柴田元幸［バナナ日和 vol. 2］
再発見・新発見のアメリカ黒人文学

　
Her motors stopped altogether and I could hear the sound of branches cracking and snapping off below her landing gear. I could see her plain now, all silver and shining in the light of the fire with T. W. A. in black letters under her wings. She was sailing smoothly out of the Square when she hit the high power lines that follow the Birmingham highway through the town. It made a loud crash. It sounded like the wind blowing the door of a tin barn shut. She only hit with her landing gear, but I could see the sparks flying, and the wires knocked loose from the poles were spitting blue sparks and whipping around like a bunch of snakes and leaving circles of blue sparks in the darkness.
　The plane had knocked five or six wires loose, and they were dangling and swinging, and every time they touched they threw off more sparks. The wind was making them swing, and when I got over there, there was a crackling and spitting screen of blue haze across the highway. I lost my hat running over, but I didn’t stop to look for it. I was among the first and I could hear the others pounding behind me across the grass of the Square. They were yelling to beat all hell, and they came up fast, pushing and shoving, and someone got pushed against a swinging wire. It made a sound like when a blacksmith drops a red hot horseshoe into a barrel of water, and the steam comes up. I could smell the flesh burning. The first time I’d ever smelled it. I got up close and it was a woman. It must have killed her right off. She was lying in a puddle stiff as a board, with pieces of glass insulators that the plane had knocked off the poles lying all around her. Her white dress was torn, and I saw one of her tits hanging out in the water and her thighs. Some woman screamed and fainted and almost fell on a wire, but a man caught her. The sheriff and his men were yelling and driving folks back with guns shining in their hands, and everything was lit up blue by the sparks. The shock had turned the woman almost as black as the nigger. I was trying to see if she wasn’t blue too, or if it was just the sparks, and the sheriff drove me away.

　エンジンがすっかり止まって、飛行機の脚の下で枝がバリバリパチパチ折れる音が聞こえた。もういまではすごくはっきり見えた。焚火の炎に照らされて機体がピカピカ銀色に光って、翼の裏側に黒い字でTWAと書いてあった。広場からすうっと上手く出ていったと思ったら、町を通ってバーミングハム街道ぞいにのびている高圧線にぶつかった。ガシャーン、と大きな音がした。納屋のブリキの扉が風で閉まったみたいな音だった。ぶつかったのは脚だけだったけど火花が飛ぶのが見えたし、電線が電柱からもぎ取られて青い火花を吐き出し、蛇の群れみたいにくねくね回って闇のなかに青い火花の輪を残していった。

　五本か六本電線がもぎ取られぶらぶら垂れて、電線同士が触れるたびにまた火花が飛び出た。風で電線が揺れて、そっちへ行ってみるとパチパチブツブツ鳴る青いもや・・の幕が街道のあたりを覆っていた。駆けていく最中にぼくは帽子を飛ばされたけど止まって拾いはしなかった。ぼくは真っ先に着いた一団のなかにいて、ほかの連中がどすどす広場の芝の上を駆けてくるのが聞こえた。みんな地獄の鬼よりすごい声でわめいて、押しあいへしあいしながらぐんぐん駆けてきて、誰かが押されて揺れる電線にぶつかった。ジュッ、と鍛冶屋が真っ赤に焼けた蹄鉄ていてつを水の入った樽に落として湯気が上がるときみたいな音がした。肉が燃える匂いがした。人間の肉が燃える匂いを嗅いだのは初めてだった。そばに寄ってみたら女の人だった。即死だったにちがいない。水たまりのなかに板きれみたいにコチコチになって倒れていて、電柱からもげたガラスの絶縁体のかけらが周りじゅうに転がっていた。白いドレスが破れて、おっぱいの片方が水のなかに垂れて太ももが両方見えていた。別の女の人が悲鳴を上げて失神して電線の上に倒れそうになったけど男の人がつかまえてやった。部下たちを連れた保安官が大声でわめきながらピカピカの銃を振り回して野次馬を追っ払い、何もかもが火花に青く照らし出されていた。感電のせいで女の人はニガーとほとんど同じくらい黒くなっていた。青くもなってるのか、それとも青いのは火花だけなのか、見てみようとしたけど保安官に追っ払われた。
　

　
5. Then spake he to his father thus: “lo, I am become a man. Shall I not go forth and seek my fortune, and perchance find a maiden of exceeding virtue that I may take her to wife?”
6. “Perhaps,” saith his father, “but wherefore goeth thou to a far city to seek a wife among Jezebels, when there be Cora, thy neighbor’s daughter, a damsel of great piety, who wilt bear thee many sons, and moreover, she is a mighty biscuit cooker before the Lord.”
7. Then did Jazzbo stand before his father and snort with scorn, saying, “Wherefore must I wed a cooker of biscuits when I crave not bread? Behold, man was not made to live by bread alone, but upon every thrill that proceedth from life. Go to, now, wherefore should I marry that drink of boiled water, when in great Babylon there are females that are as a cocktail to the tonsils.”

５　然さればジャズボ、父に言へり、「見よ、我、男になれり。ならば我、世に出て富の道を求むべきにあらずや、それでついでにさ、大いに徳高き乙女を見出し、妻に娶めとるべきあらずや」

６　「まあそうかもしれんけど」と父言へり、「然されど汝、何なに故ゆゑに遠くの都市まちへ行きて邪よこしまなる毒婦の中に妻を探すや、お隣のお嬢さんのコーラちやん、信心篤き少女子をとめごにして、必ずや汝に多くの息子を産まん、それにあの子の焼く丸麺麭パンは天下一品だぜ」

７　然しかしてジャズボ、父の前に立ち、軽蔑さげすみに鼻を鳴して言へり、「我の焦こがれしもの麺麭には非ず、ならば何故なにゆゑ我、丸麺麭焼きを娶るべきか。見よ、人は麺麭のみにて生くるに非ず、生より出いづる諸すべての快け楽らくを味はふが為なれば。勘弁してくれよ、我なんぞあんなただのお湯湧わかしたみたいのを娶るべけんや、大いなるバビロンに行きたればこりやもう扁桃腺に入つてくるカクテルみたいないい女がわんさといるつてのにさ」
　

　
Lawson grabbed the collar of his shirt and snatched him forward; again he lay sprawled on the floor. He smelt the acrid odor of a cigar butt. Blows came so hard and fast that the sheer pain of them made him realize that they were beating him with a blackjack. He groaned. The toe of a shoe came like a jabbing hot iron into the nape of his neck; he gave a short, involuntary scream. They jerked him to his feet and pushed him again into the chair. He saw a blob of blood on his shirt.
　“Do you want to talk now, boy, or do you want some more?”
　His lips moved, but no words came. Johnson placed a hand tenderly upon his shoulder.
　“Listen, boy, don’t you want to go and see your wife?”
　“Yes, sir,” he managed to whisper.
　“Then tell us what you did.”
　“I _{. . .} I-I ain’t done n-n-nothing _{. . .}”
　A fist exploded between his eyes and he went backwards, toppling with the chair; his head struck the wall, banging twice from the force of the blow.

　ローソンが彼のシャツの襟を摑み、ぐいっと前に引っぱった。彼はまたも床にばったり倒れた。葉巻の吸殻のえぐい臭いがした。殴打はあまりに強く、速く、そのすさまじい痛さに、棍棒で殴られていることを彼は悟った。彼はうめき声を漏らした。誰かの靴の爪先が、熱した鉄のようにうなじに突き刺さった。彼は思わず短い悲鳴を上げた。刑事たちは彼の体を摑んで立ち上がらせ、押してふたたび椅子に座らせた。シャツに血のしみが見えた。

　「どうだ、これで話したくなったか、それとももっとやってほしいか？」

　彼の唇が動いたが、言葉は出てこなかった。ジョンソンが片手を優しく彼の肩に置いた。

　「なあおい、お前、女房に会いに行きたくないか？」
　「はい、行きたいです」彼はかろうじて小声で言った。
　「じゃあ何をやったか話せ」
　「な、なにも……や、や、やってません」

　目と目のあいだで拳が炸裂し、彼はうしろに倒れ、椅子と一緒にひっくり返った。頭が壁にぶつかり、殴打の勢いで二度ガン、ガンと打った。
　

　
He was free! He remembered how he had hugged the few dollars Mrs. Wooten had given him and he wanted to run from the underground and yell his discovery to the world.

　He finally controlled his laughter and swabbed all the dirt walls of the cave with glue and pasted them with green bills; when he finished, he stood in the center of the room and marveled—— the walls blazed with an indescribable yellow-green fire. Yes, this room would be his main hideout; between him and the world that had rejected him would stand this mocking symbol. He had not stolen the money; he had simply taken it, just as a man would pick up firewood in a forest. And that was how the world aboveground now seemed to him, a wild forest filled with death, stalked by blind animals.

　俺は自由・・なんだ！　ミセス・ウーテンからもらっていたほんの数ドルを大切に抱え込んでいたことを彼は思い出した。この地下から飛び出して、自分の発見を世界に向かってわめきたかった。

　ようやく笑いを抑え込んで、洞穴の土壁のすべての面に糊を塗りたくり、緑の紙幣を貼りつけていった。それが済むと、部屋の真ん中に立ち、驚嘆の目で眺めた—— 壁はどこも、曰く言いがたい黄色っぽい緑色の炎に燃え立っていたのだ。そう、この部屋が主たる隠れ場所となるだろう。自分と、自分を切り捨てた世界とのあいだには、このすべてをあざ笑う象徴が立っている。俺は金を盗んだんじゃない。ただ取ったんだ、人が森のなかでたきぎを拾うみたいに。そして上の世界はいままさにそのようなものに思えた。野生林—— 死に満ちていて、盲目の動物たちがうろついている。