『カルメン』の冒頭を英語で、日本語訳つきで読む

I had always suspected the geographical authorities did not know what they were talking about when they located the battlefield of Munda in the county of the Bastuli-Poeni, close to the modern Monda, some two leagues north of Marbella.

私は以前から、地理の権威たちがムンダの戦場をバストゥリ・ポエニ族の地、現在のモンダに近い、マルベーリャの北およそ二里のあたりに置いたのは、何も分かっていなかったのではないかと疑っていた。

According to my own surmise, founded on the text of the anonymous author of the Bellum Hispaniense, and on certain information culled from the excellent library owned by the Duke of Ossuna, I believed the site of the memorable struggle in which Caesar played double or quits, once and for all, with the champions of the Republic, should be sought in the neighbourhood of Montilla.

私自身の推測では、『ヒスパニア戦記』の匿名作者の本文と、オスナ公爵が所有する優れた蔵書から得たいくつかの情報に基づき、カエサルが共和国の擁護者たちと一か八かの勝負を一度で決した、あの記憶すべき戦いの場所は、モンティーリャの近辺に求めるべきだと考えていた。

Happening to be in Andalusia during the autumn of 1830, I made a somewhat lengthy excursion, with the object of clearing up certain doubts which still oppressed me. A paper which I shall shortly publish will, I trust, remove any hesitation that may still exist in the minds of all honest archaeologists. But before that dissertation of mine finally settles the geographical problem on the solution of which the whole of learned Europe hangs, I desire to relate a little tale. It will do no prejudice to the interesting question of the correct locality of Monda.

一八三〇年の秋、たまたまアンダルシアにいた私は、まだ私を悩ませていたある疑いを晴らすために、かなり長い遠出をした。私がまもなく公刊する論文は、すべての誠実な考古学者の心にまだ残るかもしれない迷いを取り除くはずだと信じている。しかし、私のその論考が、学問的ヨーロッパ全体がその解決を待ち望んでいる地理上の問題を最終的に決着させる前に、私は小さな物語を語りたい。それはモンダの正しい位置という興味深い問題に何の損害も与えないだろう。

I had hired a guide and a couple of horses at Cordova, and had started on my way with no luggage save a few shirts, and Caesar’s Commentaries. As I wandered, one day, across the higher lands of the Cachena plain, worn with fatigue, parched with thirst, scorched by a burning sun, cursing Caesar and Pompey’s sons alike, most heartily, my eye lighted, at some distance from the path I was following, on a little stretch of green sward dotted with reeds and rushes. That betokened the neighbourhood of some spring, and, indeed, as I drew nearer I perceived that what had looked like sward was a marsh, into which a stream, which seemed to issue from a narrow gorge between two high spurs of the Sierra di Cabra, ran and disappeared.

私はコルドバで案内人と馬二頭を雇い、数枚のシャツとカエサルの『戦記』以外に荷物も持たずに出発した。ある日、カチェナ平原の高地をさまよい歩き、疲れ果て、喉は渇き、燃えるような太陽に焼かれ、カエサルとポンペイウスの息子たちを心から呪いながら、進む道から少し離れたところに、葦やいぐさの混じった小さな緑の草地が目に入った。それは泉が近いことを示しており、実際、近づいてみると、草地に見えたものは沼地で、シエラ・デ・カブラの二つの高い支脈の間の狭い峡谷から出ているらしい流れが、そこへ流れ込んで消えていた。

If I rode up that stream, I argued, I was likely to find cooler water, fewer leeches and frogs, and mayhap a little shade among the rocks.

あの流れに沿って馬を進めれば、もっと冷たい水、蛭や蛙の少ない場所、そしておそらく岩陰の少しの日陰が見つかるだろうと考えた。

At the mouth of the gorge, my horse neighed, and another horse, invisible to me, neighed back. Before I had advanced a hundred paces, the gorge suddenly widened, and I beheld a sort of natural amphitheatre, thoroughly shaded by the steep cliffs that lay all around it. It was impossible to imagine any more delightful halting place for a traveller. At the foot of the precipitous rocks, the stream bubbled upward and fell into a little basin, lined with sand that was as white as snow. Five or six splendid evergreen oaks, sheltered from the wind, and cooled by the spring, grew beside the pool, and shaded it with their thick foliage. And round about it a close and glossy turf offered the wanderer a better bed than he could have found in any hostelry for ten leagues round.

峡谷の入口で、私の馬がいななくと、見えないもう一頭の馬がいななき返した。百歩も進まないうちに、峡谷は急に広がり、私は自然の円形劇場のような場所を目にした。周囲を取り囲む険しい崖にすっかり陰られていた。旅人にとってこれ以上に快い休憩所は想像できなかった。切り立った岩の麓では、流れが泡立って湧き出し、雪のように白い砂に縁取られた小さな水溜まりに落ちていた。五、六本の見事な常緑の樫が、風を避け、泉に冷やされながら池のそばに生え、その厚い葉で池を陰らせていた。そしてその周りには、密集した艶のある芝生が、十里四方のどの宿屋で見つけられるよりも良い寝床をさまよう者に提供していた。

The honour of discovering this fair spot did not belong to me. A man was resting there already—sleeping, no doubt—before I reached it. Roused by the neighing of the horses, he had risen to his feet and had moved over to his mount, which had been taking advantage of its master’s slumbers to make a hearty feed on the grass that grew around. He was an active young fellow, of middle height, but powerful in build, and proud and sullen-looking in expression. His complexion, which may once have been fine, had been tanned by the sun till it was darker than his hair. One of his hands grasped his horse’s halter. In the other he held a brass blunderbuss.

この美しい場所を発見する名誉は私のものではなかった。私が着く前から、そこではもう一人の男が休んでいた。おそらく眠っていたのだろう。馬のいななきに起こされた彼は立ち上がり、飼い主の眠りに乗じて周りの草をたっぷり食べていた自分の馬のところへ歩いていた。彼は活発な若者で、中背だが体格は強く、表情には誇りと不機嫌さがあった。かつては美しかったかもしれない彼の顔色は、太陽に焼かれて髪よりも黒くなっていた。片手で馬の頭絡を握っていた。もう一方の手には真鍮のブランダーバスを持っていた。