Little Jannita sat alone beside a milk-bush. Before her and behind her stretched the plain, covered with red sand and thorny karoo bushes; and here and there a milk-bush, looking like a bundle of pale green rods tied together. Not a tree was to be seen anywhere, except on the banks of the river, and that was far away, and the sun beat on her head. Round her fed the Angora goats she was herding; pretty things, especially the little ones, with white silky curls that touched the ground. But Jannita sat crying. If an angel should gather up in his cup all the tears that have been shed, I think the bitterest would be those of children.
Jannita：ヤニータ（人名／名前）。milk-bush：緑珊瑚（植物の一種）。plain：平原。thorny karoo bushes：刺の多いカルー（南アフリカ共和国からナミビアまでの地域）の茂み。 a bundle of pale green rods tied together：結び合わされた淡い緑の枝の束。sun beat：太陽が照らし付けた。fed：（動物が）食べた。angora goat：アンゴラ山羊（山羊の一種）。herding：（群れの）番をする。pretty things：可愛い者。white silky curls：白い絹のような縮れ毛。shed：流される。the bitterest：最も苦いもの。
By and by she was so tired, and the sun was so hot, she laid her head against the milk-bush, and dropped asleep.
by and by：間もなく。dropped asleep：眠りに落ちた。
She dreamed a beautiful dream. She thought that when she went back to the farmhouse in the evening, the walls were covered with vines and roses, and the kraals were not made of red stone, but of lilac trees full of blossom. And the fat old Boer smiled at her; and the stick he held across the door, for the goats to jump over, was a lily rod with seven blossoms at the end. When she went to the house her mistress gave her a whole roaster-cake for her supper, and the mistress’s daughter had stuck a rose in the cake; and her mistress’s son-in-law said, “Thank you!” when she pulled off his boots, and did not kick her.
farmhouse：（農場の）母屋。vines and roses：蔓と薔薇。kraal：（家畜の）囲い（南アフリカ英語）。lilac：紫丁香花（ライラック、花の一種）。Boer：ボーア人（南アフリカのオランダ移住民の子孫、オランダ語）。lily：百合（花の一種）。at the end：先端に。mistress：女主人。roaster-cake：焼きパン（南アフリカ英語）。
It was a beautiful dream.
While she lay thus dreaming, one of the little kids came and licked her on her cheek, because of the salt from her dried-up tears. And in her dream she was not a poor indentured child any more, living with Boers. It was her father who kissed her. He said he had only been asleep—that day when he lay down under the thorn-bush; he had not really died. He felt her hair, and said it was grown long and silky, and he said they would go back to Denmark now. He asked her why her feet were bare, and what the marks on her back were. Then he put her head on his shoulder, and picked her up, and carried her away, away! She laughed—she could feel her face against his brown beard. His arms were so strong.
kids：子山羊。indentured：年季奉公の。Denmark：デンマーク（国名）。marks：傷痕。picked her up：彼女を拾い上げた。
As she lay there dreaming, with the ants running over her naked feet, and with her brown curls lying in the sand, a Hottentot came up to her. He was dressed in ragged yellow trousers, and a dirty shirt, and torn jacket. He had a red handkerchief round his head, and a felt hat above that. His nose was flat, his eyes like slits, and the wool on his head was gathered into little round balls. He came to the milk-bush, and looked at the little girl lying in the hot sun. Then he walked off, and caught one of the fattest little Angora goats, and held its mouth fast, as he stuck it under his arm. He looked back to see that she was still sleeping, and jumped down into one of the sluits. He walked down the bed of the sluit a little way and came to an overhanging bank, under which, sitting on the red sand, were two men. One was a tiny, ragged, old bushman, four feet high; the other was an English navvy, in a dark blue blouse. They cut the kid’s throat with the navvy’s long knife, and covered up the blood with sand, and buried the entrails and skin. Then they talked, and quarrelled a little; and then they talked quietly again.
Hottentot：ホッテントット（アフリカ南部のバントゥー語を話さない先住民の中でコイコイ語を話すコイコイ人の別称）。ragged：ボロボロの。handkerchief：ハンカチ。felt hat：フェルト帽。slits：細長い穴。wool：縮れ髪。held its mouth fast：その口を固く掴んだ。sluits：（灌漑や排水の）水路（南アフリカ英語、slootsの変形）。overhanging bank：張り出した土手。ragged：襤褸を着た。bushman：ブッシュマン（アフリカ南部の先住民）。four feet：４フィート（１．２１９メートル）。navvy：（専ら土木建築の）人夫（イギリス英語）。dark blue blouse：紺青の仕事着。covered up：すっかり覆った。entrails：内臓。quarrelled：口論した。
The Hottentot man put a leg of the kid under his coat and left the rest of the meat for the two in the sluit, and walked away.
When little Jannita awoke it was almost sunset. She sat up very frightened, but her goats were all about her. She began to drive them home. “I do not think there are any lost,” she said.
sat up：（上体だけ）起き上がった。frightened：恐がった。drive them home：（家畜の）それらを追い戻した。
Dirk, the Hottentot, had brought his flock home already, and stood at the kraal door with his ragged yellow trousers. The fat old Boer put his stick across the door, and let Jannita’s goats jump over, one by one. He counted them. When the last jumped over: “Have you been to sleep today?” he said; “there is one missing.”
Dirk：ダーク（人名／名前）。flock：群れ。one by one：一つずつ。the last：最後のもの。
Then little Jannita knew what was coming, and she said, in a low voice, “No.” And then she felt in her heart that deadly sickness that you feel when you tell a lie; and again she said, “Yes.”
deadly sickness：酷い病。
“Do you think you will have any supper this evening?” said the Boer.
“No,” said Jannita.
“What do you think you will have?”
“I don’t know,” said Jannita.
“Give me your whip,” said the Boer to Dirk, the Hottentot.
whip：鞭。
The moon was all but full that night. Oh, but its light was beautiful!
moon was all but full：月は満ちるばかりだった。
The little girl crept to the door of the outhouse where she slept, and looked at it. When you are hungry, and very, very sore, you do not cry. She leaned her chin on one hand, and looked, with her great dove’s eyes—the other hand was cut open, so she wrapped it in her pinafore. She looked across the plain at the sand and the low karoo-bushes, with the moonlight on them.
crept：這った。outhouse：（農場の）離れ（家）。sore：痛ましい。leaned her chin on one hand：（彼女が）顎を片手に寄せかけた。dove’s eyes：柔和な目（鳩の目）。pinafore：（女児用）エプロン（ピナフォア）。looked across：見渡した。
Presently, there came slowly, from far away, a wild springbuck. It came close to the house, and stood looking at it in wonder, while the moonlight glinted on its horns, and in its great eyes. It stood wondering at the red brick walls, and the girl watched it. Then, suddenly, as if it scorned it all, it curved its beautiful back and turned; and away it fled over the bushes and sand, like a sheeny streak of white lightning. She stood up to watch it. So free, so free! Away, away! She watched, till she could see it no more on the wide plain.
presently：やがて。springbuck：スプリングボック（動物の一種）。in wonder：驚いて。glinted：煌いた。wondering at：～を不思議がりながら。red brick walls：赤煉瓦の壁。scorned：（軽蔑して）拒絶した。fled (away)：逃げ去った。a sheeny streak of white lightning：一筋の艶やかな（ピカピカの）白い光。
Her heart swelled, larger, larger, larger: she uttered a low cry; and without waiting, pausing, thinking, she followed on its track. Away, away, away! “I—I also!” she said, “I—I also!”
her heart swelled：彼女の心は膨らんだ。uttered a low cry：低い叫び声を発した。followed on its track：その跡を追った（暫くして続いた）。
When at last her legs began to tremble under her, and she stopped to breathe, the house was a speck behind her. She dropped on the earth, and held her panting sides.
tremble：震える。breathe：休息する。speck：小さな点。dropped on the earth：（疲れて）地面にばったり倒れた。held her panting sides：（彼女が）息切れする脇腹を抱えた。
She began to think now.
If she stayed on the plain they would trace her footsteps in the morning and catch her; but if she waded in the water in the bed of the river they would not be able to find her footmarks; and she would hide, there where the rocks and the kopjes were.
trace：追跡する。footsteps：足取り。waded：（川を）歩いた。bed of the river：川床。footmarks：足跡。kopjes：（南アフリカの原野の）小丘（オランダ語）。
So she stood up and walked towards the river. The water in the river was low; just a line of silver in the broad bed of sand, here and there broadening into a pool. She stepped into it, and bathed her feet in the delicious cold water. Up and up the stream she walked, where it rattled over the pebbles, and past where the farmhouse lay; and where the rocks were large she leaped from one to the other. The night wind in her face made her strong—she laughed. She had never felt such night wind before. So the night smells to the wild bucks, because they are free! A free thing feels as a chained thing never can.
broad bed of sand,：広い砂床。broadening into a pool：広がって溜まりになる。bathed (in)：～に浸した。delicious cold water：気持ち良く冷たい水。rattled：ジャラジャラ鳴った。pebbles：（丸い）小石。leaped：跳んだ。night smells to the wild bucks：野生のボック（スプリングボック）は夜を嗅ぎ付ける。free thing：自由な者。chained thing：束縛された者。
At last she came to a place where the willows grew on each side of the river, and trailed their long branches on the sandy bed. She could not tell why, she could not tell the reason, but a feeling of fear came over her.
willows：柳。each side of the river：川の両岸。trailed：引き摺って行った。sandy bed：砂の多い床。could not tell：判らなかった。feeling of fear：恐怖感。came over：襲った。
On the left bank rose a chain of kopjes and a precipice of rocks. Between the precipice and the river bank there was a narrow path covered by the fragments of fallen rock. And upon the summit of the precipice a kippersol tree grew, whose palm-like leaves were clearly cut out against the night sky. The rocks cast a deep shadow, and the willow trees, on either side of the river. She paused, looked up and about her, and then ran on, fearful.
rose：（高いものが）聳えた。a chain of：～の連なり。precipice：（垂直の）断崖。fragments：破片。kippersol：壷天狗（クッソニア・パニクラータ、木の一種）。palm-like：掌みたいな。clearly cut out：くっきりと切り抜かれる。fearful：恐ろしい。
“What was I afraid of? How foolish I have been!” she said, when she came to a place where the trees were not so close together. And she stood still and looked back and shivered.
shivered：戦いた。
At last her steps grew wearier and wearier. She was very sleepy now, she could scarcely lift her feet. She stepped out of the river-bed. She only saw that the rocks about her were wild, as though many little kopjes had been broken up and strewn upon the ground, lay down at the foot of an aloe, and fell asleep.
river-bed：川床。wild：荒涼とした。broken up：粉砕される。strewn：撒き散らされる。lay down at the foot of an aloe：アロエ（植物の一種）の元に横たわった。
But, in the morning, she saw what a glorious place it was. The rocks were piled on one another, and tossed this way and that. Prickly pears grew among them, and there were no less than six kippersol trees scattered here and there among the broken kopjes. In the rocks there were hundreds of homes for the conies, and from the crevices wild asparagus hung down. She ran to the river, bathed in the clear cold water, and tossed it over her head. She sang aloud. All the songs she knew were sad, so she could not sing them now, she was glad, she was so free; but she sang the notes without the words, as the cock-o-veets do. Singing and jumping all the wy, she went back, and took a sharp stone, and cut at the root of a kippersol, and got out a large piece, as long as her arm, and sat to chew it. Two conies came out on the rock above her head and peeped at her. She held them out a piece, but they did not want it, and ran away.
glorious place：見事な場所。piled on one another：積み重ねられる。tossed：（投げられて）転がる。this way and that：方々へ。prickly pears：団扇仙人掌（仙人掌の一種）。no less than：～は下らない（同じくらい）。scattered：散らばった。homes for the conies：ケープハイラックス（動物の一種、coniesをケープハイラックスとするのは南アフリカ英語）の巣。crevices：割れ目。asparagus：アスパラガス（植物の一種）。hung down：垂れ下がった。tossed it over：それを～へひょいと投げた。sang the notes：音符を歌った。cock-o-veets：黄喉緑藪鵙（鳥の一種、アフリカーンス語のkokkewietに由来すると思われる）。all the way：ずっと。peeped：覗いた。held them out：それらを差し出した。
It was very delicious to her. Kippersol is like raw quince, when it is very green; but she liked it. When good food is thrown at you by other people, strange to say, it is very bitter; but whatever you find yourself is sweet!
quince：マルメロ（植物の一種）。thrown：（投げて）与えられる。strange to say：奇妙な話。
When she had finished she dug out another piece, and went to look for a pantry to put it in. At the top of a heap of rocks up which she clambered she found that some large stones stood apart but met at the top, making a room.
look for：探す。pantry：食品庫。a heap of：～の山（積み重ね）。clambered (up)：攀じ登った。some large stones stood apart but met at the top：幾つかの大きな石が離れて立つものの上部が合わさった。
“Oh, this is my little home!” she said.
At the top and all round it was closed, only in the front it was open. There was a beautiful shelf in the wall for the kippersol, and she scrambled down again. She brought a great bunch of prickly pear, and stuck it in a crevice before the door, and hung wild asparagus over it, till it looked as though it grew there. No one could see that there was a room there, for she left only a tiny opening, and hung a branch of feathery asparagus over it. Then she crept in to see how it looked. There was a glorious soft green light. Then she went out and picked some of those purple little ground flowers—you know them—those that keep their faces close to the ground, but when you turn them up and look at them they are deep blue eyes looking into yours! She took them with a little earth, and put them in the crevices between the rocks; and so the room was quite furnished. Afterwards she went down to the river and brought her arms full of willow, and made a lovely bed; and, because the weather was very hot, she lay down to rest upon it.
shelf：棚。scrambled down：急いで降りた。a great bunch of：非常に多くの～。opening：（開いた）口。a branch of feathery asparagus：（枝のような）一茎の（羽のような）ふわりとしたアスパラガス。crept in：這い入った。see how：どう～かを確かめる。and so：それによって。furnished：備え付けられた。afterwards：その後。
She went to sleep soon, and slept long, for she was very weak. Late in the afternoon she was awakened by a few cold drops falling on her face. She sat up. A great and fierce thunderstorm had been raging, and a few of the cool drops had fallen through the crevice in the rocks. She pushed the asparagus branch aside, and looked out, with her little hands folded about her knees. She heard the thunder rolling, and saw the red torrents rush among the stones on their way to the river. She heard the roar of the river as it now rolled, angry and red, bearing away stumps and trees on its muddy water. She listened and smiled, and pressed closer to the rock that took care of her. She pressed the palm of her hand against it. When you have no one to love you, you love the dumb things very much. When the sun set, it cleared up. Then the little girl ate some kippersol, and lay down again to sleep. She thought there was nothing so nice as to sleep. When one has had no food but kippersol juice for two days, one doesn’t feel strong.
went to sleep：眠りに就いた。drops：滴。great and fierce thunderstorm：凄まじい（大きな激しい）雷雨。raging：猛威を振るう。folded about her knees：（彼女が）膝を抱えた。heard the thunder rolling：雷が鳴るのを聞いた。torrents：奔流。on their way to：（それらが）～へ向かって。roar：轟音。bearing away：押し流す。stumps：切り株。dumb things：無言の物。cleared up：晴れ上がった。
“It is so nice here,” she thought as she went to sleep, “I will stay here always.”
Afterwards the moon rose. The sky was very clear now, there was not a cloud anywhere; and the moon shone in through the bushes in the door, and made a lattice-work of light on her face. She was dreaming a beautiful dream. The loveliest dreams of all are dreamed when you are hungry. She thought she was walking in a beautiful place, holding her father’s hand, and they both had crowns on their heads, crowns of wild asparagus. The people whom they passed smiled and kissed her; some gave her flowers, and some gave her food, and the sunlight was everywhere. She dreamed the same dream over and over, and it grew more and more beautiful; till, suddenly, it seemed as though she were standing quite alone. She looked up: on one side of her was the high precipice, on the other was the river, with the willow trees, drooping their branches into the water; and the moonlight was over all. Up, against the night sky the pointed leaves of the kippersol trees were clearly marked, and the rocks and the willow trees cast dark shadows.
lattice-work：格子。passed：擦れ違った。drooping：垂れる。pointed leaves：尖った葉。clearly marked：くっきりと印付けられる。
In her sleep she shivered, and half awoke.
“Ah, I am not there, I am here,” she said; and she crept closer to the rock, and kissed it, and went to sleep again.
It must have been about three o’clock, for the moon had begun to sink towards the western sky, when she woke, with a violent start. She sat up, and pressed her hand against her heart.
with a violent start：酷くぎょっとして
“What can it be? A cony must surely have run across my feet and frightened me!” she said, and she turned to lie down again; but soon she sat up. Outside, there was the distinct sound of thorns crackling in a fire.
turned to lie down：横たわろうとした（取りかかった）。distinct sound of thorns：刺付いた明確な音。crackling：パチンと割れる。
She crept to the door and made an opening in the branches with her fingers.
A large fire was blazing in the shadow, at the foot of the rocks. A little Bushman sat over some burning coals that had been raked from it, cooking meat. Stretched on the ground was an Englishman, dressed in a blouse, and with a heavy, sullen face. On the stone beside him was Dirk, the Hottentot, sharpening a bowie knife.
blazing：燃える。sat over some burning coals：幾つかの燃える石炭の向こうに座った。raked：掻き集められる。stretched：手足を伸ばした。Englishman：イギリス人。heavy, sullen face：面白くなく黙り込んだ顔。sharpening a bowie knife：ボウイナイフ（大型の鞘付きナイフ）を研ぐ。
She held her breath. Not a cony in all the rocks was so still.
held her breath：息を潜めた。
“They can never find me here,” she said; and she knelt, and listened to every word they said. She could hear it all.
knelt：跪いた。
“You may have all the money,” said the Bushman; “but I want the cask of brandy. I will set the roof alight in six places, for a Dutchman burnt my mother once alive in a hut, with three children.”
cask：大樽。brandy：ブランデー（酒の一種）。set the roof alight in six places：屋根の六ヵ所に点火する。Dutchman：オランダ人。burnt my mother once alive：私の母親をかつて焼き殺した。hut：小屋。
“You are sure there is no one else on the farm?” said the navvy.
on the farm：農場に。
“No, I have told you till I am tired,” said Dirk; “The two Kaffirs have gone with the son to town; and the maids have gone to a dance; there is only the old man and the two women left.”
kaffirs：黒人（南アフリカ英語）。maids：女中。
“But suppose,” said the navvy, “he should have the gun at his bedside, and loaded!”
loaded：（弾丸を）装填して。
“He never has,” said Dirk; “it hangs in the passage, and the cartridges too. He never thought when he bought it what work it was for! I only wish the little white girl was there still,” said Dirk; “but she is drowned. We traced her footmarks to the great pool that has no bottom.”
passage：通路。cartridges：弾薬筒（カートリッジ）。what work it was for：何のための道具なのか。only wish (that)：～と願うばかりだ。drowned：溺れ死んだ。
She listened to every word, and they talked on.
talked on：話し続けた。
Afterwards, the little Bushman, who crouched over the fire, sat up suddenly, listening.
crouched：屈んだ。
“Ha! what is that?” he said.
ha：は。
A Bushman is like a dog: his ear is so fine he knows a jackal’s tread from a wild dog’s.
knows a jackal’s tread from a wild dog’s：ジャッカル（動物の一種）の足音を野犬のものと区別する。
“I heard nothing,” said the navvy.
“I heard,” said the Hottentot; “but it was only a cony on the rocks.”
“No cony, no cony,” said the Bushman; “see, what is that there moving in the shade round the point?”
shade：物陰。
“Nothing, you idiot!” said the navvy. “Finish your meat; we must start now.”
you idiot!：馬鹿者め！。finish your meat：貴方の肉を済ませろ（食べ終えろ）。
There were two roads to the homestead. One went along the open plain, and was by far the shortest; but you might be seen half a mile off. The other ran along the river bank, where there were rocks, and holes, and willow trees to hide among. And all down the river bank ran a little figure.
homestead：（建物付きの）農家。by far：断然。half a mile：半マイル（８０４．６７２メートル）。all down：～にずっと沿って。little figure：小さな人影。
The river was swollen by the storm full to its banks, and the willow trees dipped their half-drowned branches into its water. Wherever there was a gap between them, you could see it flow, red and muddy, with the stumps upon it. But the little figure ran on and on; never looking, never thinking; panting, panting! There, where the rocks were the thickest; there, where on the open space the moonlight shone; there, where the prickly pears were tangled, and the rocks cast shadows, on it ran; the little hands clinched, the little heart beating, the eyes fixed always ahead.
dipped (into)：～に突っ込んだ。half-drowned branches：溺れかけの（半ば溺れた）枝。panting：息を切らして。tangled：絡み合った。clinched：固く閉じられる（きつく掴まれる）。eyes fixed always ahead：目は前方へずっと据えられた。
It was not far to run now. Only the narrow path between the high rocks and the river.
At last she came to the end of it, and stood for an instant. Before her lay the plain, and the red farmhouse, so near, that if persons had been walking there you might have seen them in the moonlight. She clasped her hands. “Yes, I will tell them, I will tell them!” she said; “I am almost there!” She ran forward again, then hesitated. She shaded her eyes from the moonlight, and looked. Between her and the farmhouse there were three figures moving over the low bushes.
for an instant：一瞬。clasped：握り締めた。hesitated：躊躇った。shaded her eyes：（彼女が）目を翳らせる。
In the sheeny moonlight you could see how they moved on, slowly and furtively; the short one, and the one in light clothes, and the one in dark.
moved on：移動し続けた。furtively：密かに。
“I cannot help them now!” she cried, and sank down on the ground, with her little hands clasped before her.
sank down：崩折れた（ぐったりと腰を下ろした）。
“Awake, awake!” said the farmer’s wife; “I hear a strange noise; something calling, calling, calling!”
The man rose, and went to the window.
man：夫。
“I hear it also,” he said; “surely some jackal’s at the sheep. I will load my gun and go and see.”
load：（銃を）装填する。
“It sounds to me like the cry of no jackal,” said the woman; and when he was gone she woke her daughter.
cry of no jackal：ジャッカルではない鳴き声。
“Come, let us go and make a fire, I can sleep no more,” she said; “I have heard a strange thing tonight. Your father said it was a jackal’s cry, but no jackal cries so. It was a child’s voice, and it cried, ‘Master, master, wake!’”
make a fire：火を起こす。master：主人。
The women looked at each other; then they went to the kitchen, and made a great fire; and they sang psalms all the while.
psalms：聖歌。all the while：その間ずっと。
At last the man came back; and they asked him, “What have you seen?” “Nothing,” he said, “but the sheep asleep in their kraals, and the moonlight on the walls. And yet, it did seem to me,” he added, “that far away near the krantz by the river, I saw three figures moving. And afterwards—it might have been fancy—I thought I heard the cry again; but since that, all has been still there.”
krantz：絶壁（南アフリカ英語）。fancy：思い過ごし（空想）。
Next day a navvy had returned to the railway works.
railway works：鉄道作業（工事）。
“Where have you been so long?” his comrades asked.
comrades：同僚。
“He keeps looking over his shoulder,” said one, “as though he thought he should see something there.”
keeps looking over his shoulder：（彼が）不安でそわそわして（肩越しに見て）ばかりいる。
“When he drank his grog today,” said another, “he let it fall, and looked round.”
grog：グロッグ（カクテルの一種）。let it fall：それをうっかり喋った。looked round：見回した。
Next day, a small old Bushman, and a Hottentot, in ragged yellow trousers, were at a wayside canteen. When the Bushman had had brandy, he began to tell how something (he did not say whether it was man, woman, or child) had lifted up its hands and cried for mercy; had kissed a white man’s hands, and cried to him to help it. Then the Hottentot took the Bushman by the throat, and dragged him out.
wayside canteen：路傍の食堂。had had brandy：ブランデーを飲んだ。something：大した人。cried for mercy：慈悲を求めて叫んだ。dragged him out：彼を引き摺り出した。
Next night, the moon rose up, and mounted the quiet sky. She was full now, and looked in at the little home; at the purple flowers stuck about the room, and the kippersol on the shelf. Her light fell on the willow trees, and on the high rocks, and on a little new-made heap of earth and round stones. Three men knew what was under it; and no one else ever will.
mounted：上った。looked in at：ちょっと訪れた 。fell on：（光が）～に当たった。round stones：丸い石。
Lily Kloof, South Africa.
Lily Kloof：リリークルーフ（南アフリカの東ケープ州の町）。South Africa：南アフリカ（国名）。
原文の出典：I. DREAM LIFE AND REAL LIFE; A LITTLE AFRICAN STORY.
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。
結城永人
結城永人
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