The Old Man who Became a Fish

Some years ago a noted official became the magistrate of Ko-song County. On a certain day a guest called on him to pay his respects, and when noon came the magistrate had a table of food prepared for him, on which was a dish of skate soup. When the guest saw the soup he twisted his features and refused it, saying, "To-day I am fasting from meat, and so beg to be excused." His face grew very pale, and tears flowed from his eyes. The magistrate thought this behaviour strange, and asked him two or three times the meaning of it. When he could no longer withhold a reply, he went into all the particulars and told him the story.

何年か前、ある名高い役人が高城(コソン)郡の郡守になった。ある日、一人の客が挨拶に訪ねてきて、昼になると、郡守は客のために食膳を用意させた。その膳にはエイの汁の椀があった。客はその汁を見ると顔をゆがめ、断って言った。「今日は肉を断っておりますので、どうかご容赦ください。」客の顔はひどく青ざめ、目から涙が流れた。郡守はこのふるまいを奇妙に思って、二、三度そのわけを尋ねた。客はもう答えずにいられなくなって、事の次第をすっかり話した。

"Your humble servant," he said, "has in his life met with much unheard-of and unhappy experience, which he has never told to a living soul, but now that your Excellency asks it of me, I cannot refrain from telling. Your servant's father was a very old man, nearly a hundred, when one day he was taken down with a high fever, in which his body was like a fiery furnace. Seeing the danger he was in, his children gathered about weeping, thinking that the time of his departure had surely come. But he lived, and a few days later said to us, 'I am burdened with so great a heat in this sickness that I am not able to endure it longer. I would like to go out to the bank of the river that runs before the house and see the water flowing by, and be refreshed by it. Do not disobey me now, but carry me out at once to the water's edge.'

「わたくしは」と客は言った。「生涯に、聞いたこともない不幸な出来事にたくさんあってまいりました。これまで誰にも話したことはありませんが、閣下にお尋ねとあっては、話さずにはおれません。わたくしの父はたいそうな年寄りで、百歳近くでしたが、ある日高い熱を出して倒れ、体は燃える炉のようになりました。父の危ういさまを見て、子どもたちはいよいよ旅立ちの時が来たにちがいないと思って、まわりに集まって泣きました。けれども父は生きていて、数日たつとわたくしどもに言いました。『この病でひどい熱に苦しめられて、もう耐えられない。家の前を流れる川の岸へ出て、水が流れていくのを見て、それで涼みたい。今度は逆らわずに、すぐに水ぎわへ運んでいってくれ』と。

"We remonstrated with him and begged him not to do so, but he grew very angry, and said, 'If you do not as I command, you will be the death of me'; and so, seeing that there was no help for it, we bore him out and placed him on the bank of the river. He, seeing the water, was greatly delighted, and said, 'The clear flowing water cures my sickness.' A moment later he said further, 'I'd like to be quite alone and rid of you all for a little. Go away into the wood and wait till I tell you to come.'

「わたくしどもはいさめて、そうしないでくれと頼みましたが、父はひどく怒って、『言うとおりにしないなら、お前たちがわしを死なせることになるぞ』と言いました。それでどうしようもないとわかって、わたくしどもは父を運び出して川岸に下ろしました。父は水を見るとたいそう喜んで、『澄んだ流れる水がわしの病を治してくれる』と言いました。少しするとさらに、『しばらく一人きりになって、お前たちから離れていたい。わしが来いと言うまで、林のなかへ行って待っていろ』と言いました。

"We again remonstrated about this, but he grew furiously angry, so that we were helpless. We feared that if we insisted, his sickness would grow worse, and so we were compelled to yield. We went a short distance away and then turned to look, when suddenly the old father was gone from the place where he had been seated. We hurried back to see what had happened. My father had taken off his clothes and plunged into the water, which was muddied. His body was already half metamorphosed into a skate. We saw its transformation in terror, and did not dare to go near him, when all at once it became changed into a great flatfish, that swam and plunged and disported itself in the water with intense delight. He looked back at us as though he could hardly bear to go, but a moment later he was off, entered the deep sea, and did not again appear.

「わたくしどもはまたいさめましたが、父は激しく怒ったので、どうしようもありませんでした。無理に言い張れば病が重くなるのではないかと恐れて、従うほかなかったのです。少し離れたところへ行って振り返ると、突然、年老いた父が座っていた場所からいなくなっていました。何が起こったのか見ようと急いで戻りました。父は着物を脱いで水に飛び込んでいて、水は濁っていました。父の体はもう半分エイに変わっていました。わたくしどもはその変わっていくさまを恐ろしく見つめ、近づく勇気もありませんでした。すると突然、それは大きな平たい魚にすっかり変わって、泳いだり潜ったりして、水のなかでこの上なく喜んで戯れました。父は去りがたいかのようにわたくしどもを振り返りましたが、次の瞬間には去っていき、深い海に入って、二度と姿を見せませんでした。

"On the edge of the stream where he had changed his form we found his finger-nails and a tooth. These we buried, and to-day as a family we all abstain from skate fish, and when we see the neighbours frying or eating it we are overcome with disgust and horror."

「父が姿を変えた流れのほとりに、父の爪と歯が一本落ちていました。わたくしどもはそれを葬りました。それで今日、わたくしどもの一家はみなエイを断っていて、近所の者がそれを焼いたり食べたりしているのを見ると、嫌悪と恐怖に襲われるのです。」

Im Bang.

任埅(イム・バン)