HOW ZACKERY SET A HEN


Mister Ferris -- I see that most everybody writes something for the chicken papers nowadays, and I thought perhaps maybe I can do that too, as I write all about what took place with me last summer; you know -- other of you don't know, then I'll tell you -- that Katrina (that is my wife) and me, we keep some chickens for a long time, and one day she said to me, "Zacharias" (that is my name), "why don't you put some of the eggs under that old blue hen chicken, I think she wants to sit."
"Well," I said, "maybe I guess I will" so I picked out some of the best eggs and took them out to the barn where the old hen make her nest in the side of the haymow, about five six feet up; now you see, I never was very big up and down, but I was pretty big all the way around in the middle, so I couldn't reach up till I went and got a barrel to stand on; well, I climbed on the barrel, and when my head rose up by the nest -- that old hen gave me such a kick that my nose runs all over my face with blood, and when I dodged back that blasted old barrel he break, and I went down kershlam; I didn't think I could go inside of barrel before, but there I was, and I fit so tight that I couldn't get me out everyway, my feet was pushed way up under my armholes. When I found I was tight stuck I holler "Katrina! Katrina!" and when she come and see me stuck in the barrel up to my armholes, with my face all blood and eggs, she just lay down on the hay and laughed and laughed, till I got so!
mad. I said "What you lay there and laugh like a old fool, hah? Why don't you come pull me out? And she sat up and said "Oh, wipe off your chin and pull your feet down" Then she laid back and laughed like she would split herself more as ever. Mad as I was I thought to myself, Katrina, she speaks English pretty good, but I only said, with my greatest dignity, "Katrina, will you pull me out of this barrel?" and she saw that I look bloody red, so she said, "Of course I will, Zacharias" Then she laid me and the barrel down on our side, and I took hold of the door sill, and Katrina she pull on the barrel, but the first pull she made I yelled "Donner and blitzen, stop that; there are nails in the barrel!" You see the nails bent down when I went in, but when I come out they stick in me all the way around; well, to make a short story long, I told Katrina to go and tell neighbour Houseman to bring a saw and saw me this barrel off; well, he came, and he likes to split himself w!
ith laughter too, but he rolled me over and sawed the barrel all the way around off, and I got up with half a barrel around my waist; then Katrina she said, "Zacharias, wait a little until I get a pattern of the new overskirt you have on," but I didn't say a word. I just got a knife out and whittel the hoops off and sling that confounded old barrel in the wood piles.
By the by when I come in the house Katrina said, so soft like, "Zacharias, weren't you going to put some eggs under that old blue hen?" Then I said, in my deepest voice, "Katrina, if you ever say that to me again, I'll get a bill of writing from the lawyer for you," and I tell you, she didn't say that anymore. Well, Mr. Ferris, when I step on the barrel now, I don't step on it, I get a box.

Translated to English by Yuko Matsumoto
Digitized by Akiko Fukuhara



●解説
　「ソケリーはいかにして雌鳥（メンドリ）に卵を抱かせたか」
　作者は不明。
　北米で19世紀後半に演芸会などで人気があった出し物。

　これは、『赤毛のアン』第19章に登場する。
　アヴォンリーの公会堂で開かれた演芸会で、この「ソケリーはいかにして雌鳥に卵を抱かせたか」が朗読され、アンが楽しく笑い転げるシーンがある。

　この作品は、ドイツから北米に移民してきたばかりで、まだ英語がろくに話せないソケリー（正しいドイツ語の名前はザッカリー、またはザカライアス）が、ドイツ語風の発音のへんてこな英語で語る。
　語る内容は、高いところにある雌鳥の巣に手を伸ばそうとしてタルに上がったものの、タルの板が抜けて体がすっぽりと木枠にはまり、抜け出せなくなって無様な格好になるというもの。
　この内容は、続編の『アンの青春』第18章にもパロディとして登場する。アンが小屋の屋根にはまって抜け出せなくなるのだ。

　この作品の原文は、ドイツ語風の英語で意味不明なため、上記のように一般的な英語に訳してみた。

　ドイツ語風の英語とはどんなものか、原文を、冒頭から紹介すると、

Meester Veeris,I see dot mosd efferpoty wrides someding for de shicken bapers nowtays, und I tought praps meppe I can do dot too, as I wrides all apout vat dook blace mit me lasht summer.....などと続く。

　このドイツ語風の原文は、『注釈付き「赤毛のアン」』（原題は "The Annotated Anne of Greengables" Oxford Universuty Press, 1997）のp.474〜p.475に出ている。
　それを一般的な英語に松本が訳し直した。

なお、この『注釈付き「赤毛のアン」』を日本語に訳した『完全版「赤毛のアン」』（原書房、山本史郎訳、1999）には、この作品の日本語訳も英訳も収録されていない。日本の読者はこの作品の全容を読むことができないので、このライブラリーにて英訳を紹介した。
　日本語訳は、単行本『アンの青春』（松本侑子訳、集英社、2000年春刊行）でご紹介する。

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