2026年2月7日「モバイル英語学習」第906号(英語ストーリ): Yuki-onna by Lafcadio Hearn (Part 3)

Notes

senseless 意識を失った状態、失神した; .
calling 天職、職業、家業;
overtook 追いついた、追い越した;
betrothed 婚約した;
confidences 打ち明け話、秘密の話;
fancy 好み;
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By dawn the storm was over; and when the ferryman returned to his station, a little after sunrise, he found Minokichi lying senseless beside the frozen body of Mosaku. Minokichi was promptly cared for, and soon came to himself; but he remained a long time ill from the effects of the cold of that terrible night. He had been greatly frightened also by the old man’s death; but he said nothing about the vision of the woman in white. As soon as he got well again, he returned to his calling,—going alone every morning to the forest, and coming back at nightfall with his bundles of wood, which his mother helped him to sell.

One evening, in the winter of the following year, as he was on his way home, he overtook a girl who happened to be traveling by the same road. She was a tall, slim girl, very good-looking; and she answered Minokichi’s greeting in a voice as pleasant to the ear as the voice of a song-bird. Then he walked beside her; and they began to talk. The girl said that her name was O-Yuki;[2] that she had lately lost both of her parents; and that she was going to Yedo , where she happened to have some poor relations, who might help her to find a situation as a servant. Minokichi soon felt charmed by this strange girl; and the more that he looked at her, the handsomer she appeared to be. He asked her whether she was yet betrothed; and she answered, laughingly, that she was free. Then, in her turn, she asked Minokichi whether he was married, or pledged to marry; and he told her that, although he had only a widowed mother to support, the question of an “honorable daughter-in-law” had not yet been considered, as he was very young… After these confidences, they walked on for a long while without speaking; but, as the proverb declares, Ki ga aréba, mé mo kuchi hodo ni mono wo iu: “When the wish is there, the eyes can say as much as the mouth.” By the time they reached the village, they had become very much pleased with each other; and then Minokichi asked O-Yuki to rest awhile at his house. After some shy hesitation, she went there with him; and his mother made her welcome, and prepared a warm meal for her. O-Yuki behaved so nicely that Minokichi’s mother took a sudden fancy to her, and persuaded her to delay her journey to Yedo. And the natural end of the matter was that Yuki never went to Yedo at all. She remained in the house, as an “honorable daughter-in-law.”
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📖 全文の日本語訳 / Full Japanese Translation

夜明けまでに嵐は去っていた。日の出の少し後、船頭が渡し場に戻ってくると、凍りついた茂作の遺体の傍らで、巳之吉が意識を失って倒れているのを見つけた。巳之吉はすぐに介抱されて程なく意識を取り戻したが、あの恐ろしい夜の寒さがたたり、長い間病に伏せった。また、老人の死にひどく怯えてもいたが、あの白衣の女の幻影については何も口にしなかった。体が回復するとすぐに、彼は再び家業に戻った。毎朝一人で森へ出かけ、夕暮れ時には薪の束を背負って帰り、それを母親に手伝ってもらいながら売り歩いた。

翌年の冬のある晩、帰路についていた彼は、たまたま同じ道を旅していた一人の娘に追いついた。彼女はすらりと背が高く、たいそう見栄えのする娘だった。巳之吉の挨拶に応える彼女の声は、まるで歌鳥のさえずりのように心地よく耳に響いた。それから彼は彼女の隣を歩き、二人は言葉を交わし始めた。娘は名を「お雪」といい、近ごろ両親を亡くしたばかりで、江戸へ向かっているところだと言った。そこには貧しい親類がおり、奉公先を見つける手助けをしてくれるかもしれないという。

巳之吉はすぐにこの見知らぬ娘に魅了された。見つめれば見つめるほど、彼女は美しく見えた。彼が、もう婚約者がいるのかと尋ねると、彼女は笑いながら、自分は自由の身だと答えた。今度は彼女が巳之吉に、妻がいるのか、あるいは結婚の約束をしているのかと尋ねた。彼は、養うべき未亡人の母がいるだけで、自分はまだとても若く、「お嫁さん」を迎える話などまだ考えたこともないと話した。……このような打ち明け話の後、二人はしばらく何も語らずに歩き続けた。

しかし、ことわざにも「気があれば、目も口ほどに物を言う」とある通りである。村に着く頃には、二人は互いをたいそう気に入っていた。そこで巳之吉は、家で少し休んでいかないかとお雪を誘った。彼女は内気に躊躇していたが、やがて彼について家へ入った。巳之吉の母は彼女を歓迎し、温かい食事を用意した。お雪の振る舞いがあまりに素晴らしかったので、母親は一変して彼女を気に入り、江戸への旅を遅らせるよう説得した。そして、事の自然な成り行きとして、お雪が江戸へ行くことはついになかった。彼女は「お嫁さん」として、その家に留まったのである。