Young Goodman Brown came forth at sunset into the street at Salem village; but put his head back, after crossing the threshold, to exchange a parting kiss with his young wife. And Faith, as the wife was aptly named, thrust her own pretty head into the street, letting the wind play with the pink ribbons of her cap while she called to Goodman Brown.
Goodman Brown:グッドマン・ブラウン(人名)。forth:前へ。Salem:セイラム(アメリカのマサチューセッツ州の村名/現在はダンバース町)。threshold:戸口。Faith:フェイス(人名/名前)。aptly:相応しく。thrust:突き出す。
"Dearest heart," whispered she, softly and rather sadly, when her lips were close to his ear, "prithee put off your journey until sunrise and sleep in your own bed to-night. A lone woman is troubled with such dreams and such thoughts that she's afeard of herself sometimes. Pray tarry with me this night, dear husband, of all nights in the year."
prithee:願わくは(古い表現/I pray theeの短縮形)。put off:延期する。afeard:恐れる(afraidの変形)。pray:どうか(pleaseの古い表現)。tarry:一時的に滞在する。
"My love and my Faith," replied young Goodman Brown, "of all nights in the year, this one night must I tarry away from thee. My journey, as thou callest it, forth and back again, must needs be done 'twixt now and sunrise. What, my sweet, pretty wife, dost thou doubt me already, and we but three months married?"
tarry away:離れ去る。thee:汝を(人称代名詞の古い表現、二人称単数の目的格)。thou:汝は(人称代名詞の古い表現、二人称単数の主格)。callest:呼ぶ(callの古い表現、二人称単数現在形)。must needs:どうしても~しなければならない(古い表現)。'twixt:~の間に(betweenの古い表現のbetwixtの短縮形)。my sweet:私の恋人。dost:する(doの古い表現、二人称単数現在形)。
"Then God bless you!" said Faith, with the pink ribbons; "and may you find all well when you come back."
"Amen!" cried Goodman Brown. "Say thy prayers, dear Faith, and go to bed at dusk, and no harm will come to thee."
amen:アーメン(キリスト教で「そうでありますように」と祈りの最後に添える言葉)。thy:汝の(人称代名詞の古い表現、二人称単数の所有格)。dusk:夕暮れ。
So they parted; and the young man pursued his way until, being about to turn the corner by the meeting-house, he looked back and saw the head of Faith still peeping after him with a melancholy air, in spite of her pink ribbons.
being about to:今にも~するところで。meeting-house:礼拝堂(アメリカのクエーカー教徒などやイギリスの非国教徒のプロテスタント派)。peeping:覗き見する。
"Poor little Faith!" thought he, for his heart smote him. "What a wretch am I to leave her on such an errand! She talks of dreams, too. Methought as she spoke there was trouble in her face, as if a dream had warned her what work is to be done tonight. But no, no; 't would kill her to think it. Well, she's a blessed angel on earth; and after this one night I'll cling to her skirts and follow her to heaven."
smote:打ち負かした。wretch:惨めな人。errand:用事。methought:思われて(古い表現)。't:それ(itの短縮形)。kill her to:(彼女が)~するのが凄く悲しくなる。cling:しがみ付く。
With this excellent resolve for the future, Goodman Brown felt himself justified in making more haste on his present evil purpose. He had taken a dreary road, darkened by all the gloomiest trees of the forest, which barely stood aside to let the narrow path creep through, and closed immediately behind. It was all as lonely as could be; and there is this peculiarity in such a solitude, that the traveller knows not who may be concealed by the innumerable trunks and the thick boughs overhead; so that with lonely footsteps he may yet be passing through an unseen multitude.
resolve:決意。justified:尤もなことだと。evil:邪悪な。dreary road:寂れた道。gloomiest:最も暗い。barely:辛うじて~。creep through:絡まり通る。peculiarity:特性。solitude:孤独。innumerable:数え切れない。trunks:幹。boughs:大枝。multitude:群集。
"There may be a devilish Indian behind every tree," said Goodman Brown to himself; and he glanced fearfully behind him as he added, "What if the devil himself should be at my very elbow!"
devilish:極悪な 。Indian:インディアン(アメリカ先住民)。what if:~ならばどうだろう。at my very elbow:私の間近に(肘先に)。
His head being turned back, he passed a crook of the road, and, looking forward again, beheld the figure of a man, in grave and decent attire, seated at the foot of an old tree. He arose at Goodman Brown's approach and walked onward side by side with him.
crook:湾曲。beheld:注視した。figure:人影。grave:威厳のある。decent:きちんとした。attire:身形。onward:先へ。
"You are late, Goodman Brown," said he. "The clock of the Old South was striking as I came through Boston, and that is full fifteen minutes agone."
Old South:オールドサウス(南北戦争以前のアメリカ南部)。Boston:ボストン(アメリカのマサチューセッツ州の市名)。agone:過ぎた(agoの古い表現)。
"Faith kept me back a while," replied the young man, with a tremor in his voice, caused by the sudden appearance of his companion, though not wholly unexpected.
tremor:震え。wholly:すっかり。
It was now deep dusk in the forest, and deepest in that part of it where these two were journeying. As nearly as could be discerned, the second traveller was about fifty years old, apparently in the same rank of life as Goodman Brown, and bearing a considerable resemblance to him, though perhaps more in expression than features. Still they might have been taken for father and son. And yet, though the elder person was as simply clad as the younger, and as simple in manner too, he had an indescribable air of one who knew the world, and who would not have felt abashed at the governor's dinner table or in King William's court, were it possible that his affairs should call him thither. But the only thing about him that could be fixed upon as remarkable was his staff, which bore the likeness of a great black snake, so curiously wrought that it might almost be seen to twist and wriggle itself like a living serpent. This, of course, must have been an ocular deception, assisted by the uncertain light.
journeying:旅する。as nearly as could be discerned:できるだけはっきり認められるかぎり。apparently:一見して。bearing a considerable resemblance to him:彼ととても良く似ていて。expression than features:顔立ちよりも表情。taken for:~と受け取られた。clad:着た。indescribable:いい表せない。abashed:恥じ入った。governor's:知事の。King William's court:ウィリアム王の宮廷。were it possible that his affairs should call him:(彼に)事情があってそちらへ(thitherは古い表現)(彼が)呼ばれるとしたら。fixed upon:見込まれた。staff:杖。bore the likeness of:~と似ていた。wrought:作られた(workedの古い表現)。twist and wriggle:捻れて捩れる。serpent:大蛇。ocular deception:目の錯覚。
"Come, Goodman Brown," cried his fellow-traveller, "this is a dull pace for the beginning of a journey. Take my staff, if you are so soon weary."
fellow-traveller:仲間の旅人。dull:鈍い:weary:疲れた。
"Friend," said the other, exchanging his slow pace for a full stop, "having kept covenant by meeting thee here, it is my purpose now to return whence I came. I have scruples touching the matter thou wot'st of."
kept covenant:盟約を遂げた。whence:~のところに。scruples:遠慮。wot'st:知る(witの古い表現、二人称単数現在形のwotestの短縮形)。
"Sayest thou so?" replied he of the serpent, smiling apart. "Let us walk on, nevertheless, reasoning as we go; and if I convince thee not thou shalt turn back. We are but a little way in the forest yet."
sayest:いう(sayの古い表現、二人称単数現在形)。reasoning:説き付けて。convince:納得させる。shalt:~して良い(shallの古い表現、二人称単数現在形)。
"Too far! too far!" exclaimed the goodman, unconsciously resuming his walk. "My father never went into the woods on such an errand, nor his father before him. We have been a race of honest men and good Christians since the days of the martyrs; and shall I be the first of the name of Brown that ever took this path and kept"
exclaimed:声を上げた。goodman:善人。unconsciously:無意識に。resuming:再開して。a race of honest men:誠実な人の子孫。Christians:キリスト教徒。the days of the martyrs:殉教者の日々。
"Such company, thou wouldst say," observed the elder person, interpreting his pause. "Well said, Goodman Brown! I have been as well acquainted with your family as with ever a one among the Puritans; and that's no trifle to say. I helped your grandfather, the constable, when he lashed the Quaker woman so smartly through the streets of Salem; and it was I that brought your father a pitch-pine knot, kindled at my own hearth, to set fire to an Indian village, in King Philip's war. They were my good friends, both; and many a pleasant walk have we had along this path, and returned merrily after midnight. I would fain be friends with you for their sake."
company:仲間。wouldst:~だろう(wouldの古い表現)。observed:述べた。interpreting:理解して。well said:良くいった。acquainted with:~と知り合った。Puritans:清教徒。trifle:取るに足らない。constable:巡査。lashed:鞭打った。Quaker:クエーカー(キリスト教のプロテスタント派の一つ)。smartly:猛烈に。pitch-pine knot:リギダマツの節。kindled:燃え立った。hearth:炉床。King Philip's war:フィリップ王の戦争。merrily:陽気に。would fain:喜んで~したい(古い表現)。for their sake:彼らのお陰で。
"If it be as thou sayest," replied Goodman Brown, "I marvel they never spoke of these matters; or, verily, I marvel not, seeing that the least rumor of the sort would have driven them from New England. We are a people of prayer, and good works to boot, and abide no such wickedness."
marvel:驚く。verily:確かに(古い表現)。have driven them from:彼らを~から追い出した。New England:ニューイングランド(アメリカ北東部の地域)。good works:良い務め。to boot:おまけに。abide:我慢する。wickedness:悪事。
"Wickedness or not," said the traveller with the twisted staff, "I have a very general acquaintance here in New England. The deacons of many a church have drunk the communion wine with me; the selectmen of divers towns make me their chairman; and a majority of the Great and General Court are firm supporters of my interest. The governor and I, too—But these are state secrets."
twisted:捻れた。acquaintance:知り合い。deacons:執事(キリスト教のプロテスタント派の役職)。communion:聖餐式(キリスト教のプロテスタント派)。selectmen:議員(ニューイングランドの町を仕切る委員会の選出された一員)。divers:多様な(diverseの古い表現)。the Great and General Court:マサチューセッツ州立法府(正式名称:The Great and General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts)。state secrets:州の秘密。
"Can this be so?" cried Goodman Brown, with a stare of amazement at his undisturbed companion. "Howbeit, I have nothing to do with the governor and council; they have their own ways, and are no rule for a simple husbandman like me. But, were I to go on with thee, how should I meet the eye of that good old man, our minister, at Salem village? Oh, his voice would make me tremble both Sabbath day and lecture day."
undisturbed:平静な。howbeit:にも拘わらず(古い表現)。have nothing to do with:~と何の関係もない。council:評議会。have their own ways:彼らの我を通す。rule for:~に有利になる。meet the eye of:~と見(まみ)える。minister:牧師(アメリカでは主に新教/プロテスタントの聖職者の意味でいわれる)。tremble:震える。Sabbath day and lecture day:安息日と説教日。
Thus far the elder traveller had listened with due gravity; but now burst into a fit of irrepressible mirth, shaking himself so violently that his snake-like staff actually seemed to wriggle in sympathy.
thus far:今までのところ。with due gravity:然るべく真面目に。burst into:急に~し出す。a fit of:発作的な。irrepressible:堪え切れない。mirth:陽気さ。shaking himself:(彼が)身を揺する。wriggle:捩れる。in sympathy:共振して。
"Ha! ha! ha!" shouted he again and again; then composing himself, "Well, go on, Goodman Brown, go on; but, prithee, don't kill me with laughing."
ha:は。composing himself:(彼が)落ち着いて。
"Well, then, to end the matter at once," said Goodman Brown, considerably nettled, "there is my wife, Faith. It would break her dear little heart; and I'd rather break my own."
considerably:可成。nettled:苛付いて。break her dear little heart:彼女の誠に可愛い心を打ち砕く。I'd rather:私がむしろ~したい。
"Nay, if that be the case," answered the other, "e'en go thy ways, Goodman Brown. I would not for twenty old women like the one hobbling before us that Faith should come to any harm."
nay:否(古い表現)。e'en:正に(evenの短縮形)。hobbling:よろよろ歩く。
As he spoke he pointed his staff at a female figure on the path, in whom Goodman Brown recognized a very pious and exemplary dame, who had taught him his catechism in youth, and was still his moral and spiritual adviser, jointly with the minister and Deacon Gookin.
pious:敬虔な。exemplary:模範的な。dame:女性(アメリカ英語)。catechism:教理問答。Deacon Gookin:グーキン(人名/名字)執事。
"A marvel, truly, that Goody Cloyse should be so far in the wilderness at nightfall," said he. "But with your leave, friend, I shall take a cut through the woods until we have left this Christian woman behind. Being a stranger to you, she might ask whom I was consorting with and whither I was going."
marvel:驚き。Goody Cloyse:グッディ・クロイス(人名)。wilderness:原野。nightfall:夕暮れ時。with your leave:お許可を得られれば(古い表現)。take a cut through the woods:外れて森を抜ける。consorting with:~と付き合う。whither:どこへ(古い表現)。
"Be it so," said his fellow-traveller. "Betake you to the woods, and let me keep the path."
betake you to:貴方が~へ行け。
Accordingly the young man turned aside, but took care to watch his companion, who advanced softly along the road until he had come within a staff's length of the old dame. She, meanwhile, was making the best of her way, with singular speed for so aged a woman, and mumbling some indistinct words—a prayer, doubtless—as she went. The traveller put forth his staff and touched her withered neck with what seemed the serpent's tail.
accordingly:従って。took care to:入念に~する。meanwhile:その間。making the best of her way:彼女の最短距離を取る。singular:特有の。mumbling:もごもごいう。indistinct:不明瞭な。withered:萎びた。
"The devil!" screamed the pious old lady.
"Then Goody Cloyse knows her old friend?" observed the traveller, confronting her and leaning on his writhing stick.
confronting:対面して。writhing:捩れる。
"Ah, forsooth, and is it your worship indeed?" cried the good dame. "Yea, truly is it, and in the very image of my old gossip, Goodman Brown, the grandfather of the silly fellow that now is. But—would your worship believe it?—my broomstick hath strangely disappeared, stolen, as I suspect, by that unhanged witch, Goody Cory, and that, too, when I was all anointed with the juice of smallage, and cinquefoil, and wolf's bane"
forsooth:如何にも(古い表現)。your worship:閣下。yea:はい(古い表現)。gossip:世間話。broomstick:箒。hath:~した(haveの古い表現、三人称単数現在形)。unhanged:吊るされない。witch:魔女。Goody Cory:グッディ・コーリー(人名)。anointed:油を塗る。smallage:野生セロリ。cinquefoil:キジムシロ。wolf's bane:トリカブト。
"Mingled with fine wheat and the fat of a new-born babe," said the shape of old Goodman Brown.
mingled with:~と混ぜて。fine wheat:細粒の小麦。new-born babe:新生児。shape:姿。
"Ah, your worship knows the recipe," cried the old lady, cackling aloud. "So, as I was saying, being all ready for the meeting, and no horse to ride on, I made up my mind to foot it; for they tell me there is a nice young man to be taken into communion to-night. But now your good worship will lend me your arm, and we shall be there in a twinkling."
cackling:(早口で)喋り立てて。made up my mind to:(私が)~すると決心した。taken into:入る。in a twinkling:瞬く間に。
"That can hardly be," answered her friend. "I may not spare you my arm, Goody Cloyse; but here is my staff, if you will."
So saying, he threw it down at her feet, where, perhaps, it assumed life, being one of the rods which its owner had formerly lent to the Egyptian magi. Of this fact, however, Goodman Brown could not take cognizance. He had cast up his eyes in astonishment, and, looking down again, beheld neither Goody Cloyse nor the serpentine staff, but his fellow-traveller alone, who waited for him as calmly as if nothing had happened.
assumed life:生命を帯びた。rods:(細長い)棒。formerly:以前。Egyptian:エジプトの。magi:魔術師たち。take cognizance:認識する。serpentine:蛇状の。
"That old woman taught me my catechism," said the young man; and there was a world of meaning in this simple comment.
a world of meaning:無限の意味。
They continued to walk onward, while the elder traveller exhorted his companion to make good speed and persevere in the path, discoursing so aptly that his arguments seemed rather to spring up in the bosom of his auditor than to be suggested by himself. As they went, he plucked a branch of maple to serve for a walking stick, and began to strip it of the twigs and little boughs, which were wet with evening dew. The moment his fingers touched them they became strangely withered and dried up as with a week's sunshine. Thus the pair proceeded, at a good free pace, until suddenly, in a gloomy hollow of the road, Goodman Brown sat himself down on the stump of a tree and refused to go any farther.
exhorted:発破をかけた。persevere:忍耐。discoursing:演説して。bosom:胸。auditor:聞き手。pluck:引き抜く。maple:楓。strip it of:それの~を剥ぐ。twigs:小枝。proceeded:進んだ。gloomy:暗い。hollow:窪地。stump:切り株。
"Friend," said he, stubbornly, "my mind is made up. Not another step will I budge on this errand. What if a wretched old woman do choose to go to the devil when I thought she was going to heaven: is that any reason why I should quit my dear Faith and go after her?"
stubbornly:頑固に。my mind is made up:私の心は決まった。budge:(ちょっとでも)動く。wretched:惨めな。
"You will think better of this by and by," said his acquaintance, composedly. "Sit here and rest yourself a while; and when you feel like moving again, there is my staff to help you along."
think better of:~を考え直す。by and by:そのうち。composedly:落ち着いて。feel like moving:動きたくなる。
Without more words, he threw his companion the maple stick, and was as speedily out of sight as if he had vanished into the deepening gloom. The young man sat a few moments by the roadside, applauding himself greatly, and thinking with how clear a conscience he should meet the minister in his morning walk, nor shrink from the eye of good old Deacon Gookin. And what calm sleep would be his that very night, which was to have been spent so wickedly, but so purely and sweetly now, in the arms of Faith! Amidst these pleasant and praiseworthy meditations, Goodman Brown heard the tramp of horses along the road, and deemed it advisable to conceal himself within the verge of the forest, conscious of the guilty purpose that had brought him thither, though now so happily turned from it.
deepening:深まった。gloom:暗がり。roadside:道端。applauding:称賛して。conscience:良心。shrink:縮こまる。from the eye of:~を目にしてから。wickedly:悪どく。amidst:内。praiseworthy:称賛に値する。meditations:瞑想。tramp:踏み付ける足音。deemed:思った。advisable:賢明な。verge:端。conscious of:~に気付いた。turned from it:それから移った。
On came the hoof tramps and the voices of the riders, two grave old voices, conversing soberly as they drew near. These mingled sounds appeared to pass along the road, within a few yards of the young man's hiding-place; but, owing doubtless to the depth of the gloom at that particular spot, neither the travellers nor their steeds were visible. Though their figures brushed the small boughs by the wayside, it could not be seen that they intercepted, even for a moment, the faint gleam from the strip of bright sky athwart which they must have passed. Goodman Brown alternately crouched and stood on tiptoe, pulling aside the branches and thrusting forth his head as far as he durst without discerning so much as a shadow. It vexed him the more, because he could have sworn, were such a thing possible, that he recognized the voices of the minister and Deacon Gookin, jogging along quietly, as they were wont to do, when bound to some ordination or ecclesiastical council. While yet within hearing, one of the riders stopped to pluck a switch.
hoof:蹄。conversing:会話して。soberly:真面目に。mingled:混ざった。owing doubtless to:疑いなく~に起因して。particular spot:特定の場所。steeds:(乗用の)馬(古い表現)。brushed:払った。wayside:路傍。intercepted:遮った。even for a moment:片時も。faint gleam:微かな煌めき。the strip of:一片の~。athwart:斜めに。alternately:代わる代わる。crouched:蹲んだ。durst:敢えて~した。discerning:見分け。vexed:苛立たせた。sworn:断言した。were wont to:~することが常だった。bound to:~に決まっている(必ず)。ordination:按手式(キリスト教のプロテスタント派)。ecclesiastical council:教会評議会。switch:撓やかな枝。
"Of the two, reverend sir," said the voice like the deacon's, "I had rather miss an ordination dinner than to-night's meeting. They tell me that some of our community are to be here from Falmouth and beyond, and others from Connecticut and Rhode Island, besides several of the Indian powwows, who, after their fashion, know almost as much deviltry as the best of us. Moreover, there is a goodly young woman to be taken into communion."
reverend:牧師。miss:欠席する。community:共同体。Falmouth:ファルマス(アメリカのマサチューセッツ州の町名)。Connecticut:コネチカット(アメリカの州名)。Rhode Island:ロードアイランド(アメリカの州名)。powwows:パウワウ(アメリカ先住民族の宗教的な指導者)。after their fashion:彼らの流儀で。deviltry:悪辣な。goodly young woman:美しい(古い表現)若い女性。
"Mighty well, Deacon Gookin!" replied the solemn old tones of the minister. "Spur up, or we shall be late. Nothing can be done, you know, until I get on the ground."
mighty well:大変結構。solemn:厳粛な。spur up:拍車をかける。
The hoofs clattered again; and the voices, talking so strangely in the empty air, passed on through the forest, where no church had ever been gathered or solitary Christian prayed. Whither, then, could these holy men be journeying so deep into the heathen wilderness? Young Goodman Brown caught hold of a tree for support, being ready to sink down on the ground, faint and overburdened with the heavy sickness of his heart. He looked up to the sky, doubting whether there really was a heaven above him. Yet there was the blue arch, and the stars brightening in it.
clattered:ガチャガチャ鳴った。empty air:虚空。solitary:人里離れた。heathen:異教徒の。faint:気が遠くなった。overburdened:大いに悩まされた。blue arch:蒼穹。
"With heaven above and Faith below, I will yet stand firm against the devil!" cried Goodman Brown.
While he still gazed upward into the deep arch of the firmament and had lifted his hands to pray, a cloud, though no wind was stirring, hurried across the zenith and hid the brightening stars. The blue sky was still visible, except directly overhead, where this black mass of cloud was sweeping swiftly northward. Aloft in the air, as if from the depths of the cloud, came a confused and doubtful sound of voices. Once the listener fancied that he could distinguish the accents of towns-people of his own, men and women, both pious and ungodly, many of whom he had met at the communion table, and had seen others rioting at the tavern. The next moment, so indistinct were the sounds, he doubted whether he had heard aught but the murmur of the old forest, whispering without a wind. Then came a stronger swell of those familiar tones, heard daily in the sunshine at Salem village, but never until now from a cloud of night. There was one voice of a young woman, uttering lamentations, yet with an uncertain sorrow, and entreating for some favor, which, perhaps, it would grieve her to obtain; and all the unseen multitude, both saints and sinners, seemed to encourage her onward.
firmament:天空。stirring:掻き立てる。zenith:天頂。mass:塊。sweeping:さっと通る。swiftly:迅速に。aloft:高く。fancied:思い描いた。ungodly:不信心な。rioting:大騒ぎする。tavern:酒場。indistinct:不明瞭な。aught:何か(古い表現)。murmur:ざわめき。swell:膨張。uttering lamentations:悲嘆に暮れて。entreating for some favor:何かを懇願して。saints and sinners:聖者と罪人。encourage:励ます。
"Faith!" shouted Goodman Brown, in a voice of agony and desperation; and the echoes of the forest mocked him, crying, "Faith! Faith!" as if bewildered wretches were seeking her all through the wilderness.
agony:苦悶。desperation:絶望。mocked:嘲った。bewildered:狼狽えた。wretches:惨めな人たち。
The cry of grief, rage, and terror was yet piercing the night, when the unhappy husband held his breath for a response. There was a scream, drowned immediately in a louder murmur of voices, fading into far-off laughter, as the dark cloud swept away, leaving the clear and silent sky above Goodman Brown. But something fluttered lightly down through the air and caught on the branch of a tree. The young man seized it, and beheld a pink ribbon.
piercing:突き通す。held his breath:(彼が)息を潜めた。for a response:反応して。drowned:掻き消されて。far-off:彼方へ。swept away:通り去った。fluttered:はためく。lightly:軽く。
"My Faith is gone!" cried he, after one stupefied moment. "There is no good on earth; and sin is but a name. Come, devil; for to thee is this world given."
gone:逝った。stupefied:ぼうっとした。sin:罪。but a name:名ばかり。
And, maddened with despair, so that he laughed loud and long, did Goodman Brown grasp his staff and set forth again, at such a rate that he seemed to fly along the forest path rather than to walk or run. The road grew wilder and drearier and more faintly traced, and vanished at length, leaving him in the heart of the dark wilderness, still rushing onward with the instinct that guides mortal man to evil. The whole forest was peopled with frightful sounds—the creaking of the trees, the howling of wild beasts, and the yell of Indians; while sometimes the wind tolled like a distant church bell, and sometimes gave a broad roar around the traveller, as if all Nature were laughing him to scorn. But he was himself the chief horror of the scene, and shrank not from its other horrors.
maddened:発狂して。despair:絶望。set forth:出発した。at such a rate that:~くらいの速度で。wilder and drearier:より荒れて寂れた。faintly:微かに。traced:辿られた。at length:到頭。in the heart of:~の中心に。instinct:本能。mortal man:死すべき人。peopled with:~で満たされた。creaking:軋む音。howling:吠え声。tolled:鳴った。broad roar:広い唸り声。scorn:蔑む。shrank:縮こまった。
"Ha! ha! ha!" roared Goodman Brown when the wind laughed at him.
roared:大笑いした。
"Let us hear which will laugh loudest. Think not to frighten me with your deviltry. Come witch, come wizard, come Indian powwow, come devil himself, and here comes Goodman Brown. You may as well fear him as he fear you."
wizard:魔法使い。may as well:~するが良い。
In truth, all through the haunted forest there could be nothing more frightful than the figure of Goodman Brown. On he flew among the black pines, brandishing his staff with frenzied gestures, now giving vent to an inspiration of horrid blasphemy, and now shouting forth such laughter as set all the echoes of the forest laughing like demons around him. The fiend in his own shape is less hideous than when he rages in the breast of man. Thus sped the demoniac on his course, until, quivering among the trees, he saw a red light before him, as when the felled trunks and branches of a clearing have been set on fire, and throw up their lurid blaze against the sky, at the hour of midnight. He paused, in a lull of the tempest that had driven him onward, and heard the swell of what seemed a hymn, rolling solemnly from a distance with the weight of many voices. He knew the tune; it was a familiar one in the choir of the village meeting-house. The verse died heavily away, and was lengthened by a chorus, not of human voices, but of all the sounds of the benighted wilderness pealing in awful harmony together. Goodman Brown cried out, and his cry was lost to his own ear by its unison with the cry of the desert.
haunted:取り憑かれた。flew:飛ぶように行く。black pines:黒松。brandishing:振り回して。frenzied:狂乱した。giving vent to:~を発散して。inspiration:霊感。horrid:恐ろしい。blasphemy:冒涜。fiend:悪鬼。hideous:悍ましい。rages:激怒する。in the breast :胸中。sped:速度を上げて。demoniac:悪魔のような。quivering:震えて。felled:切り倒された。clearing:開拓地。lurid:赤く輝く。lull:小止み。tempest:暴風雨。driven him onward:彼を追い込んだ。hymn:讃美歌。solemnly:厳粛に。tune:曲目。choir:合唱団。verse:詩句。died heavily away:次第に重たく消えた。lengthened:延ばされた。chorus:合唱。benighted:未開の。pealing:鳴り響く。awful:物凄い。unison:斉唱。desert:荒野。
In the interval of silence he stole forward until the light glared full upon his eyes. At one extremity of an open space, hemmed in by the dark wall of the forest, arose a rock, bearing some rude, natural resemblance either to an alter or a pulpit, and surrounded by four blazing pines, their tops aflame, their stems untouched, like candles at an evening meeting. The mass of foliage that had overgrown the summit of the rock was all on fire, blazing high into the night and fitfully illuminating the whole field. Each pendent twig and leafy festoon was in a blaze. As the red light arose and fell, a numerous congregation alternately shone forth, then disappeared in shadow, and again grew, as it were, out of the darkness, peopling the heart of the solitary woods at once.
stole:そっと行った。glared:目映く光った。extremity:端。hemmed in:囲まれた。bearing some rude, natural resemblance:何やら未加工で自然に似ていて。alter:祭壇(altarの綴り違い)。pulpit:説教台。pines:松。aflame:燃えて。stems:幹。foliage:群葉。overgrown:一面に繁った。fitfully:途切れがちに。illuminating:照らして。pendent twig:垂れ下がる小枝。leafy festoon:葉の多い花綱。numerous:数多の。congregation:会衆。peopling:満たして。
"A grave and dark-clad company," quoth Goodman Brown.
dark-clad:暗い服の。quoth:いった(古い表現)。
In truth they were such. Among them, quivering to and fro between gloom and splendor, appeared faces that would be seen next day at the council board of the province, and others which, Sabbath after Sabbath, looked devoutly heavenward, and benignantly over the crowded pews, from the holiest pulpits in the land. Some affirm that the lady of the governor was there. At least there were high dames well known to her, and wives of honored husbands, and widows, a great multitude, and ancient maidens, all of excellent repute, and fair young girls, who trembled lest their mothers should espy them. Either the sudden gleams of light flashing over the obscure field bedazzled Goodman Brown, or he recognized a score of the church members of Salem village famous for their especial sanctity. Good old Deacon Gookin had arrived, and waited at the skirts of that venerable saint, his revered pastor. But, irreverently consorting with these grave, reputable, and pious people, these elders of the church, these chaste dames and dewy virgins, there were men of dissolute lives and women of spotted fame, wretches given over to all mean and filthy vice, and suspected even of horrid crimes. It was strange to see that the good shrank not from the wicked, nor were the sinners abashed by the saints. Scattered also among their pale-faced enemies were the Indian priests, or powwows, who had often scared their native forest with more hideous incantations than any known to English witchcraft.
to and fro:行き来して。splendor:輝やかしさ 。council board:(開催中の)評議会。province:教会管区(キリスト教の幾つかの教会を纏めた大教区)。devoutly:信心深く。heavenward:天へ。benignantly:慈悲深く。pews:会衆席。affirm:断言する。widows:未亡人。maidens:乙女(古い表現)。repute:世評。fair young girls:綺麗な(古い表現)少女。lest:~しないかと。espy:(遠くからでも)見付ける。obscure:ぼんやりした。bedazzled:目を眩ませた。a score of:二十人の~。sanctity:高潔さ。at the skirts of:~の周りで。venerable:畏れ多い。revered:崇敬する。pastor:牧師(アメリカではキリスト教のプロテスタント派)。irreverently:不遜に。reputable:世評の高い。chaste:貞潔な。dewy:新鮮で無垢な。virgins:処女。dissolute lives:自堕落な生活。spotted fame:染みの付いた名誉。given over to:耽った。mean and filthy:卑劣で下品な。vice:悪徳。the good:良い人。the wicked:酷い人。scattered:散在して。priests:僧侶。incantations:呪術。English witchcraft:英語の妖術。
"But where is Faith?" thought Goodman Brown; and, as hope came into his heart, he trembled.
Another verse of the hymn arose, a slow and mournful strain, such as the pious love, but joined to words which expressed all that our nature can conceive of sin, and darkly hinted at far more. Unfathomable to mere mortals is the lore of fiends. Verse after verse was sung; and still the chorus of the desert swelled between like the deepest tone of a mighty organ; and with the final peal of that dreadful anthem there came a sound, as if the roaring wind, the rushing streams, the howling beasts, and every other voice of the unconcerted wilderness were mingling and according with the voice of guilty man in homage to the prince of all. The four blazing pines threw up a loftier flame, and obscurely discovered shapes and visages of horror on the smoke wreaths above the impious assembly. At the same moment the fire on the rock shot redly forth and formed a glowing arch above its base, where now appeared a figure. With reverence be it spoken, the figure bore no slight similitude, both in garb and manner, to some grave divine of the New England churches.
mournful:悲しげな。strain:旋律。nature:天性。conceive of:~を思い付く。hinted at:~を仄めかした。far more:遥かに多く。unfathomable:計り知れない。mortals:死ぬ者。lore:知恵。peal:鳴り響き。dreadful:恐るべき。anthem:聖歌。howling beasts:吠える獣。unconcerted:不協和な。mingling and according with:~と混ざり合う。in homage to:~へ敬意を表して。prince of all:選り選りの第一人者。loftier:より高い。obscurely:ぼんやりと。discovered:暴露した(古い表現)。visages:顔。smoke wreaths:煙の渦巻き。impious:不敬虔な。assembly:会合。shot redly forth:赤く噴き出した。glowing:光を放つ。reverence:深い尊敬。bore no slight similitude:僅かにも類似しなかった。garb and manner:服装と態度。divine:神学者。
"Bring forth the converts!" cried a voice that echoed through the field and rolled into the forest.
converts:転向者。
At the word, Goodman Brown stepped forth from the shadow of the trees and approached the congregation, with whom he felt a loathful brotherhood by the sympathy of all that was wicked in his heart. He could have well-nigh sworn that the shape of his own dead father beckoned him to advance, looking downward from a smoke wreath, while a woman, with dim features of despair, threw out her hand to warn him back. Was it his mother? But he had no power to retreat one step, nor to resist, even in thought, when the minister and good old Deacon Gookin seized his arms and led him to the blazing rock. Thither came also the slender form of a veiled female, led between Goody Cloyse, that pious teacher of the catechism, and Martha Carrier, who had received the devil's promise to be queen of hell. A rampant hag was she. And there stood the proselytes beneath the canopy of fire.
loathful brotherhood:不快な同胞。by the sympathy of:~の同調によって。wicked:悪どい。well-nigh:殆ど。beckoned:誘った。dim:薄暗い。retreat:退く。slender form:細い姿。veiled:ヴェールを被った。Martha Carrier:マーサ・キャリアー(人名)。rampant:奔放な。hag:鬼婆。proselytes:改宗者。canopy:円蓋。
"Welcome, my children," said the dark figure, "to the communion of your race. Ye have found thus young your nature and your destiny. My children, look behind you!"
race:同類。ye:汝らは(人称代名詞の古い表現、二人称複数の主格)。destiny:運命。
They turned; and flashing forth, as it were, in a sheet of flame, the fiend worshippers were seen; the smile of welcome gleamed darkly on every visage.
worshippers:参拝者。gleamed:ギラギラ光った。
"There," resumed the sable form, "are all whom ye have reverenced from youth. Ye deemed them holier than yourselves, and shrank from your own sin, contrasting it with their lives of righteousness and prayerful aspirations heavenward. Yet here are they all in my worshipping assembly. This night it shall be granted you to know their secret deeds: how hoary-bearded elders of the church have whispered wanton words to the young maids of their households; how many a woman, eager for widows' weeds, has given her husband a drink at bedtime and let him sleep his last sleep in her bosom; how beardless youths have made haste to inherit their fathers' wealth; and how fair damsels — blush not, sweet ones — have dug little graves in the garden, and bidden me, the sole guest to an infant's funeral. By the sympathy of your human hearts for sin ye shall scent out all the places — whether in church, bedchamber, street, field, or forest — where crime has been committed, and shall exult to behold the whole earth one stain of guilt, one mighty blood spot. Far more than this. It shall be yours to penetrate, in every bosom, the deep mystery of sin, the fountain of all wicked arts, and which inexhaustibly supplies more evil impulses than human power — than my power at its utmost can make manifest in deeds. And now, my children, look upon each other."
resumed:再開した。sable form:暗黒の姿。reverenced:深い尊敬を抱いた。contrasting it with:それを~と対比させて。righteousness:実直。prayerful:祈りを込めた。aspirations:熱望。heavenward:天へ。worshipping:参拝する。granted:認められる。deeds:行い。hoary-bearded:白い顎髭の。wanton words:淫らな言葉。young maids:若娘(maidを少女とするのは古い表現)。households:家庭(親族以外も含む)。widows' weeds:未亡人の喪服。sleep his last sleep:(彼が)永眠する(最後に眠る)。inherit:相続する。fair damsels:綺麗な(古い表現)少女。blush:顔を赤らめる。(have) bidden:告げた。scent out:嗅ぎ当てる。bedchamber:寝室(bedroomの古い表現)。exult:狂喜する。behold:注視する。one stain of guilt:一つの有罪の汚点。penetrate:浸透する。inexhaustibly:無尽蔵に。impulses:衝動。at its utmost:その最大限の。make manifest:はっきりさせる。
They did so; and, by the blaze of the hell-kindled torches, the wretched man beheld his Faith, and the wife her husband, trembling before that unhallowed altar.
hell-kindled:凄まじく燃え立った。unhallowed:不浄の。altar:祭壇。
"Lo, there ye stand, my children," said the figure, in a deep and solemn tone, almost sad with its despairing awfulness, as if his once angelic nature could yet mourn for our miserable race. "Depending upon one another's hearts, ye had still hoped that virtue were not all a dream. Now are ye undeceived. Evil is the nature of mankind. Evil must be your only happiness. Welcome again, my children, to the communion of your race."
lo:見よ。despairing awfulness:絶望的な恐ろしさ。angelic:天使のような。mourn:嘆く。miserable:情けない。depending upon:~を信頼して。virtue:徳。undeceived:真実を悟る。evil:邪悪。mankind:人類。
"Welcome," repeated the fiend worshippers, in one cry of despair and triumph.
And there they stood, the only pair, as it seemed, who were yet hesitating on the verge of wickedness in this dark world. A basin was hollowed, naturally, in the rock. Did it contain water, reddened by the lurid light? or was it blood? or, perchance, a liquid flame? Herein did the shape of evil dip his hand and prepare to lay the mark of baptism upon their foreheads, that they might be partakers of the mystery of sin, more conscious of the secret guilt of others, both in deed and thought, than they could now be of their own. The husband cast one look at his pale wife, and Faith at him. What polluted wretches would the next glance show them to each other, shuddering alike at what they disclosed and what they saw!
basin:鉢。hollowed:刳り抜かれた。reddened:赤くなった。perchance:ひょっとすると(古い表現)。herein:この中に。dip:少し浸す。the mark of baptism:洗礼の印。partakers:分かち合う人。polluted:堕落した。shuddering:戦慄して。disclosed:暴き出した。
"Faith! Faith!" cried the husband, "look up to heaven, and resist the wicked one."
Whether Faith obeyed he knew not. Hardly had he spoken when he found himself amid calm night and solitude, listening to a roar of the wind which died heavily away through the forest. He staggered against the rock, and felt it chill and damp; while a hanging twig, that had been all on fire, besprinkled his cheek with the coldest dew.
staggered:ふら付いた。chill and damp:冷気と湿気。besprinkled:振りかけた。
The next morning young Goodman Brown came slowly into the street of Salem village, staring around him like a bewildered man. The good old minister was taking a walk along the graveyard to get an appetite for breakfast and meditate his sermon, and bestowed a blessing, as he passed, on Goodman Brown. He shrank from the venerable saint as if to avoid an anathema. Old Deacon Gookin was at domestic worship, and the holy words of his prayer were heard through the open window. "What God doth the wizard pray to?" quoth Goodman Brown. Goody Cloyse, that excellent old Christian, stood in the early sunshine at her own lattice, catechizing a little girl who had brought her a pint of morning's milk. Goodman Brown snatched away the child as from the grasp of the fiend himself. Turning the corner by the meeting-house, he spied the head of Faith, with the pink ribbons, gazing anxiously forth, and bursting into such joy at sight of him that she skipped along the street and almost kissed her husband before the whole village. But Goodman Brown looked sternly and sadly into her face, and passed on without a greeting.
bewildered:当惑した。graveyard:(教会の近くの)墓地。appetite:食欲。meditate:熟慮する。sermon:説教。bestowed:授ける。blessing (on):~への祝福。anathema:憎悪。at domestic worship:家庭内の礼拝で。doth:する(doの古い表現、三人称単数現在形)。lattice:格子造り(窓や戸や門など)。catechizing:教理問答をする。a pint of:1パイント(アメリカでは0.473リットル)の~。snatched away:奪い去った。spied:見付けた。bursting into:急に~し出して。sternly:厳しく。
Had Goodman Brown fallen asleep in the forest and only dreamed a wild dream of a witch-meeting?
witch-meeting:魔女集会。
Be it so if you will; but, alas! it was a dream of evil omen for young Goodman Brown. A stern, a sad, a darkly meditative, a distrustful, if not a desperate man did he become from the night of that fearful dream. On the Sabbath day, when the congregation were singing a holy psalm, he could not listen because an anthem of sin rushed loudly upon his ear and drowned all the blessed strain. When the minister spoke from the pulpit with power and fervid eloquence, and, with his hand on the open Bible, of the sacred truths of our religion, and of saint-like lives and triumphant deaths, and of future bliss or misery unutterable, then did Goodman Brown turn pale, dreading lest the roof should thunder down upon the gray blasphemer and his hearers. Often, waking suddenly at midnight, he shrank from the bosom of Faith; and at morning or eventide, when the family knelt down at prayer, he scowled and muttered to himself, and gazed sternly at his wife, and turned away. And when he had lived long, and was borne to his grave a hoary corpse, followed by Faith, an aged woman, and children and grandchildren, a goodly procession, besides neighbors not a few, they carved no hopeful verse upon his tombstone, for his dying hour was gloom.
alas:嗚呼。omen:前兆。stern:厳しい。meditative:瞑想に耽る。distrustful:疑り深い。desperate:自暴自棄。psalm:(聖書の)詩編。drowned:掻き消した。fervid:熱烈な。eloquence:雄弁。bliss:至福。misery:情けなさ。unutterable:いいようのない。dreading:恐れて。thunder down:凄まじく落ちる。blasphemer:冒涜者。eventide:夕暮れ。scowled:顔を顰めた。muttered:(低い声で)文句をいった。borne to:~へ運ばれた。hoary corpse:年老いた骸。goodly procession:長い(古い表現)行列。carved:刻む。dying hour:死に際。
原文の出典:Mosses from an Old Manse/Young Goodman Brown
単語や熟語の意味は文意に相応しいものを一つだけ選んだ。作品の趣向に合うかどうか、つまり訳語として充分かどうかはさほど考慮しない。英語で理解するための最低限の意味が分かるように努めた。
コメント