昔々、悪魔の手で恐ろしい鏡が一枚作られたことがあった。その鏡には不思議な力があり、写すものをことごとく醜く、ねじ曲がって見せる呪われた力を持っていた。
Long, long ago, an evil demon once forged a fearsome mirror. The mirror was endowed with a strange power: whatever it reflected appeared distorted and ugly, as if some curse had been laid upon it.
悪魔たちはその鏡を抱えて天高く飛び上がり、神様までもを笑い者にしようと企てた。ところが、調子に乗りすぎたあげく、彼らは鏡を手から滑り落とし、鏡は地上へと真っ逆さまに落ちて粉々に砕け散ってしまった。
The demons carried this mirror up into the sky, intending to make a mockery of even the gods themselves. But, growing reckless in their delight, they let the mirror slip from their hands, and it plunged down to the earth and shattered into countless tiny pieces.
砕けた破片はあまりに細かく、何億という小さな見えないチリとなって、世界中の風に乗って散らばっていった。それを目に浴びた者はあらゆるものが醜く見え、心臓に刺さった者は心が氷のように冷たくなってしまうのだという。
The fragments were so fine that they became invisible dust, scattered upon the winds of the world by the billions. Anyone struck by a splinter in the eye, it was said, would see all things as ugly; anyone whose heart was pierced would feel his soul grow cold as ice.
北のほうのとある町には、カイとゲルダという仲のよい幼馴染が住んでいた。二人は隣同士の屋根裏部屋を行き来して、まるで兄妹のように毎日を共に過ごしていた。
In a certain town in the far north, there lived two close childhood friends, Kai and Gerda. Their attic windows faced one another, and the two of them passed every day in each other's company, like brother and sister.
ある夏の日のことであった。窓辺で薔薇の花を眺めていたカイの目に、突然「いたっ」と鋭い痛みが走った。そして同時に、心臓のあたりにも氷のような冷たさが走るのを感じた。
It happened on a summer day. Kai was gazing at the roses by the window when a sharp pain — "Ouch!" — pricked his eye. At the same instant, he felt a deep, icy cold strike him near the heart.
その瞬間から、優しかった少年は別人のように変わってしまった。母やゲルダに対しても冷たい言葉ばかりを投げかけ、薔薇の花を見ては「醜い、こんな花のどこが美しいというのか」と吐き捨てるようになった。
From that moment, the gentle boy became as though another person altogether. He had only cold words for his mother and for Gerda, and when he looked at the roses he would say, "Ugly things. What is so beautiful about flowers like these?" — and spit them away.
冬がやってきたある日、カイは広場へそりを引いていった。子どもたちが大きな馬車のそりにこっそりつないで遊ぶのを真似て、カイは自分のそりを、ふいに広場へ現れた純白の大そりに結びつけてしまった。
One winter day, Kai pulled his sled out into the town square. The children there liked to fasten their little sleds in secret onto passing carriage-sleds for a ride; copying them, Kai tied his sled to a large pure-white sled that had suddenly appeared in the square.
その大そりに乗っていたのは、人の目から見たこともないほど美しく、しかし恐ろしいほど冷たい女性、すなわち雪の女王であった。彼女のそりは音もなくはるか北へと走り去り、カイは一片の声も上げる間もなく、女王とともにどこかへ連れ去られてしまった。
Inside that great sled sat a woman more beautiful than anyone had ever set eyes on, and yet colder than the bitterest of frost — the Snow Queen herself. Her sled swept off silently toward the far north, and before Kai could so much as cry out, he was carried away with her to a place no one knew.
春が巡ってきても、カイはついに町へ戻らなかった。みなが「カイは死んだのだろう」と諦めかけている中、ゲルダだけは「たとえこの命を賭けてでも、必ずカイを見つけ出してみせる」と固く決意した。
Spring came around, but Kai did not return to the town. Everyone began to give up, saying, "Surely Kai is dead by now," but Gerda alone resolved firmly: "Even if it should cost me my own life, I will find Kai again, no matter what."
新しい赤い靴をお供えのように川に流して幸運を祈ると、彼女は小舟に乗って一人北を目指して旅立った。途中、彼女は薔薇好きの魔法使いのお婆さんに引き留められ、何度も思い出を遠ざけられそうになりかけた。
She gave her new red shoes to the river as an offering for good fortune, then set out alone in a small boat, heading north. Along the way, she was kept by an old woman who loved roses, and very nearly let her memories be lulled away from her altogether.
それでも自分の使命を思い出した彼女は、お婆さんの家を抜け出し、再び旅を続けた。秋になり、たどり着いた森の中では、賢いカラスが「北の宮殿でカイらしき少年を見かけた」と教えてくれた。
But, remembering her purpose, she slipped out of the old woman's house and continued on her journey. Autumn came, and in the depths of a forest, a wise crow told her, "I have seen a boy who could be your Kai — at a palace far to the north."
森を抜けた先では、山賊の娘たちに捕らえられ、命を落としかねない危機にも遭った。だが、その娘たちの中の心優しい一人がゲルダの事情を聞いて深く同情し、自分のトナカイを彼女に貸し与えてくれたのだった。
Beyond the forest she was seized by the daughters of a band of robbers, and her very life seemed for a moment in peril. But one kind-hearted girl among them, on hearing Gerda's story, was deeply moved to pity, and lent her own reindeer to carry Gerda the rest of the way.
トナカイの背に乗り、ゲルダはひたすら北を目指して走り続けた。途中の凍てつく地で出会った賢いお婆さんは、「あなたの素朴な心こそが、何にも勝る力なのです」とゲルダに告げて送り出してくれた。
Upon the reindeer's back, Gerda rode on and on, ever northward without rest. In a frozen land along the way, a wise old woman met her and sent her onward, saying: "It is your own pure heart that is the greatest power you can ever have."
ついにたどり着いた雪の女王の宮殿は、見渡す限り氷で築かれた、生命の気配のない冷たい城であった。広間の中央には、心まで完全に凍りついたカイが、ばらばらの氷の破片を黙々と組み立てていた。
The Snow Queen's palace, when at last she reached it, was a cold castle built entirely of ice, with no sign of life as far as the eye could see. In the middle of the great hall sat Kai, his heart frozen through and through, silently piecing together shards of ice.
ゲルダはカイの姿を見るや否や、こらえきれずに駆け寄り、「カイ、私はずっとあなたを探していたのよ」と泣きながら彼に抱きついた。
The moment Gerda caught sight of him, unable to hold herself back, she ran to him and threw her arms around him, weeping: "Kai — I have been looking for you all this time."
彼女の温かい涙がカイの胸に落ちると、心臓に刺さっていた悪魔の鏡の欠片が、するすると溶けて流れ出した。同時に、目に入っていた小さな破片も、滝のような涙と一緒に流し出された。
When her warm tears fell upon his chest, the splinter of the demon's mirror in his heart slipped softly away and melted. At the same moment, the tiny shard in his eye too was washed out by tears that came pouring down like a waterfall.
「ゲルダ、こんなに冷たいところで、いったい僕は今まで何をしていたんだろう」とカイはようやく正気を取り戻し、二人は再会の喜びに声を上げて泣いた。
"Gerda — what on earth have I been doing here in this cold place?" Kai murmured, his senses returning to him at last, and the two of them wept aloud for joy at their reunion.
二人は手を取り合って氷の宮殿を後にし、長い長い帰り道を一歩ずつ、故郷の町へと向かって歩き始めた。
Hand in hand they left the palace of ice behind, and step by step set out down the long, long road that led back to their home town.
苦難の末に懐かしい町へ帰り着いた時、二人は自分たちがいつのまにかすっかり大人へと成長しつつあることに気がついた。悪魔の鏡が引き起こした恐ろしい出来事は、もはや遠い昔の夢にすぎなかった。幼い頃と変わらぬ深い愛情を胸に抱きながら、カイとゲルダはその後も、ともに穏やかな日々を送ったということである。
When at last, after all their hardships, they arrived back in the dear town they had known, the two of them noticed that they had grown up, quite without noticing it, into a young man and woman. The terrible thing that the demon's mirror had brought about was now no more than a distant childhood dream. With the same deep love they had known as children still in their hearts, Kai and Gerda are said to have lived out the rest of their days together in quiet happiness.