りんご畑のマーティン・ピピン
りんご畑のマーティン・ピピン Martin Pippin in the Apple Orchard
エリナー・ファージョン作 石井桃子訳 岩波書店
｢夢」のテーマの回で『ひなぎく野のマーティン・ピピン』"Martin Pippin in the Daisy Field"の「エルシー・ピドック夢で縄とびをする」をご紹介しましたが、今回は『リンゴ畑のマーティン・ピピン』"Martin Pippin in the Apple Orchard"です。
まずはファージョンのおさらいをウィキペディアで。
エリナー・ファージョン（Eleanor Farjeon,1881年2月13日-1965年6月5日）は、イギリスの児童文学作家、詩人。
ロンドン生まれ。父はユダヤ系作家のベンジャミン・ファージョン、母はアメリカ人女優の娘。家庭で教育を受け、膨大な父の蔵書と、家に訪れる数多くの芸術家達の会話によって、知識と想像力を養った。1916年に出版された子供向けの詩集『ロンドンのわらべうた』で作家として認められ、21年に発表した連作短編『リンゴ畑のマーティン・ピピン』で童話作家としての地位を確立。以後、『年とったばあやのお話かご』（31年）、『町かどのジム』（34年）、『ガラスの靴』（44年）、『銀色のシギ』（49年）などの作品を次々と発表し、55年には自選短編集『ムギと王さま』でカーネギー賞と国際アンデルセン賞を受賞。また、古いゲール民謡に詞を付け、31年に発表した賛美歌『世のはじめさながらに』は、71年にイギリスのシンガーソングライター、キャット・スティーブンスによって『Morning Has Broken（邦題「雨にぬれた朝」）』としてカバーされ大ヒットした。その他、『ファージョン自伝 -わたしの子供時代』（35年）、『エドワード・トマス、最後の四年』（58年）などのノンフィクションがある。
日本でも石井桃子らの訳によって早くから紹介され、良質で温かいユーモアを湛えた作風にはファンが多い。なお、イギリスでは彼女を記念して「エリナー・ファージョン賞」を制定し、毎年すぐれた児童文学作品を表彰している。
舞台はサセックス州アドバセン(アドヴァーセイン) Sussex Adversane。そこに昔から伝わる古い遊び｢若葉おとめの歌 The Spring-Green Lady」がはじめに紹介されます。この遊戯をするとき、子どもたちのひとりは皇帝のむすめ、もうひとりは旅の歌い手、残りは若葉おとめ、紅白(べにしろ)おとめ、黄金おとめになります。皇帝のむすめが塔の中で泣いている。それを囲んで、ひめに背を向け、6人のおとめが手をつなぎ環をつくって立っている。そこにリュートをもった旅の歌い手が近づく。おとめたちは第一部若葉おとめ、第二部紅白おとめ、第三部黄金おとめと様子を変え、最後に歌い手の歌でおとめたちは眠りにおち、環の中に踏み込んだ歌い手が、塔の鍵を開けひめにキスをして連れ去るという趣向です。
外枠の物語、旅の歌い手はマーティン・ピピン、牧場の見張り役のおとめたちはジョスリン、ジェイン、ジェニファー、ジェシカ、ジョイスにジョーン。農場の父に、井戸屋形に閉じ込められた娘はジリアン、彼女と会えずに嘆く恋人はロビン・ルー(嘆きのロビン)。マーティンがロビン・ルーの嘆きを知り、ジリアンを救うべく、6人のおとめたちとジリアンに六つの恋物語を語り聞かせてゆきます。恋物語の合間には間奏曲としてマーティンと乙女たちの遊びや言葉のやりとりも綴られます。
この物語はもともとファージョンの友人であったハスラム氏が第一次大戦時義勇兵として戦地に赴いた折、彼の心を慰めるために書かれ送られたもので(つまり、成人男性を読者として書かれたものだったので)、児童文学ではなかったのですが時間とともに子どものための物語として受容されて今に至ります。このことは作者のファージョンにとっても大きな驚きだったそうです。
確かにひとつひとつの物語で描かれる恋模様はたいへん大人っぽく、お話によっては、人生の苦い部分もふんだんに盛り込まれています。またマーティンと恋をし始める妙齢のおとめたちのやりとりでも、男女の機微に関するあれやこれやが語られます。
6つのお話のうちの第3話「夢の水車場 THE MILL OF DREAMS」をご紹介します。
昔、サイドルシャムの沼地に、水車小屋があり、ヘレンという娘とその父が住んでいた。父親は過酷で、娘のヘレンを一日中働かせた。父親のせいでヘレンはほとんど製粉所の外に出ることもせず、人とも交わらぬ生活を送っていた。仕事がないときのヘレンの楽しみは石うすの動きを見つめ、その音に耳を澄ませ、思いをめぐらせることだった。(いわゆる「搾取された子ども」でしょうか。)
Like all things that grow up away from the light, she was pale. Her oval face was like ivory, and her lips, instead of being scarlet, had the tender red of apple-blossom, after the unfolding of the bright bud. Her hair was black and smooth and heavy, and lay on either side of her face like a starling's wings. Her eyes too were as black as midnight, and sometimes like midnight they were deep and sightless. But when she was neither working nor spinning she would steal away to the millstones, and stand there watching and listening. And then there were two stars in the midnight. She came away from those stolen times powdered with flour. Her black hair and her brows and lashes, her old blue gown, her rough hands and fair neck, and her white face–all that was dark and pale in her was merged in a mist, and seen only through the clinging dust of the millstones. She would try to wipe off all the evidences of her secret occasions, but her father generally knew. Had he known by nothing else, he need only have looked at her eyes before they lost their starlight.
へレンが17のとき、ドアをたたく者があった。ヘレンは想像をめぐらせ、ひとつの事実によって多くのものを失うことをおそれつつも、ドアを開ける。そこにはみすぼらしい船乗りのいでたちをした普通の若者が立っていた。ふたりはちぐはぐな会話を交わし、パンを望む若者にパンと7本の小麦の穂を与えたヘレンは若者からはじめて見る貝をもらう。「おめえ、おかしなむすめだな」と言って若者は去る。
She took her hand from behind her, and offered him seven ears of wheat. They were heavy with grain, and bowed on their ripe stems.
'Is this what you call better than bread?' he asked.
'It is better.'
'Oh, all right. I sha'n't eat it though–not all at once.'
'No,' said Helen, 'keep it till you're hungry. The grains go quite a long way when you're hungry.'
'I'll eat one a year,' said the boy, 'and then they'll go so far they'll outlast me my lifetime.'
'Yes,' said Helen, 'but the bread will be gone in forty minutes. And then you'll be where you can get meat.'
'You funny thing,' said the boy, puzzled because she never smiled.
この後、若者からもらった貝を見るヘレンの視点でファージョンの巧みな筆が貝を描写してゆくのですが、そのミニアチュールのような描写は、同時に閉ざされた世界で暮らしていた免疫のないへレンが、この一度の出会いによって重篤な恋の熱病に罹っていく心情の描写としても成立しています。この後ヘレンは製粉所へ行き、石うすの音を聞きながら貝を見つめ、さらに自分の心臓に貝をおしあてます。
She had heard of shells, of course, but she had never seen one. Yet she knew this was no English shell. It was as large as the top of a teacup, but more oval than round. Over its surface, like pearl, rippled waves of sea-green and sea-blue, under a lustre that was like golden moonlight on the ocean. She could not define or trace the waves of colour; they flowed in and out of each other with interchangeable movement. One half of the outer rim, which was transparently thin and curled like the fantastic edge of a surf wave, was flecked with a faint play of rose and cream and silver, that melted imperceptibly into the moonlit sea. When she turned the shell over she found that she could not see its heart. The blue-green side of the shell curled under like a smooth billow, and then broke into a world of caves, and caves within caves, whose final secret she could not discover. But within and within the colour grew deeper and deeper, bottomless blues and unfathomable greens, shot with such gleams of light as made her heart throb, for they were like the gleams that shoot through our dreams, the light that just eludes us when we wake.
She went into the mill, trembling from head to foot. She was not conscious of moving, but she found herself presently standing by the grinding stones, with sound rushing through her and white dust whirling round her. She gazed and gazed into the labyrinth of the shell as though she must see to its very core; but she could not. So she unfastened her blue gown and laid the shell against her young heart. It was for the first time of so many times that I know not whether when, twenty years later, she did it for the last time, they outnumbered the silver hairs among her black ones. And the silver by then were uncountable. Yet on the day when Helen began her twenty years of lonely listening–
このときからヘレンは、石うすのそばで音を聞き、貝を胸に押し当てて、想像(というより妄想!)の恋に生きる日々を続けます。この｢妄想｣がすごい、果てしない。猛烈。それは恋愛ゲームに没頭するイマドキの二次元大好きおとめと変わらない。妄想の中で幾度となく甘い会話を交わし、抱きしめられ、ときには痴話喧嘩をし…。でも、それが20年続く。おそろしい。石井さんが、ヘレンから名も知らぬ妄想恋人への呼びかけ My boy! を「わたしの若衆!」と翻訳していて、なんだか日本語訳はなおさら濃厚なことになっています。笑。石うすの夢の中でヘレンは愛する若衆をいかだに残し、ひとり海に飛び込んだりもするのです。これが妄想だけで終わるなら、いろんな意味で大変危険!
'Child, can you help yourself a little?' And now for an instant her soul reapproached her body, and looked at him through the soft midnight of her eyes, and he saw in them such starlight as never was in sky or on sea.
'Kiss me,' said Helen.
He kissed her.
With a great effort she lifted herself and stood upright on the raft, swaying a little and holding by the mast. The boat was still a little distant.
'Good-bye, my boy.'
'Child–!'
'Don't jump. You promised not to. You promised. But I can't come with you now. You must let me go.'
He looked at her, and saw she was in a fever. He made a desperate clutch at her blue gown. But he was not quick enough. 'Keep your promise!' she cried, and disappeared in the dreamlit waters; she disappeared like a dream, without a sound. As she sank, she heard him calling her by the only name he knew. . . .
さて、35歳になってヘレンの父親は死んだが、それでも彼女が外の世界に出てゆくことはなく、水車場で夢見る日々を送ってさらに2年が過ぎた。容姿は年相応に老いたものの、夢の暮らしのせいで、目の輝きは若々しいままだった。2年目の終わり、あらしがあり、ヘレンはあのときの若衆(もう若衆ではないが)を助け、看病する。男(ピーター)はヘレンに結婚してくれと言うがヘレンは｢そんなことするくらいなら死んだほうがましです」と答え部屋を出て石うすのところへ。そして…。
Well, then, my dear maids, when Helen ran out of his room she went to her own, and she threw herself on the bed and sobbed without weeping. Because everything in her life seemed to have been taken away from her. She lay there for a long time, and when she moved at last her head was so heavy that she took the pins from her hair to relieve herself of its weight. But still the pain weighed on her forehead, which burned on her cold fingers when she pressed them over her eyes, trying to think and find some gleam of hope among her despairing thoughts. And then she remembered that one thing at least was left her–her shell. During his illness she had never carried it to the millstones. It was as though his being there had been the only answer to her daily dreams, an answer that had failed them all the time. But now in spite of him she would try to find the old answers again. So she went once more to the millstones with her shell. And when she got there she held it so tightly to her heart that it marked her skin.
And the millstones had nothing to say. For the first time they refused to grind her corn.
Then Helen knew that she really had nothing left, and that the homecoming of the man had robbed her of her boy and of the child she had been. Nothing was left but the man and woman who had lost their youth. And the man had nothing to give the woman. Nothing but gratitude and disillusion. And now a still bitterer thought came to her–the thought that the boy had had nothing to give the girl. For twenty years it had been the girl's illusion. The storms in her heart broke out. She put her face in her hands and wept like wild rain on the sea. She wept so violently that between her passion and the speechless grinding of the stones she did not hear him coming. She only knew he was there when he put his arm round her.
'What is it, you silly thing?' said Peter.
この後、もう若くはない男女は、お互いの20年の思いを知る。その時、愛が二人の心にもう一度光と熱を与え、二人はお互いを若者であったときと変わらぬ存在と感じて結ばれる…。
超ロマンティック、超ド級のメロドラマですが、現実とヘレンの妄想部分の交錯するあたりの文学度が高く、また一人恋の夢を見ながら年を重ねてゆく女性の時間の流れは、どこかとてもリアルで、イギリス映画で観てみたいような仕上がりです。マーティンが語るその他の五つの物語もそれぞれロマンティックさがある一方で、それぞれの主人公が何か欠けているところから始まるものが多く、ファンタジックな中にも現実の苦さが物語に陰翳を与えています。10代のおとめたちはもちろんのこと、もっと上、もっともっと上の女子たちにも楽しめる作品です。もちろん最初の読者は男子でしたから男子も、ですね。
最後に。マーティン・ピピンがものすごくかっこいい。若きジョニー・デップあたりにやってほしい艶っぽい旅の歌い手(jongleurとかminstrelとかいうらしい)です。6人のおとめたちもうっとりしています(特にジョスリン)。
以下マーティン・ピピン名言集。
「石ならば、打てば火花が散ることもある。」
「ばかというものは、つまずいて、おのれの花を地面にぶつけるまでは、わからぬものよなあ。何もいらぬ。ただで歌うよ。」
「わたしたち人間はみな重荷を負っていかねばならぬもの。」
「だが、くる春も、くる春も、花を迎えてわたしの心は、まるではじめて春にあうようにおどるのだ―。」
「やっぱり女は女だな。この世の終わりまで、大事なことより、ささいなことを聞きたがるのだ。」
「そこが恋物語のふしぎなところではないだろうか? ふしあわせになる道は、千通りもあり、しあわせにおわる道はただひとつ。だが、恋人たちの思いがひとつの道筋につながるとき、そのひとつが千の道に打ち勝つのだ。」
「『時』には、気ばらしという餌をやるにかぎる。」
「じぶん自身に親切をつくせない者、または親切であろうとしない者には、だれかが抗議しなければならない。」
「話し手というものは、ほかの職人同様、道具がいるのだが、そのいちばんだいじなものが、聞き手なんだ。」
「わたしの心は、どんな小さなことも、信じたがって大さわぎする。あまり通り一ぺんのことばかりを信じる者は、心のすじがひきつる。」
「そういうひとなら、とうのむかしに、男や女が、まず何より先に、ぼうとした夢に金色のもの(たとえば、若さ)を満たして人生を歩きはじめ、最後には、灰色のもの(たとえば、老い)を輝く夢で満たすのだということを、見ぬいていたでしょうがね。そして、どちらの場合もおわりはおなじだ。恋人たちは、最初に愛したものを、最後までたがいのなかに見るのさ。というのは、世のなかのことはみな、われわれが、こうであれと夢見るようなものでしかないということは、あんたがたも、これまでにごらんになったろうが。」
前半だけでもこれだけの名言があります。外枠の物語、狂言まわしマーティンのお手並みも読みどころのひとつです。
ジリアンは解き放たれるか?? ロビン・ルーの運命や如何に。そして6人のおとめたちの恋は…。
それから、サセックスの自然の美しい描写や、たくさんの花々の名前とその由来の紹介も楽しめます。
最後に「若葉おとめの歌」を。巻末に楽譜あり。
若葉おとめの歌 THE SINGING-GAME OF 'THE SPRING-GREEN LADY'
(THE EMPEROR'S DAUGHTER sits weeping in her Tower. Around her, with their backs to her, stand six maids in a ring, with joined hands. They are in green dresses. THE WANDERING SINGER approaches them with his lute. )
THE WANDERING SINGER
Lady, lady, my spring-green lady,
May I come into your orchard, lady?
For the leaf is now on the apple-bough,
And the sun is high and the lawn is shady,
Lady, lady,
My fair lady!
O my spring-green lady!
THE LADIES
You may not come into our orchard, singer,
Because we must guard the Emperor's Daughter,
Who hides in her hair at the window there,
With her thoughts a thousand leagues over the water,
Singer, singer,
Wandering singer,
O my honey-sweet singer!
THE WANDERING SINGER
Lady, lady, my spring-green lady,
But will you not hear an Alba, lady?
I'll play for you now 'neath the apple-bough
And you shall dance on the lawn so shady,
Lady, lady,
My fair lady,
O my spring-green lady!
THE LADIES
O if you play us an Alba, singer,
How can that harm the Emperor's Daughter?
No word would she say though we danced all day,
With her thoughts a thousand leagues over the water,
Singer, singer,
Wandering singer,
O my honey-sweet singer!
THE WANDERING SINGER
But if I play you an Alba, lady,
Get me a boon from the Emperor's Daughter?
The flower from her hair for my heart to wear,
Though hers be a thousand leagues over the water,
Lady, lady,
My fair lady,
O my spring-green lady!
THE LADIES
(They give him the flower from the hair of THE EMPEROR'S DAUGHTER, and sing? )
Now you may play us an Alba, singer,
A dance of dawn for a spring-green lady,
For the leaf is now on the apple-bough,
And the sun is high and the lawn is shady,
Singer, singer,
Wandering singer,
O my honey-sweet singer!
(THE WANDERING SINGER plays on his lute, and THE LADIES break their ranks and dance. THE SINGER steals up behind THE EMPEROR'S DAUGHTER, who uncovers her face and sings? )
THE EMPEROR'S DAUGHTER
Mother, mother, my fair dead mother,
They have stolen the flower from your weeping daughter!
THE WANDERING SINGER
O dry your eyes, you shall have this other,
When yours is a thousand leagues over the water,
Daughter, daughter,
My sweet daughter!
Love is not far, my daughter!
The Singer then drops a second flower into the lap of the child in the middle, and goes away, and this ends the first part of the game. The Emperor's Daughter is not yet released, for the key of her tower is understood to be still in the keeping of the dancing children. Very likely it is bed-time by this, and mothers are calling from windows and gates, and the children must run home to their warm bread-and-milk and their cool sheets. But if time is still to spare, the second part of the game is played like this. The dancers once more encircle their weeping comrade, and now they are gowned in white and pink. They will indicate these changes perhaps by coloured ribbons, or by any flower in its season, or by imagining themselves first in green and then in rose, which is really the best way of all. Well then:
(THE LADIES, in gowns of white and rose-colour, stand around THE EMPEROR'S DAUGHTER, weeping in her Tower. To them once more comes THE WANDERING SINGER with his lute. )
THE WANDERING SINGER
Lady, lady, my rose-white lady,
May I come into your orchard, lady?
For the blossom's now on the apple-bough,
And the stars are near and the lawn is shady,
Lady, lady,
My fair lady,
O my rose-white lady!
THE LADIES
You may not come into our orchard, singer,
Lest you bear a word to the Emperor's Daughter
From one who was sent to banishment
Away a thousand leagues over the water,
Singer, singer,
Wandering singer,
O my honey-sweet singer!
THE WANDERING SINGER
Lady, lady, my rose-white lady,
But will you not hear a Roundel, lady?
I'll play for you now 'neath the apple-bough,
And you shall trip on the lawn so shady,
Lady, lady,
My fair lady,
O my rose-white lady!
THE LADIES
O, if you play us a Roundel, singer,
How can that harm the Emperor's Daughter?
She would not speak though we danced a week,
With her thoughts a thousand leagues over the water,
Singer, singer,
Wandering singer,
O my honey-sweet singer!
THE WANDERING SINGER
But if I play you a Roundel, lady,
Get me a gift from the Emperor's Daughter?
Her finger-ring for my finger bring
Though she's pledged a thousand leagues over the water,
Lady, lady
My fair lady,
O my rose-white lady!
THE LADIES
(They give him the ring from the finger of THE EMPEROR'S DAUGHTER, and sing? )
Now you may play us a Roundel, singer,
A sunset-dance for a rose-white lady,
For the blossom's now on the apple-bough,
And the stars are near and the lawn is shady,
Singer, singer,
Wandering singer,
O my honey-sweet singer!
(As before, THE SINGER plays and THE LADIES dance; and through the broken circle THE SINGER comes behind THE EMPEROR'S DAUGHTER, who uncovers her face to sing? )
THE EMPEROR'S DAUGHTER
Mother, mother, my fair dead mother,
They've stolen the ring from your heart-sick daughter.
THE WANDERING SINGER
O mend your heart, you shall wear this other
When yours is a thousand leagues over the water,
Daughter, daughter,
My sweet daughter!
Love is at hand, my daughter!
The third part of the game is seldom played. If it is not bed-time, or tea-time, or dinner-time, or school-time, by this time at all events the players have grown weary of the game, which is tiresomely long; and most likely they will decide to play something else, such as Bertha Gentle Lady, or The Busy Lass, or Gypsy, Gypsy, Raggetty Loon!, or The Crock of Gold, or Wayland, Shoe me my Mare!?which are all good games in their way, though not, like The Spring-Green Lady, native to Adversane. But I did once have the luck to hear and see The Lady played in entirety?the children had been granted leave to play 'just one more game' before bed-time, and of course they chose the longest and played it without missing a syllable.
(THE LADIES, in yellow dresses, stand again in a ring about THE EMPEROR'S DAUGHTER, and are for the last time accosted by THE SINGER with his lute. )
THE WANDERING SINGER
Lady, lady, my apple-gold lady,
May I come into your orchard, lady?
For the fruit is now on the apple-bough,
And the moon is up and the lawn is shady,
Lady, lady,
My fair lady,
O my apple-gold lady!
THE LADIES
You may not come into our orchard, singer,
In case you set free the Emperor's Daughter,
Who pines apart to follow her heart,
That's flown a thousand leagues over the water,
Singer, singer,
Wandering singer,
O my honey-sweet singer!
THE WANDERING SINGER
Lady, lady, my apple-gold lady,
But will you not hear a Serena, lady?
I'll play for you now 'neath the apple-bough
And you shall dream on the lawn so shady,
Lady, lady,
My fair lady,
O my apple-gold lady!
THE LADIES
O, if you play a Serena, singer,
How can that harm the Emperor's Daughter?
She would not hear though we danced a year,
With her heart a thousand leagues over the water,
Singer, singer,
Wandering singer,
O my honey-sweet singer!
THE WANDERING SINGER
But if I play a Serena, lady,
Let me guard the key of the Emperor's Daughter,
Lest her body should follow her heart like a swallow,
And fly a thousand leagues over the water,
Lady, lady,
My fair lady,
O my apple-gold lady!
THE LADIES
(They give the key of the Tower into his hands. )
Now you may play a Serena, singer,
A dream of night for an apple-gold lady,
For the fruit is now on the apple-bough,
And the moon is up and the lawn is shady,
Singer, singer,
Wandering singer,
O my honey-sweet singer!
(Once more THE SINGER plays and THE LADIES dance; but one by one they fall asleep to the drowsy music, and then THE SINGER steps into the ring and unlocks the Tower and kisses THE EMPEROR'S DAUGHTER. They have the end of the game to themselves. )
Lover, lover, thy my own true lover
Has opened a way for the Emperor's Daughter!
The dawn is the goal and the dark the cover
As we sail a thousand leagues over the water?
Lover, lover,
My dear lover,
O my own true lover!
(THE WANDERING SINGER and THE EMPEROR'S DAUGHTER float a thousand leagues in his shallop and live happily ever after. I don't know what becomes of THE LADIES.)
'Bed-time, children!'
In they go.
You see the treatment is a trifle fanciful. But romance gathers round an old story like lichen on an old branch. And the story of Martin Pippin in the Apple Orchard is so old now?some say a year old, some say even two. How can the children be expected to remember?
But here's the truth of it.
