The Magic Turban, the Magic Whip, and the Magic Carpet

Once upon a time that was no time there were two brothers. Their father and mother had died and divided all their property between them. The elder brother opened a shop, but the younger brother, who was but a feather-brain, idled about and did nothing; so that at last, what with eating and drinking and gadding abroad, the day came when he had no more money left. Then he went to his elder brother and begged a copper or two of him, and when that all was spent he came to him again, and so he continued to live upon him.

いつとも知れぬむかしむかし、二人の兄弟がいた。父と母は死に、財産はすべて二人のあいだで分けられた。兄は店を開いたが、弟は軽はずみな頭の持ち主で、ぶらぶら遊んで何もしなかった。こうして食べたり飲んだり出歩いたりしているうちに、とうとう金がなくなる日が来た。そこで弟は兄のもとへ行って銅貨を一、二枚ねだり、それを使い果たすとまたやってきて、そうやって兄に頼って暮らし続けた。

At last the elder brother began to grow tired of this waste, but seeing that he could not be quit of his younger brother, he turned all his possessions into sequins, and embarked on a ship in order to go into another kingdom. The younger brother, however, had got wind of it, and before the ship started he managed to creep on board and conceal himself without any one observing him. The elder brother suspected that if the younger one heard of his departure he would be sure to follow after, so he took good care not to show himself on deck. But scarcely had they unfurled the sails when the two brothers came face to face, and the elder brother found himself saddled with his younger brother again.

とうとう兄はこの浪費に嫌気がさしてきた。けれども弟から逃れられないと見て、財産をすべてセクィン金貨に換え、よその王国へ行こうと船に乗った。ところが弟はそれを嗅ぎつけていて、船が出る前にこっそり乗り込み、誰にも気づかれずに身を隠した。兄は、弟が自分の出立を聞けばきっと後を追ってくるだろうと察して、甲板に姿を見せないよう用心していた。ところが帆を広げたとたん、二人の兄弟は鉢合わせし、兄はまた弟を背負い込むことになった。

The elder brother was not a little angry, but what was the use of that!--for the ship did not stop till it came to Egypt. There the elder brother said to the younger brother: “Thou stay here, and I will go and get two mules that we may go on further.” The youth sat down on the shore and waited for his brother, and waited, but waited in vain. “I think I had better look for him,” thought he, and up he got and went after his elder brother.

兄は少なからず腹を立てたが、それで何になろう!——船はエジプトに着くまで止まらなかったのだから。そこで兄は弟に言った。「お前はここにいろ。わたしは先へ進むために騾馬を二頭手に入れてくる。」若者は岸に座って兄を待った。待って、待ったが、待っても無駄であった。「探しに行ったほうがよさそうだ」と思い、立ち上がって兄の後を追った。

He went on and on and on, he went a short distance and he went a long distance, six months was he crossing a field; but once as he looked over his shoulder, he saw that for all his walking he walked no further than a barley-stalk reaches. Then he strode still more, he strode still further, he strode for half a year continuously; he kept plucking violets as he went along, and as he went striding, striding, his feet struck upon a hill, and there he saw three youths quarrelling with one another about something. He soon made a fourth, and asked them what they were tussling about.

弟は進みに進み、少し行き、また遠くまで行き、六か月かけて一つの野を横切った。けれども一度肩越しに振り返ってみると、あれほど歩いたのに、大麦の茎の届くほども進んでいなかった。そこでさらに大股に、さらに遠くへと、半年のあいだ休みなく歩き続けた。道すがら菫を摘みながら、大股に大股に歩いていくと、足が丘に突き当たり、そこで三人の若者が何かのことで言い争っているのが見えた。弟はたちまち四人目として加わり、何を取っ組み合っているのかと尋ねた。

“We are the children of one father,” said the youngest of them, “and our father has just died and left us, by way of inheritance, a turban, a whip, and a carpet. Whoever puts the turban on his head is hidden from mortal eyes. Whoever extends himself on the carpet and strikes it once with the whip can fly far away, after the manner of birds; and we are eternally quarrelling among ourselves as to whose shall be the turban, whose the whip, and whose the carpet.”

「おれたちは同じ父親の子どもなんだ」といちばん年下が言った。「父親が死んで、遺産としてターバンと鞭と絨毯を残してくれた。ターバンを頭に巻いた者は、人の目から見えなくなる。絨毯の上に身を横たえて、鞭で一度叩けば、鳥のように遠くへ飛んでいける。それでおれたちは、ターバンは誰のもの、鞭は誰のもの、絨毯は誰のものかで、いつまでも言い争っているのさ。」

“All three of them must belong to one of us,” cried they all. “They are mine, because I am the biggest,” said one.--“They are mine by right, because I am the middling-sized brother,” cried the second.--“They are mine, because I am the smallest,” cried the third. From words they speedily came to blows, so that it was as much as the youth could do to keep them apart.

「三つともおれたちのうち一人のものにならなきゃいけない」とみなが叫んだ。「おれがいちばん大きいから、おれのものだ」と一人が言った。——「おれが真ん中だから、当然おれのものだ」と二人目が叫んだ。——「おれがいちばん小さいから、おれのものだ」と三人目が叫んだ。言い合いはたちまち殴り合いになり、若者は三人を引き離すのがやっとであった。

“You can’t settle it like that,” said he; “I’ll tell you what we’ll do. I’ll make an arrow from this little piece of wood, and shoot it off. You run after it, and he who brings it to me here soonest shall have all three things.” Away flew the dart, and after it pelted the three brothers, helter-skelter; but the wise youth knew a trick worth two of that, for he stuck the turban on his head, sat down on the carpet, tapped it once with the whip, and cried: “Hipp--hopp! let me be where my elder brother is!” and when he awoke a large city lay before him.

「そんなやり方じゃ決着はつかないよ」と若者は言った。「こうしようじゃないか。この小さな木切れで矢をこしらえて射る。君たちはそれを追いかけて、いちばん早くここへ持ってきた者が三つとも手に入れるんだ。」矢が飛んでいき、三人の兄弟はわれ先にとその後を追った。ところが賢い若者は、それよりずっと上手な手を知っていた。ターバンを頭に巻き、絨毯に座り、鞭で一度叩いて叫んだのである。「ヒップ——ホップ! 兄さんのいるところへ行かせておくれ!」そして目が覚めると、目の前に大きな町が広がっていた。

He had scarce taken more than a couple of steps through the street, when the Padishah’s herald came along, and proclaimed to the inhabitants of the town that the Sultan’s daughter disappeared every night from the palace. Whoever could find out what became of her should receive the damsel and half the kingdom. “Here am I!” cried the youth, “lead me to the Padishah, and if I don’t find out, let them take my head!”

通りを二、三歩行くか行かないかのうちに、王の触れ役がやってきて、町の住民に、王女が毎晩宮殿から姿を消すと告げた。王女がどうなっているのかを突き止めた者には、その乙女と王国の半分を与えるというのである。「ここにいるぞ!」と若者は叫んだ。「王のもとへ連れていってくれ。突き止められなかったら、首をはねてもらおう!」

So they brought the fool into the palace, and in the evening there lay the Sultan’s daughter watching, with her eyes half-closed, all that was going on. The damsel was only waiting for him to go to sleep, and presently she stuck a needle into her heel, took the candle with her, lest the youth should awake, and went out by a side door.

そこで人々はこの愚か者を宮殿へ連れていった。夕方、王女は横になったまま、半ば目を閉じて、あたりで起こることを見張っていた。乙女は若者が眠り込むのをひたすら待ち、やがて自分の踵に針を刺し、若者が目を覚まさないよう蝋燭を持って、脇の扉から出ていった。

The youth had his turban on his head in a trice, and no sooner had he popped out of the same door than he saw a black efrit standing there with a golden buckler on his head, and on the buckler sat the Sultan’s daughter, and they were just on the point of starting off. The lad was not such a fool as to fancy that he could keep up with them by himself, so he also leaped on to the buckler, and very nearly upset the pair of them in consequence. The efrit was alarmed, and asked the damsel in Allah’s name what she was about, as they were within a hair’s-breadth of falling. “I never moved,” said the damsel; “I am sitting on the buckler just as you put me there.”

若者はたちまちターバンを頭に巻き、同じ扉から飛び出すやいなや、黒いイフリートが頭に黄金の盾を載せて立っているのを見た。盾の上には王女が座っていて、二人はいまにも出発しようとしていた。若者は、自分ひとりで二人に遅れずについていけると思うほど愚かではなかったので、自分も盾に跳び乗った。そのせいで、あやうく二人をひっくり返すところであった。イフリートは驚いて、アッラーの御名にかけて何をしているのかと乙女に尋ねた。あやうく落ちるところだったのである。「わたしは動いていないわ」と乙女は言った。「あなたが載せたとおりに、盾の上に座っているだけよ。」

The black efrit had scarcely taken a couple of steps, when he felt that the buckler was unusually heavy. The youth’s turban naturally made him invisible, so the efrit turned to the damsel and said: “My Sultana, thou art so heavy to-day that I all but break down beneath thee!”--“Darling Lala!” replied the girl, “thou art very odd to-night, for I am neither bigger nor smaller than I was yesterday.”

黒いイフリートは二、三歩も行かないうちに、盾がいつになく重いのを感じた。若者はもちろんターバンのおかげで見えなかったので、イフリートは乙女のほうを向いて言った。「わが姫君、今日はあまりに重くて、下で潰れてしまいそうです!」——「いとしいララ!」と娘は答えた。「今夜のあなたはずいぶん変ね。わたしは昨日より大きくも小さくもなっていないわ。」

Shaking his head the black efrit pursued his way, and they went on and on till they came to a wondrously beautiful garden, where the trees were made of nothing but silver and diamonds. The youth broke off a twig and put it in his pocket, when straightway the trees began to sigh and weep and say: “There’s a child of man here who tortures us! there’s a child of man here who tortures us!”

首を振りながら黒いイフリートは道を進み、一行はどんどん進んで、驚くほど美しい庭に着いた。そこでは木々がみな銀とダイヤモンドだけでできていた。若者が小枝を一本折って懐に入れると、たちまち木々が溜息をつき、泣いて言った。「人の子がここにいて、わたしたちを苛む! 人の子がここにいて、わたしたちを苛む!」

The efrit and the damsel looked at each other. “They sent a youth in to me to-day,” said the damsel, “maybe his soul is pursuing us.”

イフリートと乙女は顔を見合わせた。「今日わたしのところへ若者がよこされたのよ」と乙女は言った。「もしかすると、その魂がわたしたちを追ってきているのかもしれない。」

Then they went on still further, till they came to another garden, where every tree was sparkling with gold and precious stones. Here too the youth broke off a twig and shoved it into his pocket, and immediately the earth and the sky shook, and the rustling of the trees said: “There’s a child of man here torturing us, there’s a child of man here torturing us,” so that both he and the damsel very nearly fell from the buckler in their fright. Not even the efrit knew what to make of it.

それから一行はさらに進み、別の庭に着いた。そこではどの木も金と宝石で輝いていた。ここでも若者は小枝を一本折って懐に押し込んだ。するとたちまち天地が揺れ、木々のざわめきが言った。「人の子がここにいて、わたしたちを苛む、人の子がここにいて、わたしたちを苛む。」そのため、イフリートも乙女も恐ろしさにあやうく盾から落ちそうになった。イフリートでさえ、これをどう考えればよいか分からなかった。

After that they came to a bridge, and beyond the bridge was a fairy palace, and there an army of slaves awaited the damsel, and with their hands straight down by their sides they bowed down before her till their foreheads touched the ground. The Sultan’s daughter dismounted from the efrit’s head, the youth also leaped down; and when they brought the princess a pair of slippers covered with diamonds and precious stones, the youth snatched one of them away, and put it in his pocket. The girl put on one of the slippers, but being unable to find the other, sent for another pair, when, presto! one of these also disappeared. At this the damsel was so annoyed that she walked on without slippers; but the youth, with the turban on his head and the whip and the carpet in his hand, followed her everywhere like her shadow. So the damsel went on before, and he followed her into a room, and there he saw the black Peri, one of whose lips touched the sky, while the other lip swept the ground. He angrily asked the damsel where she had been all the time, and why she hadn’t come sooner. The damsel told him about the youth who had arrived the evening before, and about what had happened on the way, but the Peri comforted her by saying that the whole thing was fancy, and she was not to trouble herself about it any more. After that he sat down with the damsel, and ordered a slave to bring them sherbet. A black slave brought the noble drink in a lovely diamond cup, but just as he was handing it to the Sultan’s daughter the invisible youth gave the hand of the slave such a wrench that he dropped and broke the cup to pieces. A piece of this also the youth concealed in his pocket.

それから一行は橋に着き、橋の向こうには妖精の宮殿があって、そこで奴隷の軍勢が乙女を待っていた。奴隷たちは両手をまっすぐ脇に下ろし、額が地につくまで乙女の前にひれ伏した。王女がイフリートの頭から降りると、若者も跳び降りた。王女のためにダイヤモンドと宝石で覆われた一足の上履きが運ばれてくると、若者はそのうち片方をひったくって懐に入れた。娘は片方をはいたが、もう片方が見つからないので、別の一足を持ってこさせた。すると、ほら! そのうち片方もまた消えてしまった。これに乙女はひどく腹を立て、上履きなしで歩いていった。けれども若者は、頭にターバンを巻き、手に鞭と絨毯を持って、影のようにどこまでも乙女の後をついていった。こうして乙女は先に立ち、若者はその後について一つの部屋に入った。そこで若者は黒いペリを見た。その片方の唇は空に触れ、もう片方の唇は地面を掃いていた。ペリは腹立たしげに、いままでどこにいた、なぜもっと早く来なかったのかと乙女に尋ねた。乙女は、前の晩にやってきた若者のことと、道中で起こったことを話した。しかしペリは、そんなことはみな気のせいだから、もう気にするなと言って乙女を慰めた。それからペリは乙女とともに座り、奴隷にシャーベットを持ってくるよう命じた。黒い奴隷が美しいダイヤモンドの杯に入れた高貴な飲み物を運んできたが、ちょうどそれを王女に差し出そうとしたとき、見えない若者が奴隷の手をひどくねじったので、奴隷は杯を落として粉々に割ってしまった。そのかけらの一つも、若者は懐に隠した。

“Now didn’t I say that something was wrong?” cried the Sultan’s daughter. “I want no sherbet nor anything else, and I think I had better get back again as soon as possible.”--“Tush! tush!” said the efrit, and he ordered other slaves to bring them something to eat. So they brought a little table covered with many dishes, and they began to eat together; whereupon the hungry youth also set to work, and the viands disappeared as if three were eating instead of two.

「ほら、何かおかしいと言ったでしょう?」と王女は叫んだ。「シャーベットも何も要らない。できるだけ早く帰ったほうがいいと思うわ。」——「ちっ、ちっ!」とイフリートは言い、ほかの奴隷たちに食べ物を持ってくるよう命じた。そこで奴隷たちは料理をたくさん並べた小さな卓を運んできて、二人はいっしょに食べはじめた。すると腹を空かせた若者も食べにかかったので、料理はまるで二人ではなく三人で食べているかのように消えていった。

And the black Peri himself began to be a little impatient, when not only the food but also the forks and spoons began to disappear, and he said to his sweetheart, the Sultan’s daughter, that perhaps it would be as well if she did make haste home again. First of all the black efrit wanted to kiss the girl, but the youth slipped in between them, pulled them asunder, and one of them fell to the right and the other to the left. They both turned pale, called the Lala with his buckler, the damsel sat upon it, and away they went. But the youth took down a sword from the wall, bared his arm, and with one blow he chopped off the head of the black Peri. No sooner had his head rolled from his shoulders than the heavens roared so terribly, and the earth groaned so horribly, and a voice cried so mightily: “Woe to us, a child of man hath slain our king!” that the terrified youth knew not whether he stood on his head or his heels.

そして料理ばかりかフォークや匙まで消えはじめると、黒いペリ自身も少し苛立ってきて、恋人である王女に、たしかに急いで帰ったほうがよいかもしれないと言った。まず黒いイフリートが娘に口づけしようとしたが、若者が二人のあいだに割り込んで引き離したので、一方は右へ、もう一方は左へ倒れた。二人とも青ざめ、盾を持ったララを呼び、乙女がその上に座って飛び去った。けれども若者は壁から剣を下ろし、腕をむき出しにして、一太刀で黒いペリの首を切り落とした。その首が肩から転がり落ちるやいなや、天はあまりに恐ろしく轟き、地はあまりに恐ろしく呻き、ある声があまりに力強く「災いだ、人の子がわれらの王を殺した!」と叫んだので、怯えた若者は自分が逆さに立っているのか足で立っているのかも分からなくなった。

He seized his carpet, sat upon it, gave it one blow with his whip, and when the Sultan’s daughter returned to the palace, there she found the youth snoring in his room. “Oh, thou wretched bald-pate,” cried the damsel viciously, “what a night I’ve had of it. So much the worse for thee!” Then she took out a needle and pricked the youth in the heel, and because he never stirred she fancied he was asleep, and lay down to sleep herself also.

若者は絨毯を掴んでその上に座り、鞭で一度叩いた。そして王女が宮殿に戻ってみると、若者は自分の部屋で鼾をかいていた。「まあ、この惨めな禿げ頭め」と乙女は意地悪く叫んだ。「わたしはなんという夜を過ごしたことか。お前にとってはますますまずいことね!」そう言って針を取り出し、若者の踵を刺したが、若者が身じろぎもしないので、眠っているのだと思い込み、自分も横になって眠った。

Next morning when she awoke she bade the youth prepare for death, as his last hour had come. “Nay,” replied he, “not to thee do I owe an account of myself; let us both come before the Padishah.”

翌朝、目を覚ますと、王女は若者に、最期の時が来たのだから死ぬ支度をせよと命じた。「いや」と若者は答えた。「お前に申し開きをする義理はない。二人して王の前に出ようではないか。」

Then they led him before the father of the damsel, but he said he would only tell them what had happened in the night if they called all the people of the town together. “In that way I shall find my brother, perhaps,” thought he. So the town-crier called all the people together, and the youth stood on a high daïs beside the Padishah and the Sultana, and began to tell them the whole story, from the efrit’s buckler to the Peri king. “Believe him not, my lord Padishah and father; he lies, my lord father and Padishah!” stammered the damsel; whereupon the youth drew from his pocket the diamond twig, the twig of gems, the golden slipper, the precious spoons and forks. Then he went on to tell them of the death of the black Peri, when all at once he caught sight of his elder brother, whom he had been searching for so long. He had now neither eyes nor ears for anything else, but leaping off the daïs, he forced his way on and on through the crowd to his brother, till they both came together.

そこで人々は若者を乙女の父の前に連れていった。しかし若者は、町の人々をみな呼び集めてくれるなら、夜に起こったことを話そうと言った。「そうすれば、もしかすると兄さんが見つかるかもしれない」と思ったのである。そこで町の触れ役が人々をみな呼び集め、若者は王と后の傍らの高い壇に立って、イフリートの盾からペリの王に至るまで、一部始終を話しはじめた。「信じてはなりません、父上にして王よ。この者は嘘をついております、王にして父上よ!」と乙女は口ごもった。すると若者は懐から、ダイヤモンドの小枝、宝石の小枝、黄金の上履き、高価な匙とフォークを取り出した。それから黒いペリの死のことを話し続けていたとき、突然、長いあいだ探し求めていた兄の姿が目に入った。いまやほかのものには目も耳もなく、壇から跳び降りて、群衆をかき分けかき分け兄のもとへ進み、ついに二人は巡り合った。

Then the elder brother told their story, while the younger brother begged the Padishah to give his daughter and half the kingdom to his elder brother. He was quite content, he said, with the magic turban and the magic whip and carpet to the day of his death, if only he might live close to his elder brother.

それから兄が二人の話をし、弟は王に、王女と王国の半分を兄に与えてほしいと願った。自分は死ぬ日まで魔法のターバンと魔法の鞭と絨毯があれば十分満足だ、ただ兄のすぐそばで暮らせさえすればよいのだ、と。

But the Sultan’s daughter rejoiced most of all when she heard of the death of the Peri king. He had carried her off by force from her room one day, and so enchanted her with his power that she had been unable to set herself free. In her joy she agreed that the youth’s elder brother should be her lord; and they made a great banquet, at which they feasted forty days and forty nights with one another. I also was there, and I begged so much pilaw[11] from the cook, and I got so much in the palm of my hand, that I limp to this day.

けれども誰よりも喜んだのは、ペリの王の死を聞いた王女であった。ある日、ペリの王は王女を部屋から力ずくでさらい、その力であまりに強く魔法をかけたので、王女は自分を解き放つことができなかったのである。喜びのあまり、王女は若者の兄を夫にすることを承知した。そして盛大な宴が開かれ、人々は四十日四十夜のあいだともに饗宴を楽しんだ。わたしもそこにいて、料理人にピラフ[11]をせがんだところ、掌にあまりにたくさんもらったので、今日まで足を引きずっているのである。