88歳おじいちゃんの渡米記🇺🇸まえがき①「アメリカンドリームの芽生え」

私がアメリカに憧れ始めたのは、十歳位の頃からである。それは、従兄の妻の兄が単身アラスカに渡り、財を成して帰り、従兄がそれに刺激されて、海外飛躍を志し、南方の地を選んだのである。未開のボルネオの開拓を夢見て遂にそのボルネオに渡り、汗して着々成果を収めたのであるが、三年目に世界中を襲ったあの、悪性のインフルエンザに冒され、敢えなくボルネオの地に骨を埋める結果となった事は残念である。兄が成功していたら、私も南洋に渡っていたかもしれない。

It was at about the age of ten that I first fell in love with America. The elder brother of my cousin's wife had gone to Alaska by himself, made his fortune, and returned to Japan. Spurred on by his brother-in-law's successes, my cousin decided to go abroad and left for the South Seas. His dream was to open up land for development in primitive Borneo, and at last, he arrived there. Slowly and surely, by the sweat of his brow, his efforts began to bear fruit, but in the third year overseas, he fell victim to an epidemic of malignant influenza that had spread all around the world. Sadly, my cousin's remains were laid to rest in Borneo. Had he succeeded, I, too, might have made my way to the South Seas.

しかし、南洋は藩地だと聞いていたので、それでは、私はアメリカの大地を志そうと思った。私は農家の出身なので、信州の貧農の苦しさは、子供心にも身にしみついていたのである。アメリカは日本の何十倍もあり広大な土地と聞き、そんなところで機械化した、大農場主になれたら、さぞ素晴しいだろうと憧れた。それには先ず語学が先決条件であるが、こんな田舎では塾も無く、学校へ行く境遇でもないので、知人から中学生教科書を借りてABCから始めたが、発音など判る筈は無い、それでも修得すれば筆談でも事足りると、飽くことなく勉強したものである。

But I had heard it was a savage country, and therefore set my sights on that vast land, America. Having been born into a farming family, I had been inured as a child to the hardships of living in the poor farmlands of the Shinshu region. I knew that America was an immense nation, tens of times the size of Japan, and I yearned to make a grand life there as the owner of a large, mechanized farm. But before setting out upon such a venture, I first had to learn something of the language. There were no suitable schools in the countryside, however, and my family lacked the means to send me away to study. So I borrowed a middle-school textbook from an acquaintance and began with the ABCs. Of course, I had no hope of learning how to speak the language, but I thought it might be enough if I could just learn my letters and communicate through writing. I never tired of my studies.

私は十三歳から一年間は家業の農業に従事し、朝はまだき明けやらぬ内から、夜は星を頂いて家路につくという苛酷な農業体験をし、それでも一生うだつ上がらない惨めさを、いやという程見せつけられた。 私は元来病身で発育悪く「この子は、とうてい百姓には向かない、といっても貧農ではこれ以上の学校へもやれない。困ったものだ。」と常に両親を悩ませたものである。

When I was thirteen, I began my career in farming. It lasted one year. Walking the roads to the fields before the sun rose, and then back again while the stars hung high in the sky, I tasted the harshness of farm life and saw how miserable it would be to live my whole life this way, with no hope of advancement. I had always been a sick and undergrown child, constantly troubling my parents, who knew I was not cut out for farming, but were too poor to pay for my further education.

そんな折、降って湧いた様に、町の菓子屋から一人娘の養子にと話があった。父は一も二もなく承諾したが、母は縁組は後の事にして使って見てほしいと慎重論であった。私はまだ養子縁組の何たるかを知る由もなかった。とにかく話が決まり数日後には町に出る事になる。農業をやるより楽なので一生懸命に働いたが、どうしてもこの人を父と呼ぶに物足りない事を悟る。三年目に養子を白紙に戻してほしい、その代わり弟子として働くからと宣言して相変わらずせっせと働いたが、 六年の年明けには退店。退店といっても普通の退店では無く、雪の深い夜半、着のみ着のまま逃げ帰ったのである。この頃は、涙なくしては読めない実話であるが、今回の渡米日記には関係ないので省略する事にする。

Around this time, like a bolt from the blue, came an offer for me to be taken into the house of a candy maker in town, as his adopted son and husband to his only daughter. My father consented in the blink of an eye, but my mother, more prudently, asked that they put me to work for a while, with the other arrangements postponed for the time being. I had not the slightest idea what adoption entailed. In any event, the matter was settled, and it was decided that I would leave for town in a few days. Knowing it was an easier life than farming, I worked hard at the shop, but realized that I would never be able to bring myself to call that man my father. In my third year there, I asked that the plans for my adoption be dropped, but said that I would stay on as an apprentice. Still, I kept working diligently, but at the beginning of my sixth year, I decided to leave the shop. It was a bit different from a typical resignation, as I ran away late one snowy night carrying only the clothes I had on my back. Even today, I cannot read over the events of this true story without tears in my eyes, but it has little to do with the diary of my trip to America, so I will leave the subject alone for now.

私がまだ在店していた頃、森永製菓の社長森永太一郎氏が裸一貫でアメリカに渡り、皿洗いまでしてキャラメルの技術を身につけて帰り、森永製菓を興したという立身伝を読んだ。「そうだ農業でなく商業でもやって行ける。どうしてもこんな狭い土地にしがみついて一生終わりたくない。アメリカに行こう。」とその機会をねらっていたのである。

While I was still employed at the shop, I had read the story of Taichiro Morinaga, president of the Morinaga Candy Company. Morinaga had gone to America without a penny to his name, learned how to manufacture caramel while working all sorts of odd jobs, even washing dishes, and returned to Japan to revive his family's business. "That's it," I thought, "business is the way to make it, not farming. I don't want to live out the rest of my life in this little country. I'm going to America." And I waited for my chance.

斯くして私は二十歳の春、菓子屋を退店後間もなく、在京の伯母を頼って上京したのである。それから私は六年間の菓子職も生かせず、転々と職を変えながらも、思いはやはりアメリカであった。そんな頃、偶然横浜のアメリカ通いの船のパン屋で募集があり、いよいよ時機到来と勇んで応募した。アメリカに渡ったら密入国しようという魂胆だったのである。ところが、いざ保証人という事で伯母に頼んだところ、頭から大喝一声「馬鹿野郎、昔から船乗りは板子一枚下は地獄の底だといわれている。そんなところへお前をやれるか。絶対反対だ。」と断わられたのである。広い東京に頼るは伯母一人。涙を呑んで諦めた。 伯母といっても私とは母子程としの離れた従姉であり、子が無く行く行くは私を養子にする心算だったのである。

In the spring of my twentieth year, not long after I had left the candy shop, I went to live with my aunt in Tokyo. Without making any use whatsoever of my six years' experience making candy, I moved from job to job, thinking all the while about going to America. Around that time, I found out that there was a job available as a baker on a ship in Yokohama that sailed between Japan and the U.S.A. The plan was to sail to America and smuggle myself in. But to sail, I needed a guarantor, and asked my aunt. "You idiot!" she yelled, "it's an old saying that out on the sea, there's just one plank between you and the bottom of hell. Do you think I'm going to let you do something like that? Never!" My aunt was the only person I could ask in all of Tokyo. I swallowed my tears and gave up. Although I called her my aunt, she was really my cousin, but she was old enough to be my mother. She had no children and wanted to adopt me someday as her own son.

English translation by Paul Atkins
英語のリスニングの練習をしたい方は、是非動画もご覧ください。

#アメリカ #夢代人  #アメリカンドリーム
#英語 #バイリンガル