信号手

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「おーい、下の人!」

“HALLOA! Below there!”

そう呼びかける声を聞いたとき、男は小屋の戸口に立ち、短い棒に巻きつけた旗を手にしていた。地形を考えれば、声がどちらから来たのか迷うはずはないと思えただろう。ところが彼は、ほぼ真上にあたる急な切り通しの上に立つ私を見上げようとはせず、くるりと向きを変えて線路の先を見下ろしたのである。そのやり方には何か妙なところがあったが、何がどう妙なのかは、命に懸けても言えなかった。ただ、私の注意を引くには十分に妙だったことは確かだ。深い溝の底にいる彼の姿は遠近のせいで縮んで見え、影にも沈んでいた。一方、私は彼のはるか上にいて、怒ったような夕日の輝きにすっかり浸っていたので、彼の姿を見つける前に手をかざして目を覆わなければならなかったのだ。

When he heard a voice thus calling to him, he was standing at the door of his box, with a flag in his hand, furled round its short pole. One would have thought, considering the nature of the ground, that he could not have doubted from what quarter the voice came; but instead of looking up to where I stood on the top of the steep cutting nearly over his head, he turned himself about, and looked down the Line. There was something remarkable in his manner of doing so, though I could not have said for my life what. But I know it was remarkable enough to attract my notice, even though his figure was foreshortened and shadowed, down in the deep trench, and mine was high above him, so steeped in the glow of an angry sunset, that I had shaded my eyes with my hand before I saw him at all.

「おーい、下の人!」

“Halloa! Below!”

線路の先を見ていた彼は、もう一度体の向きを変え、目を上げて、はるか頭上にいる私の姿を見つけた。

From looking down the Line, he turned himself about again, and, raising his eyes, saw my figure high above him.

「そちらへ下りて、お話しできる道はありませんか。」

“Is there any path by which I can come down and speak to you?”

彼は返事をせずに私を見上げ、私も、つまらない問いを急いで繰り返して彼を急かすことはせず、じっと見下ろしていた。ちょうどそのとき、大地と空気にかすかな震えが走り、それはたちまち激しい脈動と、迫りくる轟音に変わった。私は思わず後ずさりした。まるでその力に引きずり込まれそうな気がしたのだ。この疾走する列車から立ちのぼった蒸気が私の高さまで届いて通り過ぎ、景色の上をかすめて消えていくと、私はもう一度下を見た。彼は、列車が通る間に掲げていた旗を、また巻き直していた。

He looked up at me without replying, and I looked down at him without pressing him too soon with a repetition of my idle question. Just then there came a vague vibration in the earth and air, quickly changing into a violent pulsation, and an oncoming rush that caused me to start back, as though it had force to draw me down. When such vapour as rose to my height from this rapid train had passed me, and was skimming away over the landscape, I looked down again, and saw him refurling the flag he had shown while the train went by.

私は問いを繰り返した。しばらくの間、彼はじっと私を見つめているようだったが、やがて巻いた旗で、私と同じ高さにある、二、三百ヤードほど離れた地点を指し示した。私は下に向かって「わかりました!」と叫び、その地点へ向かった。そこで注意深く辺りを見回すと、ジグザグに下りる粗末な道が刻まれているのが見つかったので、それをたどっていった。

I repeated my inquiry. After a pause, during which he seemed to regard me with fixed attention, he motioned with his rolled-up flag towards a point on my level, some two or three hundred yards distant. I called down to him, “All right!” and made for that point. There, by dint of looking closely about me, I found a rough zigzag descending path notched out, which I followed.

切り通しは非常に深く、しかも並外れて険しかった。じっとりと湿った岩を削って造ってあり、下りるにつれて岩はいっそう水を含み、ぬるぬるしてきた。そのため道のりはかなり長く感じられ、私は、彼が道を指し示したときの、ためらいとも強いられたともつかない、不思議な様子を思い返す時間を持てた。

The cutting was extremely deep, and unusually precipitate. It was made through a clammy stone, that became oozier and wetter as I went down. For these reasons, I found the way long enough to give me time to recall a singular air of reluctance or compulsion with which he had pointed out the path.

ジグザグの道をかなり下りて、再び彼の姿が見えるようになると、彼は列車が先ほど通った線路の上、レールの間に立っていた。まるで私が現れるのを待ち構えているような姿勢だった。左手をあごに当て、その左肘を、胸の前で交差させた右手に載せている。あまりに待ち受けるような、見張るような様子だったので、私は不思議に思い、しばし足を止めた。

When I came down low enough upon the zigzag descent to see him again, I saw that he was standing between the rails on the way by which the train had lately passed, in an attitude as if he were waiting for me to appear. He had his left hand at his chin, and that left elbow rested on his right hand, crossed over his breast. His attitude was one of such expectation and watchfulness that I stopped a moment, wondering at it.

私は再び下り始め、鉄道の路面に降り立って彼に近づくと、彼が浅黒く血色の悪い男で、黒いひげを生やし、眉がかなり濃いことに気づいた。彼の持ち場は、私がこれまでに見た中でもことに寂しく陰気な場所だった。両側には、水のしたたるぎざぎざの岩壁がそそり立ち、見えるのは細長い空だけだった。一方の眺めは、この巨大な地下牢のような溝が曲がりくねって続いているだけで、もう一方の短い眺めは、陰鬱な赤い灯と、それよりなお陰鬱な黒いトンネルの入口で終わっていた。その堂々たる造りには、野蛮で、気の滅入る、近寄りがたい気配があった。この場所には日の光がほとんど届かないため、土と死の臭いがし、冷たい風がひっきりなしに吹き抜けるので、私は自然の世界から出てしまったかのような寒気を覚えた。

I resumed my downward way, and stepping out upon the level of the railroad, and drawing nearer to him, saw that he was a dark, sallow man, with a dark beard and rather heavy eyebrows. His post was in as solitary and dismal a place as ever I saw. On either side, a dripping-wet wall of jagged stone, excluding all view but a strip of sky; the perspective one way only a crooked prolongation of this great dungeon; the shorter perspective in the other direction terminating in a gloomy red light, and the gloomier entrance to a black tunnel, in whose massive architecture there was a barbarous, depressing, and forbidding air. So little sunlight ever found its way to this spot, that it had an earthy, deadly smell; and so much cold wind rushed through it, that it struck chill to me, as if I had left the natural world.

彼が動く前に、私は手を伸ばせば触れられるほど近くまで来ていた。それでも私の目から視線を外さないまま、彼は一歩後ろへ下がり、片手を上げた。

Before he stirred, I was near enough to him to have touched him. Not even then removing his eyes from mine, he stepped back one step, and lifted his hand.

ここは寂しい持ち場ですね、と私は言った。上のあちらから見下ろしたときから、強く心を引かれたのです。訪ねてくる人などめったにいないでしょう。ただ、迷惑な珍客でなければよいのですが、と。私のことを、彼はただ、生涯狭い範囲に閉じ込められていたが、ようやく自由の身になって、この大工事に新しく興味を覚えた男としか見なかっただろう。そんな趣旨のことを話したが、どんな言葉を使ったのか、自分でもよくわからない。もともと私は会話を切り出すのが得意ではないうえに、この男には何か私をひるませるところがあったからだ。

This was a lonesome post to occupy (I said), and it had riveted my attention when I looked down from up yonder. A visitor was a rarity, I should suppose; not an unwelcome rarity, I hoped? In me, he merely saw a man who had been shut up within narrow limits all his life, and who, being at last set free, had a newly-awakened interest in these great works. To such purpose I spoke to him; but I am far from sure of the terms I used; for, besides that I am not happy in opening any conversation, there was something in the man that daunted me.

彼はトンネルの口の近くにある赤い灯に、実に奇妙な視線を向け、その周りをくまなく見回した。まるで灯から何かが欠けているかのようだった。それから私を見た。

He directed a most curious look towards the red light near the tunnel’s mouth, and looked all about it, as if something were missing from it, and then looked at me.