61 The Emperor fell deeply in love with her, and begged her to come to the Court, where he would give her a position of honor and everything she could wish for. He was about to send for one of the Imperial palanquins to take her back with him at once, saying that her grace and beauty should adorn a Court, and not be hidden in a bamboo-cutter’s cottage.
61 皇帝は彼女に深く恋をし、彼女に法廷に来るように懇願しました。彼は宮廷の駕籠の 1 人を呼び、すぐに彼女を連れて帰ろうとしていた。
62 But the Princess stopped him. She said that if she were forced to go to the Palace she would turn at once into a shadow, and even as she spoke she began to lose her form. Her figure faded from his sight while he looked.
62しかし、王女は彼を止めました。無理矢理宮殿に行かせられたら一気に影になってしまうと言い、話しているうちに形を失い始めた。彼が見ている間、彼女の姿は彼の視界から消えていった。
63 The Emperor then promised to leave her free if only she would resume her former shape, which she did.
63 その後、皇帝は、彼女が元の姿に戻るのであれば彼女を解放することを約束し、彼女はそれを実行した.
64 It was now time for him to return, for his retinue would be wondering what had happened to their Royal master when they missed him for so long. So he bade her good-by, and left the house with a sad heart. Princess Moonlight was for him the most beautiful woman in the world; all others were dark beside her, and he thought of her night and day. His Majesty now spent much of his time in writing poems, telling her of his love and devotion, and sent them to her, and though she refused to see him again she answered with many verses of her own composing, which told him gently and kindly that she could never marry any one on this earth. These little songs always gave him pleasure.
64 今こそ彼が戻る時でした。なぜなら、彼の従者は、彼らが長い間彼を恋しく思っていたとき、彼らの王室の主人に何が起こったのか疑問に思っていたからです。それで彼は彼女に別れを告げ、悲しい心で家を出ました。プリンセス・ムーンライトは、彼にとって世界で最も美しい女性でした。他のすべての人は彼女のそばで暗く、彼は昼も夜も彼女のことを考えていました。陛下は今、詩を書くことに多くの時間を費やし、彼の愛と献身を彼女に伝え、それらを彼女に送りました.彼女はこの地球上の誰とも結婚できないと。これらの小さな歌はいつも彼に喜びを与えました。
65 At this time her foster-parents noticed that night after night the Princess would sit on her balcony and gaze for hours at the moon, in a spirit of the deepest dejection, ending always in a burst of tears. One night the old man found her thus weeping as if her heart were broken, and he besought her to tell him the reason of her sorrow.
65 この時、彼女の養父母は、王女が毎晩バルコニーに座って何時間も月を見つめ、最も深い落胆の精神で、いつも涙を流して終わることに気づきました.ある夜、老人は彼女が心を打ち砕かれたように泣いているのを見つけ、その悲しみの理由を教えてくれるように懇願しました。
66 With many tears she told him that he had guessed rightly when he supposed her not to belong to this world—that she had in truth come from the moon, and that her time on earth would soon be over. On the fifteenth day of that very month of August her friends from the moon would come to fetch her, and she would have to return. Her parents were both there, but having spent a lifetime on the earth she had forgotten them, and also the moon-world to which she belonged. It made her weep, she said, to think of leaving her kind foster-parents, and the home where she had been happy for so long.
66 彼女はたくさんの涙を流しながら、彼が彼女がこの世界に属していないと彼が推測したとき、彼は正しく推測したと彼に話しました.まさにその月の 8 月 15 日に、月から来た彼女の友達が彼女を迎えに来て、彼女は戻らなければならなくなりました。彼女の両親は両方ともそこにいましたが、生涯を地球で過ごしたので、彼女は彼らを忘れ、彼女が属していた月の世界も忘れていました.彼女は、親切な里親と、彼女が長い間幸せだった家を離れると思うと、涙が出たと彼女は言いました。
67 When her attendants heard this they were very sad, and could not eat or drink for sadness at the thought that the Princess was so soon to leave them.
67 従者たちはこれを聞いてとても悲しくなり、お姫様がもうすぐ自分たちのもとを離れることを考えて、悲しくて食べたり飲んだりできませんでした。
68 The Emperor, as soon as the news was carried to him, sent messengers to the house to find out if the report were true or not.
68 皇帝はその知らせが届くやいなや、その報告が真実かどうか確かめるために使者を家に送った。
69 The old bamboo-cutter went out to meet the Imperial messengers. The last few days of sorrow had told upon the old man; he had aged greatly, and looked much more than his seventy years. Weeping bitterly, he told them that the report was only too true, but he intended, however, to make prisoners of the envoys from the moon, and to do all he could to prevent the Princess from being carried back.
69 年老いた竹取は、帝国の使者に会いに出かけた。最後の数日間の悲しみが老人を襲った。彼はかなり年をとっており、70歳よりもはるかに年上に見えました。ひどく泣きながら、彼は報告があまりにも真実であると彼らに言いましたが、しかし彼は月からの使者の囚人を作り、王女が持ち帰られるのを防ぐためにできる限りのことをするつもりでした.
70 The men returned and told His Majesty all that had passed. On the fifteenth day of that month the Emperor sent a guard of two thousand warriors to watch the house. One thousand stationed themselves on the roof, another thousand kept watch round all the entrances of the house. All were well trained archers, with bows and arrows. The bamboo-cutter and his wife hid Princess Moonlight in an inner room.
70 男たちは戻ってきて、これまでのことをすべて陛下に話しました。その月の 15 日、皇帝は家を監視するために 2000 人の戦士の警備員を派遣しました。 1,000 人が屋根に陣取り、別の 1,000 人が家のすべての入り口を見張っていました。全員が弓と矢を使った、よく訓練された射手でした。竹取夫妻は月光姫を奥の部屋に隠した。
71 The old man gave orders that no one was to sleep that night, all in the house were to keep a strict watch, and be ready to protect the Princess. With these precautions, and the help of the Emperor’s men-at-arms, he hoped to withstand the moon-messengers, but the Princess told him that all these measures to keep her would be useless, and that when her people came for her nothing whatever could prevent them from carrying out their purpose. Even the Emperors men would be powerless. Then she added with tears that she was very, very sorry to leave him and his wife, whom she had learned to love as her parents, that if she could do as she liked she would stay with them in their old age, and try to make some return for all the love and kindness they had showered upon her during all her earthly life.
71 老人は、その夜は誰も寝てはならないと命じ、家中全員が厳重に監視し、王女を守る準備をするよう命じた。これらの予防措置と皇帝の兵士の助けを借りて、彼は月の使者に抵抗することを望んでいましたが、王女は彼女を維持するためのこれらすべての手段は役に立たないだろうと言いました.彼らが目的を遂行するのを妨げる可能性のあるものは何でも。皇帝の男たちでさえ無力だろう。それから彼女は涙を流しながら、彼女が両親として愛することを学んだ彼と彼の妻を離れることを非常に残念に思っていると付け加えました。地上での生涯を通じて彼女に注がれたすべての愛と優しさに対して、いくらかのお返しをしてください。
72 The night wore on! The yellow harvest moon rose high in the heavens, flooding the world asleep with her golden light. Silence reigned over the pine and the bamboo forests, and on the roof where the thousand men-at-arms waited.
72 夜が明けた！黄色い中秋の名月が天高く昇り、眠っている世界を金色の光であふれさせました。静寂が松林と竹林を支配し、千人の武士が待機していた屋根の上を支配した。
73 Then the night grew gray towards the dawn and all hoped that the danger was over—that Princess Moonlight would not have to leave them after all. Then suddenly the watchers saw a cloud form round the moon—and while they looked this cloud began to roll earthwards. Nearer and nearer it came, and every one saw with dismay that its course lay towards the house.
73 それから夜は明け方に向かって灰色になり、皆は危険が終わったことを願った — ムーンライト王女が結局彼らを離れる必要はなかった.すると突然、監視者たちは月の周りに雲が形成されているのを見ました。どんどん近づいてきて、誰もがそのコースが家に向かっているのを見てがっかりしました。
74 In a short time the sky was entirely obscured, till at last the cloud lay over the dwelling only ten feet off the ground. In the midst of the cloud there stood a flying chariot, and in the chariot a band of luminous beings. One amongst them who looked like a king and appeared to be the chief stepped out of the chariot, and, poised in air, called to the old man to come out.
74 短時間のうちに空は完全に覆い隠され、ついには雲が住居の上に地面からわずか 10 フィート離れて横たわった.雲の真ん中に空飛ぶ戦車が立っていて、戦車の中には光る存在の一団が立っていました。その中の王のように見え、酋長らしき人物が戦車から降りると、宙に浮いた体勢で老人に出て行けと呼びかけた。
75 “The time has come,” he said, “for Princess Moonlight to return to the moon from whence she came. She committed a grave fault, and as a punishment was sent to live down here for a time. We know what good care you have taken of the Princess, and we have rewarded you for this and have sent you wealth and prosperity. We put the gold in the bamboos for you to find.”
75 「月光姫が元の月に戻る時が来た。彼女は重大な過ちを犯し、罰としてしばらくここに住むように送られました。私たちはあなたがプリンセスを大切にしてくれたことを知っており、これに対してあなたに報酬を与え、あなたに富と繁栄を送った.あなたが見つけられるように、私たちは金を竹に入れます。
76 “I have brought up this Princess for twenty years and never once has she done a wrong thing, therefore the lady you are seeking cannot be this one,” said the old man. “I pray you to look elsewhere.”
76 「私はこの王女を 20 年間育ててきましたが、彼女は一度も悪いことをしたことがありません。ですから、あなたが探している女性はこの女性ではありません」と老人は言いました。 「他の場所を探してください。」
77 Then the messenger called aloud, saying:
77 使者は大声で呼んで言った。
78 “Princess Moonlight, come out from this lowly dwelling. Rest not here another moment.”
78 「ムーンライト姫、この卑しい住居から出てきなさい。しばらくここで休まないでください。」
79 At these words the screens of the Princess’s room slid open of their own accord, revealing the Princess shining in her own radiance, bright and wonderful and full of beauty.
79 この言葉を聞いて、プリンセスの部屋のスクリーンが勝手に開いて、自分の輝きで輝いている、明るく素晴らしく、美しさに満ちたプリンセスが姿を現した。
80 The messenger led her forth and placed her in the chariot. She looked back, and saw with pity the deep sorrow of the old man. She spoke to him many comforting words, and told him that it was not her will to leave him and that he must always think of her when looking at the moon.
80 使者は彼女を導き出し、戦車に乗せた。彼女は振り返り、同情とともに老人の深い悲しみを見た。彼女は彼に多くの慰めの言葉を話し、彼を離れることは彼女の意志ではなく、月を見るときはいつも彼女のことを考えなければならないと彼に言いました。
