The two Friends who set off to travel round the world

Once there were two men who desired to travel round the world, that they might tell others what was the manner of it.

むかし、世界をぐるりと旅してまわり、その様子を人に語って聞かせたいと願った二人の男がいた。

This was in the days when men were still many on the earth, and there were people in all the lands. Now we grow fewer and fewer. Evil and sickness have come upon men. See how I, who tell this story, drag my life along, unable to stand upon my feet.

それは、地上にまだ人が多く、どの土地にも人が住んでいたころのことである。いまではわたしたちはだんだん少なくなっている。災いと病が人に降りかかったのだ。この話を語るわたしを見るがいい。自分の足で立つこともできず、命を引きずって生きている。

The two men who were setting out had each newly taken a wife, and had as yet no children. They made themselves cups of musk-ox horn, each making a cup for himself from one side of the same beast's head. And they set out, each going away from the other, that they might go by different ways and meet again some day. They travelled with sledges, and chose land to stay and live upon each summer.

旅に出ようとする二人は、それぞれ娶ったばかりで、まだ子はなかった。二人はジャコウウシの角で杯をこしらえた。同じ一頭の獣の頭の左右から、めいめい自分の杯を作ったのである。そして互いに背を向けて出発した。別々の道を行き、いつかまた出会うためである。二人は橇で旅をし、夏ごとに滞在して暮らす土地を選んだ。

It took them a long time to get round the world; they had children, and they grew old, and then their children also grew old, until at last the parents were so old that they could not walk, but the children led them.

世界をひと回りするには長い時がかかった。二人には子が生まれ、二人は年老い、やがてその子らもまた年老いた。とうとう親たちはあまりに老いて歩けなくなり、子らが手を引いてやった。

And at last one day, they met--and of their drinking horns there was but the handle left, so many times had they drunk water by the way, scraping the horn against the ground as they filled them.

そしてついにある日、二人は出会った——その角杯は、取っ手しか残っていなかった。道々、水を汲むたびに角を地面にこすりつけて、それほど幾度も水を飲んできたのである。

"The world is great indeed," they said when they met.

「世界はまことに大きい」と、出会ったとき二人は言った。

They had been young at their starting, and now they were old men, led by their children.

出発したときは若者だった二人が、いまは子らに手を引かれる老人になっていた。

Truly the world is great.

まことに、世界は大きいのである。