「縄文からこんにちは!」
という小冊子に面白いアイヌの昔話の英訳が載っている。
アイヌ精神世界を話すとき絶対に面白い。
萱野茂さん『アイヌの昔話』の
「プクサの魂」をアダム・ファインバーグさんが英語に抄訳したもの。
(プクサとは行者ニンニクのこと。)
植物を採取する時は絶滅させない!と言うメッセージ。
この話から
アニミズム
どんなものを食べていた
貧富の差
結婚観
などアイヌに関する話ができる。
A poor girl lived in a village where mayor's wife became sick and died.
The girl wanted to pay her respects, but had no suitable clothes to wear or anything to offer.
With a heavy heart she sat alone on a ridge between fields, when suddenly a bush clover began to speak to her by rubbing its brunches together.
The plant told her that there was a reason the mayor’s wife had died,
and that she should mourn her death with the pusuka that hung drying in the house. After this,
the bush clover said, another god would tell her what to do.
Heeding these words, thee girl brought the pusuka to the mayor’s house.
There, a pot hanging on the wall whispered to her.
It told her that the mayor’s wife had gotten sick because she did not pick the edible wild plants properly.
“ All the plants have souls sent form the heaven,”
the pot told the girl, “ and when you pick the plants you must not take them all,
or else they will not grow again next spring.”
The god in the pot said that the mayor’s wife had picked all the plants,
even the roots, threatening to kill the pusuka’s kamui.
The god was angry and make her sick to teach her a lesson.
“ Too bring the mayor’s wife back to life,” it said,
“ you must take your dried pusuka to the edge of the village and spread it on the ground.
Tell the forest you are returning the soul of the pusuka.”
The girl did as she was told, and the mayor’s wife returned to life.
So grateful was she to the girl that she gave her the position of mayor’s wife.
The girl had been born to a apoor family, but because the gods and goddesses loved her, she was rewarded with a happy life.
She no longer had to long for the things she wanted,
or worry about what she would eat.
榛谷泰明さんの(北の縄文塾)縄文お伽噺講座が2008年に出版されたもの。
ヘレナさんが書いた日本語・英語の文字イラスト!
彼女はウクライナ人なのに
なんでこんなに日本文字がうまいの!!?
見たとたん 嬉しくって!
まじめな内容なのに
「遊びすぎ?」って聞く彼女。
ぜーんぜん。
心が弾んでる 楽しさが伝わってくる。