著者

中島 淑恵

出版者

富山大学附属図書館

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テーマ:溺死する女I.宍道湖の嫁ヶ島伝説「神々の首都」https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/8130Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan: First Series by Lafcadio HearnChapter Seven The Chief City of the Province of the GodsSec. 8The vapours have vanished, sharply revealing a beautiful little islet inthe lake, lying scarcely half a mile away--a low, narrow strip of landwith a Shinto shrine upon it, shadowed by giant pines; not pines likeours, but huge, gnarled, shaggy, tortuous shapes, vast-reaching likeancient oaks. Through a glass one can easily discern a torii, and beforeit two symbolic lions of stone (Kara-shishi), one with its head brokenoff, doubtless by its having been overturned and dashed about by heavywaves during some great storm. This islet is sacred to Benten, theGoddess of Eloquence and Beauty, wherefore it is called Benten-no-shima.But it is more commonly called Yomega-shima, or 'The Island of the YoungWife,' by reason of a legend. It is said that it arose in one night,noiselessly as a dream, bearing up from the depths of the lake thebody of a drowned woman who had been very lovely, very pious, and veryunhappy. The people, deeming this a sign from heaven, consecrated theislet to Benten, and thereon built a shrine unto her, planted treesabout it, set a torii before it, and made a rampart about it with greatcuriously-shaped stones; and there they buried the drowned woman.II.焼津にて「惚れたがために溺れ死ぬ女」羽島娘,ギリシア神話ヘーローとレアンドロスの物語https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/8128In Ghostly Japan by Lafcadio HearnAt YaidzuIIAs I touched the stones again, I was startled by seeing two whiteshadows before me; but a kindly voice, asking if the water wascold, set me at ease. It was the voice of my old landlord,Otokichi the fishseller, who had come to look for me, accompaniedby his wife."Only pleasantly cool," I made answer, as I threw on my robe togo home with them."Ah," said the wife, "it is not good to go out there on the nightof the Bon!""I did not go far," I replied;--"I only wanted to look at thelanterns.""Even a Kappa gets drowned sometimes,"(1) protested Otokichi."There was a man of this village who swam home a distance ofseven ri, in bad weather, after his boat had been broken. But hewas drowned afterwards."Seven ri means a trifle less than eighteen miles. I asked if anyof the young men now in the settlement could do as much."Probably some might," the old man replied. "There are manystrong swimmers. All swim here,--even the little children. Butwhen fisher-folk swim like that, it is only to save their lives.""Or to make love," the wife added,--"like the Hashima girl.""Who?" queried I."A fisherman's daughter," said Otokichi. "She had a lover inAjiro, several ri distant; and she used to swim to him at night,and swim back in the morning. He kept a light burning to guideher. But one dark night the light was neglected--or blown out;and she lost her way, and was drowned.... The story is famous inIdzu."--"So," I said to myself, "in the Far East, it is poor Hero thatdoes the swimming. And what, under such circumstances, would havebeen the Western estimate of Leander?"1 This is a common proverb:--Kappa mo obore-shini. The Kappa is awater-goblin, haunting rivers especially.III.『チータ』における水死体-なぜか女性の死体ばかり詳しく描写される1)I.の末尾,嵐のあとで,花嫁の水死体https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/717Chita: A Memory of Last Island by Lafcadio HearnThe Legend of L'Ile DerniereVII. There is money in notes and in coin--inpurses, in pocketbooks, and in pockets: plenty of it! There are silks,satins, laces, and fine linen to be stripped from the bodies of thedrowned,--and necklaces, bracelets, watches, finger-rings and finechains, brooches and trinkets ... "Chi bidizza!--Oh! chi beddamughieri! Eccu, la bidizza!" That ball-dress was made in Parisby--But you never heard of him, Sicilian Vicenzu ... "Che bellasposina!" Her betrothal ring will not come off, Giuseppe; but thedelicate bone snaps easily: your oyster-knife can sever the tendon ..."Guardate! chi bedda picciota!" Over her heart you will find it,Valentino--the locket held by that fine Swiss chain of wovenhair--"Caya manan!"And it is not your quadroon bondsmaid, sweet lady, who now disrobes youso roughly; those Malay hands are less deft than hers,--but sheslumbers very far away from you, and may not be aroused from her sleep."Na quita mo! dalaga!--na quita maganda!" ... Juan, the fastenings ofthose diamond ear-drops are much too complicated for your peon fingers:tear them out!--"Dispense, chulita!" ...... Suddenly a long, mighty silver trilling fills the ears of all:there is a wild hurrying and scurrying; swiftly, one after another, theoverburdened luggers spread wings and flutter away.Thrice the great cry rings rippling through the gray air, and over thegreen sea, and over the far-flooded shell-reefs, where the huge whiteflashes are,--sheet-lightning of breakers,--and over the weird wash ofcorpses coming in.It is the steam-call of the relief-boat, hastening to rescue theliving, to gather in the dead.The tremendous tragedy is over!2)黒人,混血娘の水死体Out of the Sea's StrengthIII. One was that of a negro, apparently well attired, andwearing a white apron;--the other seemed to be a young colored girl,clad in a blue dress; she was floating upon her face; they couldobserve that she had nearly straight hair, braided and tied with a redribbon. These were evidently house-servants,--slaves. But fromwhence? Nothing could be learned until the luggers should return; andnone of them was yet in sight. Still Feliu was not anxious as to thefate of his boats, manned by the best sailors of the coast. Rarely arethese Louisiana fishermen lost in sudden storms; even when to othereyes the appearances are most pacific and the skies most splendidlyblue, they divine some far-off danger, like the gulls; and like thegulls also, you see their light vessels fleeing landward. 3)チータ発見Out of the Sea's StrengthIII. Yes--but somethingtoo that lives and moves, like a quivering speck of gold; and Mateoalso perceives it, a gleam of bright hair,--and Miguel likewise, aftera moment's gazing. A living child;--a lifeless mother. Pobrecita! Noboat within reach, and only a mighty surf-wrestler could hope to swimthither and return!But already, without a word, brown Feliu has stripped for thestruggle;--another second, and he is shooting through the surf, headand hands tunnelling the foam hills.... One--two--three linespassed!--four!--that is where they first begin to crumble white fromthe summit,--five!--that he can ride fearlessly! ... Then swiftly,easily, he advances, with a long, powerful breast-stroke,--keeping hisbearded head well up to watch for drift,--seeming to slide with a swingfrom swell to swell,--ascending, sinking,--alternately presentingbreast or shoulder to the wave; always diminishing more and more to theeyes of Mateo and Miguel,--till he becomes a moving speck, occasionallyhard to follow through the confusion of heaping waters ... You are notafraid of the sharks, Feliu!--no: they are afraid of you; right andleft they slunk away from your coming that morning you swam for life inWest-Indian waters, with your knife in your teeth, while the balls ofthe Cuban coast-guard were purring all around you. That day theswarming sea was warm,--warm like soup--and clear, with an emeraldflash in every ripple,--not opaque and clamorous like the Gulf today... Miguel and his comrade are anxious. Ropes are unrolled andinter-knotted into a line. Miguel remains on the beach; but Mateo,bearing the end of the line, fights his way out,--swimming and wadingby turns, to the further sandbar, where the water is shallow enough tostand in,--if you know how to jump when the breaker comes.But Feliu, nearing the flooded shell-bank, watches the whiteflashings,--knows when the time comes to keep flat and take a long,long breath. One heavy volleying of foam,--darkness and hissing as ofa steam-burst; a vibrant lifting up; a rush into light,--and again thevolleying and the seething darkness. Once more,--and the fight is won!He feels the upcoming chill of deeper water,--sees before him the greenquaking of unbroken swells,--and far beyond him Mateo leaping on thebar,--and beside him, almost within arm's reach, a great billiard-tableswaying, and a dead woman clinging there, and ... the child.A moment more, and Feliu has lifted himself beside the waifs ... Howfast the dead woman clings, as if with the one power which is strong asdeath,--the desperate force of love! Not in vain; for the frailcreature bound to the mother's corpse with a silken scarf has still thestrength to cry out:--"Maman! maman!" But time is life now; and thetiny hands must be pulled away from the fair dead neck, and the scarftaken to bind the infant firmly to Feliu's broad shoulders,--quickly,roughly; for the ebb will not wait ...4)遺体発見Out of the Sea's StrengthVI. Some locks of bright hair stilladhering to the skull, a string of red beads, a white muslin dress, ahandkerchief broidered with the initials "A.L.B.,"--were secured asclews; and the little body was interred where it had been found.And, several days before, Captain Hotard, of the relief-boat EstelleBrousseaux, had found, drifting in the open Gulf (latitude 26 degrees43 minutes; longitude 88 degrees 17 minutes),--the corpse of afair-haired woman, clinging to a table. The body was disfigured beyondrecognition: even the slender bones of the hands had been stripped bythe nibs of the sea-birds-except one finger, the third of the left,which seemed to have been protected by a ring of gold, as by a charm.Graven within the plain yellow circlet was a date,--"JUILLET--1851";and the names,--"ADELE + JULIEN,"--separated by a cross. The Estellecarried coffins that day: most of them were already full; but therewas one for Adele.Who was she?--who was her Julien? ... When the Estelle and many othervessels had discharged their ghastly cargoes;--when the bereaved of theland had assembled as hastily as they might for the du y ofidentification;--when memories were strained almost to madness inresearch of names, dates, incidents--for the evocation of dead words,resurrection of vanished days, recollection of dear promises,--then, inthe confusion, it was believed and declared that the little corpsefound on the pelican island was the daughter of the wearer of thewedding ring: Adele La Brierre, nee Florane, wife of Dr. Julien LaBrierre, of New Orleans, who was numbered among the missing.And they brought dead Adele back,--up shadowy river windings, overlinked brightnesses of lake and lakelet, through many a greenglimmering bayou,--to the Creole city, and laid her to rest somewherein the old Saint-Louis Cemetery. And upon the tablet recording hername were also graven the words-- ..................... Aussi a la memoire de son mari; JULIEN RAYMOND LA BRIERRE, ne a la paroisse St. Landry, le 29 Mai; MDCCCXXVIII; et de leur fille, EULALIE, agee de 4 as et 5 mois,-- Qui tous perirent dans la grande tempete qui balaya L'Ile Derniere, le 10 Aout, MDCCCLVI ..... + ..... Priez pour eux!IV.「ギリシャ詞華集」ロードスのクセノクリトス(二九一,168ページ)水死した花嫁を父が嘆くギリシア詞華集(第2巻) (OPAC)http://opac.lib.u-toyama.ac.jp/opc/recordID/catalog.bib/BB19111267