高い柱の上に、町を見下ろすようにして「幸福の王子」と呼ばれる一体の像が立っていた。全身は薄い純金の葉に覆われ、両の目には大粒の青いサファイアが、剣の柄には真っ赤なルビーが、惜しみなくはめ込まれていた。
High on a tall column above the town, looking down upon its streets, stood a statue known as the Happy Prince. From head to foot he was covered with thin leaves of pure gold; in each of his eyes was set a great blue sapphire, and in the hilt of his sword shone a single ruby of deep crimson.
町の人々は誰もがその像を仰ぎ見て、「あの王子のように幸せそうに見えればいいものを」と口々に語り合った。だが、その像が抱えている真実の悲しみについては、誰一人として気づく者はなかったのである。
Every person in the town looked up at the statue with admiration. "Would that we all looked as happy as that prince," they said to one another. But of the true sorrow that the statue carried within himself, there was not a soul who guessed.
生前の王子は、悲しみなど知るよしもないようなふうに、宮殿の中で毎日を笑って暮らしていた。何不自由のない暮らしの中で、城壁の外にどんな世界が広がっているかなど、考えてみたこともなかった。
In the years of his life, the prince had passed his days inside the palace laughing, in a manner that suggested he could not even have guessed sorrow existed. In a life without a single want, he had never once paused to wonder what kind of world lay beyond his castle walls.
しかし、死後にこの高い場所へ立てられてからは、町の隅々で人々が抱える貧しさや悲しみが、嫌でも目に入るようになってしまった。それ以来、王子の金で覆われた頬には、夜になるとひとりでに涙がこぼれ落ちるようになったのである。
But after his death, once he had been set upon this high place, the poverty and grief of every corner of his town entered his sight whether he wished it or no. From then on, when night came, tears began to roll of their own accord down the gilded cheeks of the prince.
ある秋の夜のことであった。エジプトへ渡るのが遅れた一羽の小さなツバメが、王子の足元の柱の上で羽根を休めることにした。「ここなら金で屋根が葺かれた寝床に泊まれそうだ」と、一人ご満悦であった。
It happened on an autumn night. A small swallow that had fallen behind on his journey to Egypt decided to rest his wings on the column at the feet of the prince. "I shall have a bedroom roofed in gold for the night," he thought to himself, well pleased.
ところが、ツバメがちょうど眠りに就こうかという折に、頭上から大きな冷たい水滴が落ちてきた。「雨が降ってもいないのにおかしいな」と上を見上げると、それは王子の流す涙にほかならなかった。
But just as he was preparing to drop off to sleep, a large, cold drop of water fell upon him from above. "Strange — there is no rain," he said, looking up. Yet it was nothing other than a tear shed by the prince himself.
「あちらの貧しい家では、母親が病気の子どもの看病に疲れ果てている。私の剣の柄のルビーを引き抜いて、あの母親に届けてやってくれないか」と、王子は震える声で頼んだ。
"In that poor house yonder, a mother is worn out from nursing her sick child. Pluck the ruby from the hilt of my sword and carry it to her," the prince begged him in a voice that trembled.
ツバメは初め断ろうとしたものの、王子のあまりにも切実な眼差しに負け、結局そのルビーを母親のもとへ運んだ。長旅に疲れていたにもかかわらず、貧しい母子の枕元にそっとルビーを置いてくると、ツバメは温かい気持ちで王子のもとへ帰り着いた。
At first the swallow meant to refuse, but the depth of yearning in the prince's eyes won him over, and in the end he carried the ruby to the mother. Tired though he was from his long journey, he laid the jewel gently by her pillow and returned to the prince warmed in heart.
翌朝、ツバメはいよいよエジプトへ旅立とうとしたが、王子は再び引き留めた。「町の屋根裏で、若く才能ある劇作家が、寒さと飢えのために行き倒れつつあるのだ。今度は私の片目のサファイアを持っていってやってくれないか」と、王子はすがるように頼んだ。
The next morning, the swallow was at last about to depart for Egypt, but the prince again called him back. "In a garret in the town, a young and gifted playwright is dying of cold and hunger. This time, will you take one of the sapphires that are my eyes to him?" the prince pleaded.
ツバメは「明日こそは出発する」と何度も自分に言い聞かせつつ、王子の言葉を断ることができなかった。サファイアを腕に抱えるようにして、彼は震える劇作家の机のそばまで飛んでいった。
"Tomorrow I really must set out," the swallow kept telling himself, but he could not refuse the prince's words. With the sapphire held close to his breast, he flew to the side of the shivering playwright's writing desk.
さらに次の日、王子は最後のサファイアをマッチ売りの少女に届けるようツバメに頼んだ。「両目を失ってしまったら、もう町を見ることもできないが、それでも構わない」と王子は言いきった。
On the following day, the prince asked the swallow to carry his last sapphire to a little match-seller in the street. "Once I have lost both my eyes I shall no longer be able to look upon the town — but even so, I do not mind," the prince said firmly.
目の見えなくなった王子を一人残して旅立つわけにはいかず、ツバメは「もう一生あなたのおそばを離れません」と固く決意した。それからというもの、ツバメは毎日町中を飛び回っては、見聞きしてきたことを王子に語って聞かせた。
The swallow could not bear to leave the now-blind prince all alone and fly away, and he resolved within himself, "I will never leave your side as long as I live." From that day on, the swallow flew about the town each day and brought back word of everything he had seen and heard.
「私の身を覆っているこの薄い金箔を一枚ずつはがして、貧しい人々に分けてやってほしい」という王子の言葉に応じ、ツバメは雪の降る町を毎日飛んでは、銀貨と化した金の葉を一枚、また一枚と運び続けた。
At the prince's request — "Take the thin gold leaves that cover my body and share them, one by one, with the poor of the town" — the swallow flew through the snowy streets day after day, carrying down one gilded leaf turned into a silver coin, then another, then another.
やがて王子の像はすっかり金を失い、見る影もない灰色のみすぼらしい姿に成り果ててしまった。けれども、金を分け与えられた子どもたちは久しぶりに腹を満たすことができ、貧しい家々には小さな笑顔が戻ってきたのである。
Before long the prince's statue had lost every leaf of its gold and become a poor, gray figure, no longer worth a second glance. And yet the children to whom that gold had been given were able at last to fill their bellies for the first time in days, and small smiles returned to the homes of the poor.
冬が深まるにつれて寒さはますます厳しくなった。それでもツバメは王子のそばを離れず、ある夜とうとう力尽き、「さようなら、愛しい王子様」と一言告げるなり、王子の足元で静かに息を引き取ってしまった。
As winter deepened, the cold grew ever harsher. Still the swallow did not leave the prince's side, until at last, one night, his strength failed him; with the words "Farewell, dear prince" softly spoken, he died quietly at the prince's feet.
その途端、王子の胸の中の鉛の心臓が、大きな音を立てて二つに割れた。それは、ツバメの死を悲しんだあまりのことであったに相違ない。
In that very instant, the leaden heart in the prince's breast cracked in two with a great sound. It can only have been from a grief too deep at the swallow's death to bear.
春になると、町の市長と議員たちは「あんなみすぼらしい像は、もはや町の体面に関わる」と決め、王子の像を引き倒して炉にかけることに決めた。ところが、不思議なことに、像の胸の中の鉛の心臓だけは、どれほど火にくべても溶けてくれなかった。
When spring came, the mayor and the town councillors declared that "such a shabby statue is now a disgrace to the town," and decided to pull it down and melt it in the furnace. Strangely, though, however long they fed the fire, the leaden heart within the breast of the statue would not melt at all.
それは結局、ツバメの亡骸とともに、町外れのゴミ捨て場へぽいと放り投げられてしまった。
In the end it was simply thrown aside, together with the swallow's body, onto a rubbish heap on the edge of town.
しかしその時、天国から地上を見下ろしていた神様は、傍らの天使にこう告げた。「あの町から、この世で最も尊いものを二つだけ持ってくるがよい」と。天使は迷うことなく、王子の鉛の心臓と、その足元に倒れたツバメの亡骸を選び取って、神様のもとへ持ち帰ったのであった。
But at that moment, the God who looked down upon the earth from Heaven turned to an angel beside him and said: "Bring me the two most precious things in that town." The angel did not hesitate; he chose the leaden heart of the prince and the little body of the swallow that had fallen at his feet, and carried them up to God.