The Smith and the Devil

Once upon a time there was a smith who had a son six years old—a sturdy and sensible lad. One day the old man was going into the church, and stood in front of a picture of the Last Judgment. And he saw there was a devil painted there so terrible, so black, with horns and tail! “What a fine devil!” he thought. “I will go and paint such a devil for myself in the smithy.” So he sent for a painter and told him to paint on the doors of the smithy a devil who should be exactly the same as the one he had seen in the church. This was done.

むかしむかし、一人の鍛冶屋がいて、六つになる息子があった。丈夫で物わかりのよい子だった。ある日、この老人が教会へ行って、最後の審判の絵の前に立った。すると、そこに悪魔が描かれていた。恐ろしく、真っ黒で、角も尻尾もある! 「なんと見事な悪魔だ!」と老人は思った。「鍛冶場にもあんな悪魔を描かせよう」。そこで絵師を呼んで、鍛冶場の戸に、教会で見たのとそっくり同じ悪魔を描いてくれと言いつけた。そのとおりになった。

From this time forward, the old man, whenever he went into the smithy, always looked at the devil and said, “Hail, fellow-countryman!” And soon after he would go up to the forge, light the fire, and set to work. So he went on living for some ten years on most excellent terms with the devil. Then he fell ill and died. His son succeeded him and took over the smithy. But he had no such respect for the devil as his father had had. Whether he went early to the smithy or not, nothing prospered; and, instead of greeting the devil kindly, he went and took his very biggest hammer and knocked the devil three times on his forehead, and then set to work. When a holy feast-day came by, he went into the church and lit a taper in front of the saints; but, as he approached the devil he spat on him. For three whole years this went on; and every day he greeted the unclean spirit with a hammer and spat on him.

その時から、老人は鍛冶場へ入るたびに必ず悪魔を見て、こう言った。「よう、同郷のお人!」。そしてまもなく炉へ行き、火を熾して仕事にかかるのだった。こうして老人は十年ばかり、悪魔とこの上なく良好な仲で暮らした。それから病に倒れて死んだ。息子が跡を継ぎ、鍛冶場を引き受けた。だが息子には父ほどの敬意が悪魔になかった。早く鍛冶場へ行こうが行くまいが、何ひとつ捗らない。そして悪魔に親しく挨拶する代わりに、いちばん大きな槌を取って悪魔の額を三度叩き、それから仕事にかかるのだった。聖なる祭日が来ると教会へ行って聖者の前に蠟燭を灯したが、悪魔の前へ来ると唾を吐いた。これがまる三年続いた。毎日、槌で聖ならぬ霊に挨拶し、唾を吐いたのである。

The devil was very patient, and endured all this maltreatment. At last it became beyond bearing, and he would stand it no longer. “Time is up!” he thought. “I must put an end to such contemptuous treatment.” So the devil turned himself into a fine lad and came into the smithy.

悪魔はよく耐え、この仕打ちをすべて忍んだ。だがとうとう堪えきれなくなり、もう我慢しなくなった。「時は来た!」と悪魔は思った。「こんな侮辱には終わりをつけねばならん」。そこで悪魔は立派な若者に姿を変えて鍛冶場へやって来た。

“How do you do, uncle?” he said.

「ご機嫌いかがです、旦那」と若者は言った。

“Very well, thank you!”

「たいそうよいとも、ありがとう!」

“Will you take me into the smithy as an apprentice? I will heat your coals and will blow the bellows.”

「弟子として鍛冶場に置いてもらえませんか。炭を熾し、鞴を吹きます」

Well, the smith was very glad. “I certainly will!” he said. “Two heads are better than one.”

鍛冶屋は大喜びした。「いいとも!」と彼は言った。「頭は二つのほうが一つよりよい」

So the devil turned apprentice, and he lived a month with him, and soon got to know all of the smith’s work better than the master himself; and, whatever the master could not do, he instantly carried out. Oh, it was a fine sight, and the smith so grew to love him, and was so content with him—I cannot tell you how much!

こうして悪魔は弟子になり、一か月も暮らすうちに、鍛冶の仕事をことごとく親方より上手に覚えてしまった。そして親方にできぬことは何でもたちまちやってのけた。それは見事なもので、鍛冶屋はこの弟子が可愛くてたまらず、どれほど満足していたか——とても言い尽くせぬほどだった。

One day he did not come into the smithy, and left his underling to do the work; and it was all done.

ある日、鍛冶屋は鍛冶場に出ず、手下に仕事をまかせた。すると何もかも仕上がっていた。

Once when the master was not at home, and only the workman was left in the smithy, he saw an old rich lady passing by. He bobbed out his head, and cried: “Hail there! There is new work to be done—old folks to be turned into young!”

あるとき親方が家におらず、鍛冶場には職人だけが残っていた。すると年老いた金持ちの奥方が通りかかるのが見えた。職人は顔を突き出して叫んだ。「おうい! 新しい仕事を始めましたよ——年寄りを若者に変える仕事を!」

Out skipped the old lady from her barouche and into the smithy. “What are you saying you can do? Is that really true? Do you mean it? Are you mad?” she asked the boy.

老婦人は四輪馬車から跳び降りて鍛冶場へ入ってきた。「できると言ったのかい。それはほんとうかい。本気なのかい。気でも狂ったのかい」と婦人は若者に尋ねた。

“No reason to start lecturing me,” the Evil Spirit answered. “If I didn’t know how I should not have summoned you.”

「説教をなさるには及びません」と邪な霊は答えた。「やり方を知らなければ、お呼び止めしたりしません」

“What would it cost?” the rich woman asked.

「いくらかかる」と裕福な婦人は尋ねた。

“It would cost five hundred roubles.”

「五百ルーブリいただきます」

“Well, there is the money. Turn me into a young woman!”

「では、この金だ。わたしを若い女にしておくれ!」

The Evil Spirit took the money, and sent the coachman into the village to get two buckets of milk. And he seized the lady by the legs with the pinchers, threw her into the forge, and burned her all up. Nothing but her bones were left. When the two tubs of milk came, he emptied them into a pail, collected all the bones, and threw them into the milk. Lo and behold! in three minutes out the lady came, young—yes, alive and young, and so beautiful!

邪な霊は金を受け取り、御者を村へやって乳を二桶取ってこさせた。そして婦人の脚を火挾みでつかみ、炉へ投げ込んで、すっかり焼いてしまった。残ったのは骨ばかりだった。乳の桶が二つ届くと、それを盥に空け、骨をすっかり集めて乳のなかへ投げ込んだ。すると、なんと! 三分のうちに婦人が出てきた。若く——そう、生きて若く、そして実に美しかった!

She went and sat down in the barouche and drove home, went up to her husband, and he fixed his eyes on her, and didn’t know his wife. “What’s the matter? Have you lost your eyesight?” the lady asked. “Don’t you see it is I, young and stately; I don’t want to have an old husband. Go at once to the smith and ask him to forge you young, and you won’t know yourself!”

婦人は四輪馬車に坐って家へ帰り、夫のところへ行った。夫は妻をじっと見つめたが、誰だかわからなかった。「どうなさいました。目が見えなくなったのですか」と婦人は言った。「わたしですよ、若くて堂々としたわたしです。年寄りの夫など欲しくありません。すぐに鍛冶屋へ行って、若く鍛え直してもらってきなさい。自分でも見違えますよ!」

What could the husband do? Husbands must obey, and so off he drove.

夫にどうすることができよう。夫は従うほかなく、そこで馬車を駆り出した。

In the meantime, the smith had returned home and went to the smithy. He went, and there was no sign of his man. He looked for him everywhere, asked everybody, questioned them, but it was no good, and all trace had vanished. So he set to work by himself and began hammering.

そのあいだに鍛冶屋は家に帰り、鍛冶場へ行った。行ってみると、あの男の影も形もない。あちこち探し、誰彼に尋ね、問いただしたが無駄で、跡形もなく消えていた。そこで自分ひとりで仕事にかかり、槌を打ちはじめた。

Then the husband drove up and said straight out to the smith: “Make a young man of me, please!”

そこへ夫が馬車で来て、鍛冶屋にずばり言った。「どうか、わしを若者にしてくれ!」

“Are you in your senses, master? How can I make a young man of you?”

「正気でおいでですか、旦那さま。どうしてあなたを若者にできましょう」

“Oh! you know how to!”

「おお! やり方を知っているだろう!」

“I really have not any idea!”

「まったく見当もつきません!」

“Liar! fool! swindler! Why, you turned my old woman into a young one. Do the same by me, otherwise life with her won’t be worth living.”

「嘘つきめ! 阿呆め! 詐欺師め! おまえはわしの婆さんを若い女にしたではないか。わしにも同じことをしろ。でなければあれと暮らしていく甲斐がない」

“But I have not seen your wife!”

「ですが奥方さまにはお目にかかっておりません!」

“Never mind!—your young man saw her, and if he understood how to manage the work, surely you, as the craftsman, understand! Set to work quickly, unless you want to taste worse of me and be birched.”

「かまうものか! おまえの若い衆が見ているし、その者に仕事のやり方がわかったのなら、職人であるおまえにわからぬはずがあるまい! さっさとかかれ。でないともっとひどい目に遭って鞭打たれることになるぞ」

So the smith had no choice but to transform the master. So he quietly asked the coachman what his man had done with the lady, and thought: “Well, I don’t mind! I will do the same; it may come out to the same tune, or it may not. I must look out for myself.”

そこで鍛冶屋は旦那を作り変えるほかなかった。そこでそっと御者に、あの若い衆が奥方に何をしたのかを尋ね、そして思った。「よし、かまうものか! 同じことをやってやろう。同じ調子になるかもしれぬし、ならぬかもしれぬ。自分の身は自分で守らねば」

So he stripped the lord to his skin, clutched his legs up with nippers, threw him into the forge, began to blow up the bellows, and burned him to ashes. Afterwards he threw the bones—hurled them all into the milk, and began watching would a young master emerge from the bath. And he waited one hour, and another hour, and nothing happened, looked at the little tub—all the little bones were floating about all burned to pieces.

そこで殿さまを裸に剝き、脚を火挾みでつかんで炉へ投げ込み、鞴を吹きはじめて、灰になるまで焼いた。そのあと骨を——すっかり乳のなかへ投げ入れて、若い旦那が湯から出てくるかと見守った。そして一時間待ち、また一時間待ったが、何も起こらない。小さな盥をのぞくと、小さな骨がみな焼け砕けて浮いているばかりだった。

And what was the lady doing? She sent messengers to the smithy. “When was the master to be turned out?” And the poor smith answered that the master had wished her a long life. And you may imagine what they thought of this. Soon she learned that all the smith had done had been to burn her husband to bits and not to make him young, and she was very angry indeed, sent her body-servants, and ordered them to take the smith to the gallows. The order was given, and the thing was done. The attendants ran to the smith, laid hold of him, and took him to the gallows.

さて奥方は何をしていたか。鍛冶場へ使いを出していた。「旦那さまはいつ仕上がるのか」と。そして哀れな鍛冶屋は、旦那さまは奥方の長寿を願っておられましたと答えた。それを聞いて人々がどう思ったか、想像がつこう。まもなく奥方は、鍛冶屋が夫を若くするどころか粉々に焼いてしまったと知り、たいそう怒って、家来たちを遣わし、鍛冶屋を絞首台へ連れていけと命じた。命が下り、事は運んだ。従者たちが鍛冶屋のところへ駆けつけ、彼を捕らえて絞首台へ連れていった。

Then the same young man who had acted as a hand to the smith came and asked: “Where are they taking you, master?”

するとかつて鍛冶屋の手下だったあの若者が来て尋ねた。「どこへ連れていかれるのです、親方」

“They are going to hang me!” the smith said. And he explained what had happened.

「吊るされるところだ!」と鍛冶屋は言った。そして事の次第を話した。

“Well, never mind, uncle!” said the Unholy Spirit. “Swear that you will never strike me with your hammer, and I will secure you such honour as your father had. The lady’s husband shall arise young and in full health.”

「まあ、案ずることはありません、旦那!」と聖ならぬ霊は言った。「二度と槌でわたしを叩かぬと誓ってください。そうすればお父上が受けていたような敬意を保証しましょう。奥方の旦那さまは若く、まったく健やかに起き上がります」

The smith swore and made oath that he would never raise the hammer on the devil and would give him every honour.

鍛冶屋は、二度と悪魔に槌を振るわぬ、あらゆる敬意を払うと誓いを立てた。

Then the workman ran to the smithy, and soon returned with the husband, crying out to the servants to stop and not to hang the smith, for there the master was! He then untied the ropes and set the smith free.

すると職人は鍛冶場へ駆けていき、まもなく夫を連れて戻ってきて、家来たちに待て、鍛冶屋を吊るすな、旦那はここにおられると叫んだ。そして縄を解いて鍛冶屋を自由にした。

And the youth thereafter never more spat on the devil and beat him with a hammer. But his workman vanished and was never seen again. The master and mistress lived on and experienced good in their life, and they are still alive, if they are not dead.

そしてこの若者は二度と悪魔に唾を吐かず、槌で叩くこともなかった。だがあの職人は消えて、二度と姿を見せなかった。旦那と奥方は生きつづけて、その一生に善きものを味わった。そして死んでいなければ、いまも生きている。