その航海の、五月十五日から六月十三日までの一か月ほどをずっと、ぼくはマレー半島の近くのアンダマン諸島でだらだらと過ごした。中国人の老人が北京で生存できるなどとは、今ではどう考えても馬鹿げた空想のように思えたのだ。この密林の島々へとやってきたのは、カルカッタである夜に羽目を外しすぎて、町だけではなく河にも火を放った、その余韻の残る後のことだったが、一時はここに住むことも考え、その広がりへの夢想に悦に入っていた。ぼくがいたのは、海図では「サドル・ヒル」と名づけられている場所で、その周辺では最も小さな島であるようだった。そこの深い谷間で、灼熱の太陽の下一日中ずっと横になって過ごしていると、それまでにはほとんど感じたことのないような平穏な気持ちになり、椰子と熱帯の原生林の深い影の中から、停泊しているスペランザ号を見つめていた。そこの少し沖合の海岸から谷は始まるが、ぼくの目にはココナッツの木々と共に、長く連なった稜線の一つが見え、薄い芝生の蜃気楼を除いて、空ではすべての雲が燃え上がり、海はそよ風に波打つ湖のようにどこまでも穏やかで、この場所に聞こえてくる確かな音と言えば、浜辺に寄せる波の音くらいだった。なぜなのかは分からない。哀れなアンダマンの人々は、完全な蛮人だったように思われたが、それはぼくが島々を巡っているときに彼らの遺体を何体か発見したが、骸骨に近い姿ではあったが、脊椎も五体もまだほぼそのままで、いくつかのケースでは、干からびてミイラ化した遺骸には、服を身に着けていたという形跡が全くなかったからだ。彼らの周りを取り巻いている、近隣の高度な古い文明のことを考慮すれば、これはまさに例外的なことである。彼らは小柄で、黒か褐色の肌をしていた。そして目にした人々は皆、槍やその他の武器が側に転がっているか、あるいは彼らを貫いているかしていた。彼らは熱狂的な人種であったがゆえに、予測できない闇の地球が彼らを飲み込んだとき、彼女は彼女の子供として振舞ったのだ。彼らは多くの場合、いくらか赤みを帯びた変色をしていたが、それはキンマの実の痕だったのかもしれない。なぜならキンマの実がその周りにあったからだ。ぼくはここの人々のことが気に入り、彼らの小さな木製のカヌーをギグとともに積み込んだ。ぼくは愚かだった。ギグとカヌーは、たった三夜でデッキから海のただ中へと攫われてしまった。
*****
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A whole month of that voyage, from May the 15th to June the 13th, I wasted at the Andaman Islands near Malay: for that any old Chinaman could be alive in Pekin began, after some time, to seem the most quixotic notion that ever entered a human brain; and these jungled islands, to which I came after a shocking vast orgy one night at Calcutta, when I fired not only the city but the river, pleased my fancy to such an extent, that at one time I intended to abide there. I was at the one called in the chart 'Saddle Hill,' the smallest of them, I think: and seldom have I had such sensations of peace as I lay a whole burning day in a rising vale, deeply-shaded in palm and tropical ranknesses, watching thence the Speranza at anchor: for there was a little offing here at the shore whence the valley arose, and I could see one of its long peaks lined with cocoanut-trees, and all cloud burned out of the sky except the flimsiest lawn-figments, and the sea as absolutely calm as a lake roughened with breezes, yet making a considerable noise in its breaking on the shore, as I have noticed in these sorts of places: I do not know why. These poor Andaman people seem to have been quite savage, for I met a number of them in roaming the island, nearly skeletons, yet with limbs and vertebrae still, in general, cohering, and in some cases dry-skinned and mummified relics of flesh, and never anywhere a sign of clothes: a very singular thing, considering their nearness to high old civilisations all about them. They looked small and black, or almost; and I never found a man without finding on or near him a spear and other weapons: so that they were eager folk, and the wayward dark earth was in them, too, as she should be in her children. They had in many cases some reddish discoloration, which may have been the traces of betel-nut stains: for betel-nuts abound there. And I was so pleased with these people, that I took on board with the gig one of their little tree-canoes: which was my foolishness: for gig and canoe were only three nights later washed from the decks into the middle of the sea.
*****
*****
+++++++++++++++++++
A whole month of that voyage, from May the 15th to June the 13th, I wasted at the Andaman Islands near Malay: for that any old Chinaman could be alive in Pekin began, after some time, to seem the most quixotic notion that ever entered a human brain; and these jungled islands, to which I came after a shocking vast orgy one night at Calcutta, when I fired not only the city but the river, pleased my fancy to such an extent, that at one time I intended to abide there. I was at the one called in the chart 'Saddle Hill,' the smallest of them, I think: and seldom have I had such sensations of peace as I lay a whole burning day in a rising vale, deeply-shaded in palm and tropical ranknesses, watching thence the Speranza at anchor: for there was a little offing here at the shore whence the valley arose, and I could see one of its long peaks lined with cocoanut-trees, and all cloud burned out of the sky except the flimsiest lawn-figments, and the sea as absolutely calm as a lake roughened with breezes, yet making a considerable noise in its breaking on the shore, as I have noticed in these sorts of places: I do not know why. These poor Andaman people seem to have been quite savage, for I met a number of them in roaming the island, nearly skeletons, yet with limbs and vertebrae still, in general, cohering, and in some cases dry-skinned and mummified relics of flesh, and never anywhere a sign of clothes: a very singular thing, considering their nearness to high old civilisations all about them. They looked small and black, or almost; and I never found a man without finding on or near him a spear and other weapons: so that they were eager folk, and the wayward dark earth was in them, too, as she should be in her children. They had in many cases some reddish discoloration, which may have been the traces of betel-nut stains: for betel-nuts abound there. And I was so pleased with these people, that I took on board with the gig one of their little tree-canoes: which was my foolishness: for gig and canoe were only three nights later washed from the decks into the middle of the sea.
*****
"The Purple Cloud"
Written by M.P. Shiel
(M.P. シール)
Translated by shigeyuki
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