The Maiden who Loved a Fish

There was once among the Marshpees, a small tribe who have their hunting-grounds on the shores of the Great Lake, near the Cape of Storms, a woman whose name was Awashanks. She was rather silly, and very idle. For days together she would sit doing nothing. Then she was so ugly and ill-shaped that not one of the youths of the village would have aught to say to her by way of courtship or marriage. She squinted very much; her face was long and thin, her nose excessively large and humped, her teeth crooked and projecting, her chin almost as sharp as the bill of a loon, and her ears as large as those of a deer. Altogether she was a very odd and strangely formed woman, and wherever she went she never failed to excite much laughter and derision among those who thought that ugliness and deformity were fit subjects for ridicule.

むかし、嵐の岬の近くの大いなる湖の岸を狩り場とする小さな部族マーシュピー族のなかに、アワシャンクスという名の女がいた。女はいささか愚かで、たいそう怠け者だった。何日も続けて何もせずに座っていた。そのうえあまりに醜く不格好だったので、村の若者の誰一人、求婚や結婚のことで女に声をかけようとしなかった。ひどいやぶにらみで、顔は長く痩せ、鼻はとてつもなく大きくて鉤鼻、歯は曲がって突き出し、あごはアビのくちばしほども尖り、耳は鹿の耳ほども大きかった。全体にたいそう奇妙で妙な形の女で、どこへ行っても、醜さや不格好を笑いものにしてよいと思っている者たちのあいだで、必ず大笑いとあざけりを招いた。

Though so very ugly, there was one faculty she possessed in a more remarkable degree than any woman of the tribe. It was that of singing. Nothing, unless such could be found in the land of spirits, could equal the sweetness of her voice or the beauty of her songs. Her favourite place of resort was a small hill, a little removed from the river of her people, and there, seated beneath the shady trees, she would while away the hours of summer with her charming songs. So beautiful and melodious were the things she uttered, that, by the time she had sung a single sentence, the branches above her head would be filled with the birds that came thither to listen, the thickets around her would be crowded with beasts, and the waters rolling beside her would be alive with fishes, all attracted by the sweet sounds. From the minnow to the porpoise, from the wren to the eagle, from the snail to the lobster, from the mouse to the mole,--all hastened to the spot to listen to the charming songs of the hideous Marshpee maiden.

これほど醜かったが、女には部族のどの女よりもすぐれた才がひとつあった。それは歌だった。霊の国にでもあるのでなければ、その声の甘さや歌の美しさに並ぶものはなかった。女の好んで訪れる場所は、部族の川から少し離れた小さな丘で、そこで木陰に座って、夏の時をすばらしい歌で過ごした。女の口にするものがあまりに美しく調べよいので、ひと節歌い終えるころには、頭の上の枝は聞きに来た鳥でいっぱいになり、まわりの茂みは獣でひしめき、そばを流れる水は魚でにぎわった。みな甘い調べにひかれてきたのである。小魚からイルカまで、ミソサザイから鷲まで、カタツムリからロブスターまで、ネズミからモグラまで——みな醜いマーシュピーの娘のすばらしい歌を聞こうとその場所へ急いだ。

Among the fishes which repaired every night to the vicinity of the Little Hillock, which was the chosen resting-place of the ugly songstress, was the great chief of the trouts, a tribe of fish inhabiting the river near by. The chief was of a far greater size than the people of his nation usually are, being as long as a man, and quite as thick.

醜い歌い手の好んで休む場所である小さな丘のあたりへ毎晩やって来る魚たちのなかに、近くの川に住むマスの一族の大首長がいた。その首長は同族のふつうの者よりはるかに大きく、人ほどの長さで、太さも人と同じくらいあった。

Of all the creatures which came to listen to the singing of Awashanks none appeared to enjoy it so highly as the chief of the trouts. As his bulk prevented him from approaching so near as he wished, he, from time to time, in his eagerness to enjoy the music to the best advantage, ran his nose into the ground, and thus worked his way a considerable distance into the land. Nightly he continued his exertions to approach the source of the delightful sounds he heard, till at length he had ploughed out a wide and handsome channel, and so effected his passage from the river to the hill, a distance extending an arrow's-flight. Thither he repaired every night at the commencement of darkness, sure to meet the maiden who had become so necessary to his happiness. Soon he began to speak of the pleasure he enjoyed, and to fill the ears of Awashanks with fond protestations of his love and affection. Instead of singing to him, she soon began to listen to his voice. It was something so new and strange to her to hear the tones of love and courtship, a thing so unusual to be told she was beautiful, that it is not wonderful her head was turned by the new incident, and that she began to think the voice of her lover the sweetest she had ever heard. One thing marred their happiness. This was that the trout could not live upon land, nor the maiden in the water. This state of things gave them much sorrow.

アワシャンクスの歌を聞きに来るあらゆる生き物のなかで、マスの首長ほどその歌を楽しんでいるように見える者はいなかった。首長は体が大きいので望むほど近づけず、音楽をいちばんよく味わいたい一心から、ときどき鼻を地面に突っ込んで、そうやってかなりの距離を陸のなかへ掘り進んだ。毎晩首長は、聞こえてくる楽しい音のみなもとへ近づこうと骨折り続け、とうとう広く見事な水路を掘り抜いて、川から丘まで、矢の飛ぶほどの距離を通れるようにした。首長は毎晩暗くなりはじめるとそこへ行き、自分の幸せになくてはならなくなった娘に必ず会った。まもなく首長は自分の味わう喜びを語りはじめ、アワシャンクスの耳を愛と情のこもったささやきで満たした。娘は首長に歌う代わりに、まもなくその声に聞き入るようになった。愛と求婚の調べを聞くのは娘にとってあまりに新しく珍しいことで、美しいと言われるなどまったくないことだったので、娘がこの新しいできごとにのぼせあがり、恋人の声をこれまで聞いたなかでいちばん甘い声だと思いはじめたのもふしぎではない。ひとつだけ二人の幸せを損なうことがあった。それは、マスは陸で生きられず、娘は水のなかで生きられないということだった。このありさまが二人をたいそう悲しませた。

They had met one evening at the usual place, and were discoursing together, lamenting that two who loved one another so should be doomed to always live apart, when a man appeared close to Awashanks. He asked the lovers why they seemed to be so sad.

ある晩、二人がいつもの場所で会って語り合い、これほど愛し合う二人がいつまでも離れて暮らす定めであることを嘆いていると、アワシャンクスのすぐそばに一人の男が現れた。男は恋人たちに、どうしてそんなに悲しそうなのかと尋ねた。

The chief of the trouts told the stranger the cause of their sorrow.

マスの首長がよそ者に悲しみのわけを話した。

"Be not grieved nor hopeless," said the stranger, when the chief had finished. "The impediments can be removed. I am the spirit who presides over fishes, and though I cannot make a man or woman of a fish, I can make them into fish. Under my power Awashanks shall become a beautiful trout."

「悲しむな、望みを失うな」と、首長が話し終えるとよそ者は言った。「妨げは取り除ける。わたしは魚を司る霊で、魚を男や女にすることはできぬが、男や女を魚にすることはできる。わたしの力で、アワシャンクスは美しいマスになるだろう。」

With that he bade the girl follow him into the river. When they had waded in some little depth he took up some water in his hand and poured it on her head, muttering some words, of which none but himself knew the meaning. Immediately a change took place in her. Her body took the form of a fish, and in a few moments she was a complete trout. Having accomplished this transformation the spirit gave her to the chief of the trouts, and the pair glided off into the deep and quiet waters. She did not, however, forget the land of her birth. Every season, on the same night as that upon which her disappearance from her tribe had been wrought, there were to be seen two trouts of enormous size playing in the water off the shore. They continued these visits till the pale-faces came to the country, when, deeming themselves to be in danger from a people who paid no reverence to the spirits of the land, they bade it adieu for ever.

そう言うと霊は娘に、あとについて川へ入るよう命じた。少し深いところまで歩いて入ると、霊は手に水をすくって娘の頭に注ぎ、自分のほかは誰も意味を知らない言葉をつぶやいた。たちまち娘に変化が起こった。体は魚の形になり、わずかのうちにすっかりマスになった。この変身をなしとげると、霊は娘をマスの首長に与え、二匹は深く静かな水のなかへすべるように去っていった。けれども娘は生まれた土地を忘れなかった。毎年、娘が部族から姿を消したのと同じ夜になると、とてつもなく大きな二匹のマスが岸の沖の水で戯れるのが見られた。二匹は白い顔の人々がその国に来るまでこうして訪れ続けたが、その土地の霊を少しも敬わない民から危険が及ぶと考えて、永遠にその地に別れを告げた。