『蝉しぐれ』(藤沢周平)紹介・英語対訳（１２）

An Introduction to “The Cicada Buzz”（Fujisawa Shuhei）・English Translation（１２）

12 　ふくが江戸へ

　＊ふくが13歳の時、藩主正室の寧姫に仕えるため、江戸に向かった。その直前に牧家を訪ねてきたが、文四郎とは会うことができなかった。
　
　　家にもどると、母がすぐに言った。
　「あの子に会えましたか」
　「いやそれが、ずいぶんとさがしましたが見当たりませんでした。」
　「かわいそうに」
　　と母の登世は言った。どういう意味かと、文四郎が自分の部屋に入りかけて振り返ると、母はふくのことですよと言った。
　「江戸に行くので、そなたにも会いたかったでしように」
　「そうですな」
　「ふくに餞別(せんべつ)をわたさずに、そなたを小柳にやればよかったかしら」
　「いや、それはどうでしようか」
　　文四郎は微笑した。
　「母上が合われたから、それでいいのではありませんか」
　　言い捨てて部屋に入ると、じきにご飯にしまうよという登世の声が追いかけて来た。
　母はわかっているようだ、と文四郎は思った。ふくがほんとうは文四郎に会いに来たこと、それにまたおそらくは家の者には内緒で尋ねて来たらしいことも、文四郎は火打石で火をおこして、行燈に灯をいれた。そして袖をめくって、大橋市之進に打たれた二の腕の傷を改めた。赤かった擦り傷は黒っぽく変色してそのままおさまる様子に見えたが、打たれた箇所全体は青黒く、まだ少し腫(は)れているようだった。うずくような痛みはそのままで、このまま夜もずっと傷むようだったら、寝る前に水で冷やす方がいいのかも知れなかった。
　　------ふくに会いたかったな。
　と文四郎はぼんやりと思った。ふくのことを考えると、不思議に気持ちがあかるくなるようだった。それはふくが、逸平や杉内道蔵とはまた違った意味で、信用してかまわない人間だからだろうと文四郎は思ったふくは反逆者とか罪人とかいうまわりの言葉に惑わされずに、文四郎が陥った苦境を理解していたはずである。女の子らしく、未熟だがやさしい素直な気持ちで。
　江戸に行くことを告げるために、わざさわざたずねて来たのがその証拠だと、文四郎は思った。ふくは、まわりはどうあれ自分はむかしもいまも少しも変わらないこと、もしかしたら江戸に行っても変わらないことを言いたくてたずねて来たのではなかろうか。
　そう思うと、文四郎はやはりふくに会えなかったことが取り返しのつかない過失だったように思われて来るのだった。もし推察するような気持を抱いてたずねて来たとすれば、それはふくの告白にほかならないことになろうか。それにどうこたえるかはべつにして、そのときそこに居合わせなければいけなかったのではないか、と文四郎は思っている。
　その過失のために、今度はこのあと二度と合えないような、暗い気持ちにとらわれはじめたとき、母の登世が部屋の外から、客だから入り口まで出るようにと言った。
　突然の母の声は、文四郎を落ち込んでいた女々しい気分から救い挙げた。顔が赤くなる思いで、文四郎は三畳の部屋を出た。(藤沢周平『蝉しぐれ』－落葉の音　４)

12 　Fuku　Goes to Edo

＊When Fuku was 13 years old, she headed to Edo to serve Nei-hime, the feudal lord’s legal wife. She visited the Maki family just before that, but she couldn't meet Bunshiro.

　　　When he returned home, his mother immediately said. "Did you meet that daughter?" "No, I searched for her a lot, but I couldn't find her." "A poor thing," said his mother, Tose. What does that mean, Bunshiro goes into his room and looked back, his mother said it was Fuku. "She is going to Edo, so she wishes she could meet you too" "That's right" "I wonder if I should have  you go to Koyanagi without passing the parting gift to Fuku." "No, how about that?" Bunshiro smiled. "Because my mother met her, isn't it okay?" When he entered the room, the voice of Tose chased him, saying that they would soon eat dinner. Bunshiro thought that his mother seemed to know it. Fuku really came to see Bunshiro, and perhaps she visited his family secretly. Bunshiro set fire with a flint and turned on the lantern. And turning over his sleeve, he repaired the wound on his upper arm that was struck by Ichinoshin Ohashi. The red scratches turn black and subside. It looked like it was, but the whole area where it was struck was bluish-black, and it seemed that it was still a little swollen. If the pain remains the same and it seems to hurt all night, it might have been better that he cools it with water before going to bed ------ 

　　　I wanted to meet Fuku. Bunshiro thought vaguely. When he thinks about Fuku, his feelings are strangely bright. Bunshiro thought that Fuku was a human being who he can trust in a different sense from Ippei and Sugiuchi Michizo.  But he was confused by the words around him, such as rebels and sinners. Instead, she must have understood the predicament that Bunshiro had fallen into. With a girlish, immature, but gentle and straightforward feeling. 

　　　Bunshiro thought that the proof was that she came all the way to tell him that she was going to Edo. Perhaps she asked him to tell him that she wouldn't change at all, no matter what the surroundings, and maybe she wouldn't change even if she went to Edo.

           With that in mind, Bunshiro seemed to be irreparable because he couldn't meet her. If she had the feeling of guessing, would it be nothing more than a confession of Fuku? Bunshiro thinks that he had to be there at that time, regardless of how to respond to it.
            Because of that negligence, when he began to get caught up in the dark feelings that he would never be able to meet her again, his mother Tose told him to go out of the room to the entrance because it was a guest.
Suddenly her mother's voice rescued Bunshiro from the depressed, feminine mood. Bunshiro left the room with three tatami mats, thinking that his face would turn red.   (Fujisawa Shuhei “The Cicada Buzz” -The Sound of Fallen Leaves ４)                                     　　（To be continued）