【JP/EN】阿部一族 The Abe Clan（3/8）Japanese/English weekly Bilingual  Version by Nikhil/Tomoko (English Version below)初めに日本語版、スクロールダウンして英語版が続きます。Mataitokos' blog (Cousins' Blog) is published every Sunday. Cousins' Blog またいとこのブログ (日曜発信） 第 1 章 2020 疫病の年 11月の放談  Chapter 1: 2020 Year of  the Epidemy / November  Talk 

阿部一族 The Abe Clan   (3/8) 

 by 森鴎外 Ogai MORI(1862－1922)

 二キル・ライ/ ブヴィエ・友子による日英抄訳  English excerpted translation by Nikhil Ray/Tomoko 

 　 

2020.11.22 Tomoko 前書き：【文学と人生】

ポルトガル人のルシアが癌になった。まだ42歳の若さである。毎週土曜日に家事手伝いに来てくれていたのに、突然来られなくなった。縫い物や手芸が好きだというので、自宅に戻っては、着物をたくさん解いて貰った。家事専門でなく、縫い物もできれば彼女の生業にもなると思って、ミシンの使い方など、教えてあげようとしたが、フランス語がたどたどしいルシアとはなかなかコミュニケーションができない。それにとても頑固で、ちょっと込み入ったことは、絶対やってくれない。でも、夫も私も彼女が大好きで、ほんとにしっくりいっている。

普通に元気にしていた彼女が、ある日、「マダム、ここにしこりがあるの」と、私の手を引っ張って左肩と脇の間位のところを私に触らせた。大きなしこりが、触ってすぐ感じられた。腕を上げるのが辛いという。そして次の週の金曜日に、翌日は病気のため仕事を休む、と言いに来た。

それから三週間たっている。医者をたらいまわしにされた末、今、アヌシ―の病院で化学療法、放射線療法を受けているらしい。ご主人に聞いても、彼もフランス語が達者ではないので、一体、体のどこに問題があるのか、どんな治療を受けているのか、体調はよくなっているのかすらさっぱり話が通じない。

こういった外国人労働者と接していると、世の中は不公平にできているとつくづく思う。病室のルシアに電話して、ポルトガル語ができる病院職員が絶対いるはずだから呼んでもらいなさい、といっても、「マダム、誰もいません」というし、携帯に翻訳機が備わっているはずだから、といっても、「インターネットがない」、という。弱い立場の人たちは何でもすぐあきらめてしまうのだ。苦しいことがあっても、「C'est la vie!」仕方がないわ、と繰り返し、自分に言い聞かせている。

今フランスはロックダウン中で、Covid感染が広がるのをとても恐れており、ご主人ですら病院に立ち入れないそうである。私に何がしてあげられるのか。安い食べ物を食べ続けたので健康を害したのか、心配だ。服だって私のお古をとても喜んでもらっていく。ポルトガルにいる彼女の’両親に息子を預け教育してもらって、夫婦で朝晩一生懸命労働し、倹約して、一年に3回国にバカンスで帰るのを、無上の楽しみにしているルシアに、一抹の不安は残るが、早く良くなって欲しいと願う。

文学と人生は一体である。文学には、人に起こることがすべて出てくる。ある時代に、ある環境に、ある社会制度にたまたま生きたことにより、いろいろな不条理が生まれる。文学作品『阿部一族』の悲劇と、現世界の道理に合わない事態は重なっている。(Tomoko)

森鷗外 Ogai MORI

権兵衛、市太夫、五太夫いずれも島原の軍功で二百石の新知を貰っている。

権兵衛はただ一度、父に「お許しは出ませんでしたか」と問うたことがあった。父は「出ない」と言っただけである。親子は心の底まで知り抜いているので、何もいうには及ばなかったのである。

一座を見渡して、弥一右衛門が口を開いた。「夜分に皆よく来てくれた。おぬし達も噂を聞いたことだろう。この弥一右衛門の腹は瓢箪に油を塗って切るのだそうだ。それで、その通りに切ってみようと思う。皆で見届けてくれ」

市太夫が膝を進めて言った。「よく分かりました。私も、先代のご遺言で親子兄弟揃って勤めておられるのはめでたいことだ、と朋輩に言われ、悔しい思いをしました」

父は笑った。「そうであろう。目先ばかり見る者達など相手にするな。己が死んだら死んだで、お許しのなかった己の子と言って、おぬし達を侮る者もあるだろう。己の子に生まれたのは運だ。どうしようもない。恥を受ける時は、皆で一緒に受けよ。兄弟喧嘩をするなよ。さあ、瓢箪で腹を切るのをよく見て置け」

こう言って、弥一右衛門は子供たちの面前で切腹し、自分で首筋を左から右へ刺し貫いて死んだ。

父の心を計りかねていた五人の子供たちは、この時悲しくはあったが、それと同時に、これまでの不安な境地から一歩離れて、重荷を下ろしたような気持ちになった。

これから、どうなることかはわからない。追い腹はお許しの出た殉死とは違う、という奴もあろう。しかし、どういう目に会っても、兄弟離れ離れに、固まって行こうぞ、言い合った。

嫡子の権兵衛は打ち解けた様子ではない。権兵衛は弟達を思いやってはいたが、それを表に出さない。何事も一人で考えて、一人でしたがる。相談というものをめったにしない。

前髪の七之丞が、「お兄様方が揃っておいでだから、父上の悪口がうかうか言われるようなことはないでしょう」と女のような声で言ったのが、強い信念が籠もっていて、一座の者の胸を、暗黒な前途を照らす光明のように照らした。

***

肥後の新領主、光尚の家督相続が終わった。殉死した十八人の家臣の嫡子は、そのまま父の跡を継ぎ、残された家族は手厚い待遇を受けた。

ところが、阿部弥一右衛門の遺族が受けた跡継ぎの処分は違った。嫡子権兵衛は父の跡を継ぐことが許されず、千五百石の恩給は分割されて弟たちにも与えられたから、阿部一門は皆どんぐりの背比べになってしまった。

これは、厳しい取り締まりに傾きがちな大目付の林外記の考えた策である。

殉死せずに奉公し続けていた弥一右衛門がいったん受けた侮辱は、その後弥一右衛門が立派に切腹した後も容易に消えなかった。一段低い跡継ぎの扱いにより、家中の者が阿部家侮蔑の念を公に認める形になった。権兵衛兄弟は次第に朋輩から疎まれ、不快な日々を送った。(続く）

…………………………………………………...

The Abe Clan (阿部一族）

by Ogai MORI

 English excerpted translation by Nikhil Ray and Tomoko  

(3/8)

22.11.2020 Tomoko's Preface :【Literature and Life】

 Lucia, my dear Portuguese friend, is diagnosed with cancer. She is only 42 years old. She comes home normally every Saturday to help me with the housework, but suddenly she doesn't come any more. 

As she says she loves  sewing and crafts making,  I  asked her to undo many kimonos so that I could reform them. I tried to teach her how to use the sewing machine, thinking it would be a good thing for her to do other things than doing only housework, but it was difficult to communicate with Lucia whose French is faltering. She is very stubborn and wouldn't do anything complicated. However, my husband and I love her and we really get on.

She had been doing well but one day, she said, "Madam, I have a lump here," and took my hand and let me touch it. Between her left shoulder and her arm, a large lump could be felt immediately. She said it was hard to lift her arm. The following Friday she came over to tell us that  she wanted to take the next day off work because she was sick.

Three weeks have passed since then. Lucia is now undergoing chemotherapy and radiotherapy at a hospital in Annecy, after being treated by several doctors. When I asked her husband about her state, he could not tell me what was wrong with her body, what kind of treatment she was getting or even if she was feeling better, as  he can't speak French well, neither.

When I come in contact with these foreign workers, it reminds me of the unfairness of the world.  I call Lucia in the hospital room and tell her that there would definitely be someone from the hospital who could speak Portuguese.  She says, "Madam, there is no one who can speak Portuguese", and when I tell her that there should be a translating fonction in her mobile phone, she says, "There is no internet". Vulnerable people are quick to give up on everything. She  keeps saying to herself, "C'est la vie!''

In France, the  lockdown is going on now and people are so afraid of the spread of Covid that not even her husband can enter the hospital.  What can I do to help Lucia? I'm worried that she's been eating only cheap food, which is ruining her health. She is very happy with my second-hand clothes. Lucia, who leaves her son with her parents  in Portugal to educate him, who works hard from morning to night, who's greatest joy is to return to her own country for holiday three times a year, please get better as soon as possible, though I feel a touch of uneasiness about what I say.

Literature and life are very strongly related. Literature is all about what happens to people. All sorts of absurdities come out of living in a certain time, in a certain environment and in a certain social system in which one is accidentally living. The tragedy of the literary work, ''The Abe Clan'', and the unreasonable circumstances of this world are overlapping.（Tomoko）

Gonbei, Ichidaifu and Godaifu had each received a two hundred koku¹ new territory in recognition of their military exploits during the Shimabara Rebellion.

Gonbei had asked his father just once, “You did not receive permission?” His father had merely replied, “I did not”. Since father and son knew  each other to the bottom of the soul, there was nothing more to say.

After surveying those present, Yaichemon started to talk. “I am glad you all came over though it's night. You must have also heard the rumours. I hear that this Yaichiemon will disembowel with a gourd covered in oil.  As they say,  I think I will cut my belly.  Everyone here, witness it!”

Ichidaifu moved forward on his knees and said, “I fully understand what you say. I was also told by a comrade that it is well done that, thanks to the testament of  the  Predecessor, your father and his sons can all continue to serve. It was so frustrating to hear this.”

Their father laughed. “So it is! Do not involve yourselves with those who focus on the immediate futur! When I am dead, there will be those who despise you as the sons of one who died without permission! It is your fate to be born as my sons! You can't change your destiny! When it is time to suffer the humiliation, you must all endure it together! Do not quarrel amongst yourselves! Now look well as I slit my belly with the gourd!”

With these words, Yaichiemon committed seppuku in the presence of his children and died by stabbing through his own neck from left to right.

The five children, who had not known their father’s intent, were saddened. At the same time, they felt they could move a little away from the insecure state that had afflicted them until then, as though a great burden had been lifted.

After this, they knew not what to do. There would be people who say that a belated suicide is different from an authorized junshi. They said each other that, whatever may come, they would stay together as brothers and never separate.

Gonbei, the heir, did not take a frank tone. Though he was very thoughtful towards his younger brothers, he would never show it. He tended to think and act alone. He rarely asked for others’ advice.

Shichinojō with the fringe said, “As you, my brothers, are strong by staying together, no one will dare to say bad things carelessly about our father”. Though he said this in a woman-like voice, there was such strong conviction in his words that all those present were cheered up as if a ray of light lluminated their dark foreseeable future.

***

The new lord of Higo, Mitsuhisa succeeded to the household headship. The heirs of the eighteen vassals who had committed junshi inherited the positions of their fathers without any change, while the rest of their families were treated generously.

In contrast, the treatment of the successor of Abe Yaichiemon’s surviving family was different. The heir Gonbei was not allowed to succeed to his father’s position, the one thousand five hundred koku was divided into five equal parts so that no one excelled among the brothers.

This was a scheme conjured by Hayashi Geki, a government Inspector-General who tends to lean towards a strict control.

Once Yaichiemon had been denigrated for continuing to serve without committing junshi, this humiliation would not easily disappear even after he committed seppuku honourably. 

A step lower treatment of the successor led to the entire household publicly admitting the contempt for the Abe family. The Abe brothers were gradually shunned by their comrades and spent the unpleasant days. (to be continued)

Notes：1 )Bail of rice: a unit of income in the Edo Era