『分別と多感』の冒頭を英語で、日本語訳つきで読む

The family of Dashwood had long been settled in Sussex. Their estate was large, and their residence was at Norland Park, in the centre of their property, where, for many generations, they had lived in so respectable a manner as to engage the general good opinion of their surrounding acquaintance. The late owner of this estate was a single man, who lived to a very advanced age, and who for many years of his life, had a constant companion and housekeeper in his sister. But her death, which happened ten years before his own, produced a great alteration in his home; for to supply her loss, he invited and received into his house the family of his nephew Mr. Henry Dashwood, the legal inheritor of the Norland estate, and the person to whom he intended to bequeath it. In the society of his nephew and niece, and their children, the old Gentleman’s days were comfortably spent. His attachment to them all increased. The constant attention of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Dashwood to his wishes, which proceeded not merely from interest, but from goodness of heart, gave him every degree of solid comfort which his age could receive; and the cheerfulness of the children added a relish to his existence.

ダッシュウッド家は、ずっと以前からサセックスに定住していました。その所領は広大で、住まいは領地の中央にあるノーランド・パークにあり、何世代にもわたって、周囲の知人たちから広く好感を持たれるほど、立派に暮らしてきました。この所領の前の持ち主は独身の男性で、非常に高齢まで生き、長年の間、姉妹を常の伴侶また家政婦としておりました。しかし、彼自身の死の十年前にその姉妹が亡くなったことで、家の中は大きく変わりました。その喪失を埋めるために、彼は甥のヘンリー・ダッシュウッド氏の一家を招き入れ、家に受け入れました。ヘンリー・ダッシュウッド氏はノーランドの所領の法定相続人であり、彼が遺贈するつもりだった相手でした。甥と姪、そしてその子供たちとの交わりの中で、老紳士の日々は快適に過ごされました。彼の彼らへの愛情は増していきました。ヘンリー・ダッシュウッド夫妻が彼の望みに絶えず気を配ったことは、単に利害からではなく、心の善良さから出たもので、彼の年齢が得られるあらゆる確かな慰めを彼に与えました。そして子供たちの快活さが、彼の存在に一層の味わいを添えました。

By a former marriage, Mr. Henry Dashwood had one son: by his present lady, three daughters. The son, a steady respectable young man, was amply provided for by the fortune of his mother, which had been large, and half of which devolved on him on his coming of age. By his own marriage, likewise, which happened soon afterwards, he added to his wealth. To him therefore the succession to the Norland estate was not so really important as to his sisters; for their fortune, independent of what might arise to them from their father’s inheriting that property, could be but small. Their mother had nothing, and their father only seven thousand pounds in his own disposal; for the remaining moiety of his first wife’s fortune was also secured to her child, and he had only a life-interest in it.

ヘンリー・ダッシュウッド氏には、前の結婚で一人の息子がいました。現在の妻との間には三人の娘がいました。その息子は、堅実で立派な若者で、母親の財産によって十分に養われていました。その財産は多額で、その半分は成人したときに彼に移りました。同様に、その後まもなく行われた彼自身の結婚によっても、彼は富を増やしました。したがって、ノーランドの所領の相続は、彼にとっては姉妹たちほどには実際に重要ではありませんでした。姉妹たちの財産は、父親がその所領を相続することから生じるかもしれないものを別にすれば、わずかなものでしかありえなかったからです。彼女たちの母親には何もなく、父親も自分の自由になる七千ポンドしか持っていませんでした。というのも、最初の妻の財産の残りの半分もその子供に確保されており、父親にはそれに対する終身の権利しかなかったからです。

The old gentleman died: his will was read, and like almost every other will, gave as much disappointment as pleasure. He was neither so unjust, nor so ungrateful, as to leave his estate from his nephew; but he left it to him on such terms as destroyed half the value of the bequest. Mr. Dashwood had wished for it more for the sake of his wife and daughters than for himself or his son: but to his son, and his son’s son, a child of four years old, it was secured, in such a way, as to leave to himself no power of providing for those who were most dear to him, and who most needed a provision by any charge on the estate, or by any sale of its valuable woods. The whole was tied up for the benefit of this child, who, in occasional visits with his father and mother at Norland, had so far gained on the affections of his uncle, by such attractions as are by no means unusual in children of two or three years old —an imperfect articulation, an earnest desire of having his own way, many cunning tricks, and a great deal of noise —as to outweigh all the value of all the attention which, for years, he had received from his niece and her daughters. He meant not to be unkind, however, and, as a mark of his affection for the three girls, he left them a thousand pounds apiece.

老紳士は亡くなりました。遺言が読まれ、他のほとんどすべての遺言と同じように、喜びと同じだけの失望を与えました。彼は、甥から所領を遠ざけるほど不公正でも、感謝知らずでもありませんでした。しかし、彼はそれを、遺贈の価値の半分を台無しにするような条件で甥に残しました。ダッシュウッド氏は、自分自身や息子のためよりも、妻と娘たちのためにそれを望んでいました。しかし、息子と、その息子の息子、つまり四歳の子供に、それは確保され、その方法は、彼自身が最も愛し、最も扶養を必要としていた人々のために、所領に負担を課すことも、その貴重な森を売ることもできないようにするものでした。すべてはこの子供の利益のために縛られていました。その子供は、両親とともにノーランドを時折訪れる中で、二、三歳の子供には決して珍しくない魅力、つまり不完全な発音、自分の思い通りにしたいという切実な願い、多くのずるい策略、そして大量の騒ぎによって、叔父の愛情をそれほど勝ち取り、何年もの間、姪とその娘たちから受けてきたすべての気遣いの価値をはるかに上回っていました。しかし、彼は不親切にするつもりはなく、三人の少女への愛情の印として、それぞれに千ポンドを残しました。