グレート・ギャッツビー 対訳 第九章-4
グレート・ギャッツビー 第九章-4
ヘンリー・C・ギャッツと署名された電報がミネソタ州のある街から届いたのは3日目の事だったと思う。そこには、差出人がすぐに出発することと、到着まで葬儀を延期して欲しい旨だけが書かれていた。
それはギャッツビーの父親だった。生真面目な老人で、すっかり気弱になりオロオロしていて、9月でまだ暑いというのに長い安物のコートを着ていた。目は興奮してうるみ、彼の手からバッグと傘を受け取ると、白いものの混じった薄いアゴ髭(ひげ)をひっきりなしに引っ張り始めるんで、コートを脱がせるのに苦労した。今にも倒れそうなんでサロンに連れて行き、何か食べるものを用意させてる間、そこに座らせておいた。でも何も食べようとはせず、震える手からコップの牛乳がこぼれた。
「シカゴの新聞を見たんです」彼が言った。「シカゴの新聞に全部載ってやしたんで。それですぐに出発したんです」
「どうやって連絡を取ればいいのかわからなかったものですから」
彼の目は何も見ていないのに、それでいて部屋中を見渡している。
「狂ったヤツじゃった」と彼は言った。「狂ってたとしか言いようもありませんやね」
「コーヒーをお飲みになりますか？」と聞いてみた。
「結構です。もう大丈夫でさぁ。ええと、お名前は？」
「キャラウェイです」
「ええ、もう大丈夫さぁ。ジミーはどこにやりなすったんで？」
息子が身を横たえている居間に連れて行き、二人きりにしておいた。ワンパク坊主たちが階段を登ってきて玄関をのぞき込んでたんで、誰が来たかを教えてやると、しぶしぶながら出ていった。
しばらくして、ギャッツ氏がドアを開けて出てきた。口を開けたまま、顔を少し紅潮させ、目からはハラハラと涙をこぼしていた。彼は死に対してさほど驚かない年齢に達していた。今、初めて周りを見渡してみて、玄関の天井の高さとその豪華さ、部屋の奥に見えるさらに立派な部屋の数々が目に入った時、悲しみに打ち砕かれつつも畏敬と誇りの念が混じっていた。二階の寝室に案内して、彼がコートとベストを脱いでいる間、すべての手配は彼が来るまで延期されている事を教えてやった。
I think it was on the third day that a telegram signed Henry C. Gatz arrived from a town in Minnesota. It said only that the sender was leaving immediately and to postpone the funeral until he came.
It was Gatsby's father, a solemn old man very helpless and dismayed, bundled up in a long cheap ulster against the warm September day. His eyes leaked continuously with excitement and when I took the bag and umbrella from his hands he began to pull so incessantly at his sparse grey beard that I had difficulty in getting off his coat. He was on the point of collapse so I took him into the music room and made him sit down while I sent for something to eat. But he wouldn't eat and the glass of milk spilled from his trembling hand.
"I saw it in the Chicago newspaper," he said. "It was all in the Chicago newspaper. I started right away."
"I didn't know how to reach you."
His eyes, seeing nothing, moved ceaselessly about the room.
"It was a mad man," he said. "He must have been mad."
"Wouldn't you like some coffee?" I urged him.
"I don't want anything. I'm all right now, Mr.----"
"Carraway."
"Well, I'm all right now. Where have they got Jimmy?"
I took him into the drawing-room, where his son lay, and left him there. Some little boys had come up on the steps and were looking into the hall; when I told them who had arrived they went reluctantly away.
After a little while Mr. Gatz opened the door and came out, his mouth ajar, his face flushed slightly, his eyes leaking isolated and unpunctual tears. He had reached an age where death no longer has the quality of ghastly surprise, and when he looked around him now for the first time and saw the height and splendor of the hall and the great rooms opening out from it into other rooms his grief began to be mixed with an awed pride. I helped him to a bedroom upstairs; while he took off his coat and vest I told him that all arrangements had been deferred until he came.
