ある日の朝のことであった。お釈迦様は極楽の蓮池のふちを、一人で静かに散歩しておられた。
It happened one morning. The Buddha was walking alone, slowly and quietly, along the bank of the lotus pond of Paradise.
池の中に咲く蓮の花はすべて玉のように美しく、その黄金の蕊からは、なんとも言えない甘いかおりが絶え間なく辺りに漂っていた。極楽はちょうど朝のことらしかった。
All the lotus blossoms within the pond were as beautiful as jewels, and from their pure gold centers an indescribable sweet fragrance drifted endlessly through the air. It was, just then, morning in Paradise.
しばらくして、お釈迦様はその池のふちにお立ちになり、水の面を覆っている蓮の葉の間から、ふと下の様子をご覧になった。すると、透き通った池の水を通して、はるか下方の地獄の底が、まるで覗き眼鏡を覗くようにくっきりと見えた。
After a while, the Buddha came to stand at the edge of the pond and, through the gaps between the lotus leaves that covered the surface of the water, casually looked down at what lay beneath. Through the clear water of the pond, the very bottom of Hell, far below, came into view as sharply as if seen through a magnifying glass.
そこには、数え切れぬほどの罪人たちが血の池の中で浮き沈みしながら、もがき苦しんでいる様子があった。お釈迦様の目に留まったのは、その中にいるカンダタという名の大泥棒であった。
Down there, sinners beyond counting were tossing and sinking in the Pool of Blood, writhing in agony. The Buddha's eye fell on one of them — a great robber named Kandata.
カンダタという男は、生前ありとあらゆる悪事を働いてきた稀代の悪人であった。殺人や放火はもちろん、人をだまし、家に火をかけてきたのも一度や二度ではなかったのである。
Kandata, in his lifetime, had been a rare villain who had committed every kind of evil. Murder and arson, of course, but he had also deceived people and burned down their houses — not once or twice, but many times over.
しかしお釈迦様は、その男にもたった一つだけ良いことをしたことがあるのを、ちゃんと覚えておられた。彼はあるとき、深い林の中を歩いている折に、足元を這う小さな蜘蛛を一匹、踏み殺さずにそっと避けて通ったことがあったのである。
Even so, the Buddha clearly remembered that this man, in all that life, had done one — and only one — good deed. There was a time when, walking through a deep forest, he had come upon a tiny spider crawling at his feet, and instead of crushing it, had quietly stepped aside and let it live.
「これほどの大悪人でも、その一度の善行のためなら、できることならば地獄から救い出してやろう」とお釈迦様はお考えになった。お釈迦様はかたわらの蓮の葉の上をご覧になり、ちょうどよく這っていた一匹の蜘蛛の細い糸をそっと手にお取りになって、はるか血の池の底へ向かって、銀色に光る一本の糸をまっすぐに垂らされた。
"Even for so great a sinner, on account of that one act of kindness, I should like, if I can, to lift him out of Hell," the Buddha thought. He looked at a lotus leaf nearby, and where a little spider happened to be crawling, he gently took its fine thread between his fingers and lowered it straight down, a single strand of silver light, toward the bottom of the Pool of Blood far below.
その頃、地獄では、カンダタが血の池の中で苦しげにあえいでいた。彼の周りはどちらを見渡しても真っ暗で、たまにぼんやり光る針の山の影が浮き上がるばかりであった。
At that very moment, down in Hell, Kandata was gasping in the depths of the Pool of Blood. Wherever he turned, all around him was utter darkness, broken now and then only by the dim outlines of the Mountain of Needles.
ふと頭を上げたカンダタは、頭上のはるか高みから、銀色に光る細い糸が一本、自分のほうへすうっと垂れてくるのを見つけた。「これにすがれば、地獄から抜け出せるに相違ない」と、彼は両手で必死にその糸をつかみ、夢中で登り始めた。
He raised his head and, far up above, caught sight of a single silver thread descending softly toward him. "If I can only catch hold of it, I shall escape Hell for certain," he thought, and grasping the thread with both hands, he began desperately to climb.
もともと泥棒のことであるから、こうした綱登りにかけては自信があった。両手両足を交互にせっせと動かして、糸をひたすら上へ上へとよじ登っていった。
After all, he had been a thief from way back; in such a matter as rope climbing he had a fair share of confidence. Working his hands and feet in turn, he made his way up the thread, ever higher and higher.
ところが、地獄と極楽の間は何万里もあるのである。さすがのカンダタも、しばらく登ると息が切れ、もはやそれ以上は一寸も登れないほど疲れ果ててしまった。
But the distance between Hell and Paradise is many tens of thousands of leagues. Even Kandata, after a while, was out of breath, so worn out he could not raise himself one inch farther.
仕方なく、糸の中ほどにぶら下がって一休みすることにした。ふと下を見下ろすと、もう血の池も針の山もはるか下方にうっすらと見えるばかりで、思ったよりずっと高く登れていたことが知れたのである。
There was nothing for it but to dangle in the middle of the thread and rest. When he glanced down, both the Pool of Blood and the Mountain of Needles were already only a dim smudge far, far below; he had, it seemed, climbed much higher than he had imagined.
「これなら、案外簡単に極楽まで行けるかもしれぬ」と、カンダタは何年も出したことのなかった声でしわがれた笑いを漏らした。だがその時、ふと自分の下を見て、彼は思わずぎょっとなった。
"At this rate, I may reach Paradise more easily than I had thought," Kandata muttered, and a hoarse laugh, the first sound of laughter to leave his throat in many years, escaped him. But just then, casting his eyes downward again, he started in spite of himself.
細く光る蜘蛛の糸の下のほうから、何百何千という地獄の罪人たちが、長い長い列を作って、自分の後を追ってこの糸をよじ登ってきているではないか。
From far below along the same shining spider-thread, hundreds and thousands of the sinners of Hell were forming a long, long line and climbing up the thread, hand over hand, in pursuit of him.
「この細い糸が、こんな大勢の重さに耐えきれるはずがない。もし途中でぷつりと切れてしまおうものなら、せっかくここまで登ってきた自分までもが、また元の地獄へ真っ逆さまだ」
"This thin thread will never bear the weight of so many people. If it should break in the middle, then even I, who have climbed this far, will go plunging head first back down into the Hell I came from."
そう恐れたカンダタは、思わず喉の限り、地獄の底まで響くような大声で叫び返した。「こら、罪人ども！この蜘蛛の糸は俺のものだぞ！お前たちはいったい誰に断って登ってきたのだ！降りろ、降りろ！」
In his sudden fear, Kandata cried out at the top of his voice, in a roar that seemed to echo down to the very bottom of Hell. "You there, you sinners! This spider-thread belongs to me! Who gave you leave to climb it? Get down! Get down!"
その途端、カンダタのぶら下がっているちょうどその場所から、それまで何ともなかった蜘蛛の糸が、ぷつりという音を立ててあっけなく切れてしまった。
At that very instant, the spider-thread, which until then had held without trouble, snapped with a sharp little sound at the exact spot from which Kandata was hanging.
もはやどうすることもできないカンダタは、独楽のようにくるくると回りながら、見る見るうちにまっすぐ闇の底へと落ちていった。
There was nothing left for Kandata to do now. Spinning like a top, he plummeted straight down, in the blink of an eye, to the bottom of the darkness.
お釈迦様は蓮池のふちで、その一部始終を悲しげな顔で見つめておられたが、やがてまた静かに歩き始められた。自分だけが助かろうとする無慈悲なこころが罰を受けたのも、当然の報いと言えるであろう。
The Buddha, who from the edge of the lotus pond had watched the whole of it with a sorrowful face, presently began once more to walk on quietly. That a heart so unmerciful as to wish only its own escape should meet such a punishment was, one might say, no more than its just reward.
極楽の蓮池の蓮の花は、カンダタの悲劇など知る由もないというふうに、いつもと変わらずたゆたいながら、その黄金の蕊からなんとも言えない甘いかおりを絶え間なく漂わせていたのである。
The lotus blossoms of the lotus pond of Paradise, with the air of knowing nothing of Kandata's tragedy, swayed as ever in the water and went on sending forth, endlessly, that indescribable sweet fragrance from their pure gold centers.