェル、髪を下ろしておくれ」

Then Rapunzel let down the braids of her hair, and the enchantress climbed up to her. ‘If that is the ladder by which one mounts, I too will try my fortune,’ said he, and the next day when it began to grow dark, he went to the tower and cried:

するとラプンツェルは編んだ髪を垂らし、魔女はそれをつたって上がっていった。「あれが人の登る梯子なら、おれも運を試してみよう」と彼は言い、翌日、暗くなりはじめるころ塔へ行って叫んだ。

‘Rapunzel, Rapunzel, Let down your hair to me.’

「ラプンツェル、ラプンツェル、髪を下ろしておくれ」

Immediately the hair fell down and the king’s son climbed up.

たちまち髪が垂れ下がり、王の息子は登っていった。

At first Rapunzel was terribly frightened when a man, such as her eyes had never yet beheld, came to her; but the king’s son began to talk to her quite like a friend, and told her that his heart had been so stirred that it had let him have no rest, and he had been forced to see her. Then Rapunzel lost her fear, and when he asked her if she would take him for her husband, and she saw that he was young and handsome, she thought: ‘He will love me more than old Dame Gothel does’; and she said yes, and laid her hand in his. She said: ‘I will willingly go away with you, but I do not know how to get down. Bring with you a skein of silk every time that you come, and I will weave a ladder with it, and when that is ready I will descend, and you will take me on your horse.’ They agreed that until that time he should come to her every evening, for the old woman came by day. The enchantress remarked nothing of this, until once Rapunzel said to her: ‘Tell me, Dame Gothel, how it happens that you are so much heavier for me to draw up than the young king’s son--he is with me in a moment.’ ‘Ah! you wicked child,’ cried the enchantress. ‘What do I hear you say! I thought I had separated you from all the world, and yet you have deceived me!’ In her anger she clutched Rapunzel’s beautiful tresses, wrapped them twice round her left hand, seized a pair of scissors with the right, and snip, snap, they were cut off, and the lovely braids lay on the ground. And she was so pitiless that she took poor Rapunzel into a desert where she had to live in great grief and misery.

はじめラプンツェルは、これまで目にしたこともない男がやってきてひどく怯えた。だが王の息子はすっかり友のように話しかけ、自分の心があまりに揺さぶられて落ち着かず、どうしても彼女に会わねばならなかったのだと語った。そこでラプンツェルは怖さを失い、彼が夫に迎えてくれるかと尋ね、彼が若くて美しいのを見ると、こう思った。「この人なら、あのゴーテルおばさんよりわたしをかわいがってくれるでしょう」そして「はい」と言って、その手に自分の手を重ねた。彼女は言った。「喜んであなたと行きます。でも、どうやって下りたらよいのか分かりません。いらっしゃるたびに絹の束を持ってきてください。それで梯子を編みます。出来上がったら下りていきますから、わたしをあなたの馬に乗せてください」二人は、その時まで彼が毎晩来ることに決めた。昼間はあの老婆が来るからである。魔女はそれに何も気づかなかったが、あるときラプンツェルがこう言った。「ねえ、ゴーテルおばさん、どうしてなのでしょう。おばさんを引き上げるのは、あの若い王さまの息子よりずっと重いのです。あの人はあっという間にわたしのところへ来るのに」「ああ、この悪い子」と魔女は叫んだ。「何を聞かされることか。おまえを世界から引き離しておいたつもりなのに、わたしを欺いていたとは」そして怒りのあまりラプンツェルの美しい編み髪をつかみ、左手に二度巻きつけ、右手で鋏をつかんで、じょきり、ぱちりと切り落とした。愛らしい編み髪は地に落ちた。そして魔女は情け容赦もなく、哀れなラプンツェルを荒れ野へ連れていった。ラプンツェルはそこで大きな嘆きとみじめさのうちに生きねばならなかった。

On the same day that she cast out Rapunzel, however, the enchantress fastened the braids of hair, which she had cut off, to the hook of the window, and when the king’s son came and cried:

だがラプンツェルを追い出したその日、魔女は切った編み髪を窓の鉤に結びつけた。そして王の息子が来てこう叫ぶと、

‘Rapunzel, Rapunzel, Let down your hair to me.’

「ラプンツェル、ラプンツェル、髪を下ろしておくれ」

she let the hair down. The king’s son ascended, but instead of finding his dearest Rapunzel, he found the enchantress, who gazed at him with wicked and venomous looks. ‘Aha!’ she cried mockingly, ‘you would fetch your dearest, but the beautiful bird sits no longer singing in the nest; the cat has got it, and will scratch out your eyes as well. Rapunzel is lost to you; you will never see her again.’ The king’s son was beside himself with pain, and in his despair he leapt down from the tower. He escaped with his life, but the thorns into which he fell pierced his eyes. Then he wandered quite blind about the forest, ate nothing but roots and berries, and did naught but lament and weep over the loss of his dearest wife. Thus he roamed about in misery for some years, and at length came to the desert where Rapunzel, with the twins to which she had given birth, a boy and a girl, lived in wretchedness. He heard a voice, and it seemed so familiar to him that he went towards it, and when he approached, Rapunzel knew him and fell on his neck and wept. Two of her tears wetted his eyes and they grew clear again, and he could see with them as before. He led her to his kingdom where he was joyfully received, and they lived for a long time afterwards, happy and contented.

魔女は髪を垂らした。王の息子は登っていったが、愛しいラプンツェルの代わりに見つけたのは、意地悪く毒々しい目で彼を見つめる魔女だった。「はは」と魔女はあざけって叫んだ。「愛しい人を迎えに来たわけだね。だが美しい鳥はもう巣で歌ってはいない。猫が取っていったよ。そしておまえの目も引っ掻き出すだろうよ。ラプンツェルはおまえにとって失われた。二度と会えはしない」王の息子は苦しみに我を忘れ、絶望して塔から飛び下りた。命は助かったが、落ちたいばらが目を突き刺した。そこで彼はすっかり目が見えぬまま森をさまよい、木の根と木の実のほか何も食べず、愛しい妻を失ったことを嘆き泣くばかりだった。そうして何年かみじめにさまよい、とうとう、ラプンツェルが産んだ双子の男の子と女の子とともにみじめに暮らしている、あの荒れ野にたどり着いた。彼はある声を聞き、それがたいそう聞き覚えのあるものに思えたのでそちらへ行った。そして近づくと、ラプンツェルが彼を見分けて、その首に抱きついて泣いた。するとその涙のうち二粒が彼の目を濡らし、目はまた澄んで、以前のように見えるようになった。彼は彼女を自分の国へ連れていき、そこで喜んで迎えられた。そして二人はそののち長いあいだ、幸せに満ち足りて暮らした。