親子のきづな/(藤沢 ウヨ)


 むかしむかし、あるところに一軒の財産家(おおやげ)がありました。その家では兄と弟が年子で、とても仲が良く働き者で、親にも孝をつくしましたので、ますます栄えていました。

 二人とも年頃になったので、一緒に嫁っこを貰いました。ついでに子どもも一緒に出来て、生むときも一緒になりました。最初に兄の嫁っこが子どもを生みました。すぐに弟(おんじ)の嫁っこも生みました。産婆さんは、あわててしまって、どっちがどっちだか分からなくなってしまいました。

 子どもは男の子と女の子でした。今まで兄弟仲良く暮らしていたのに、兄も弟も「男の子(おどごわらし)が、我のわらし(子ども)。」と、毎日喧嘩が絶えません。また、兄の嫁っこも弟の嫁っこも男わらしにだけお乳を飲ませ、女わらしには飲ませません。お婆さんが「ねり粉」を飲ませましたが、女わらしは痩せてしまって、このままでは死んでしまいます。

 そこで、お爺さんとお婆さんは代官さまに裁判をお願いしました。けれど、さすがの代官さまも困ってしまいました。裁判の朝(あさま)になっても、良い考えは浮かびません。困っていると、見知らぬ子供が二人で裁判の話をしていました。聞くとなしに聞いていると、「丼に水を入れ、親と子の血を一滴たらすと、自分の子であればピッタリくっつく(ねっぱる)もんだ。」と言うと、どこかに行ってしまいました。

 代官さまは半信半疑でしたが、裁判ではその通りにやってみました。丼の水に浮いた血は、兄が男わらし、弟が女わらしとピッタリくっつきました。代官さまは「兄の方が男わらし、弟の方が女わらし。」と判定しました。

 兄も弟も、それまでは子どものことで喧嘩が絶えませんでしたが、眼から鱗が剥がれたように、この裁定に従い、以前のように仲良くなりました。お爺さんもお婆さんも、二人の孫が丈夫に育つと安心し、以前にも増して明るい家となりました。

  トッツパレッコピー


The bonds of Parents and children (Uyo Fujisawa)

 Once upon a time somewhere in Japan, there was a rich family (Ooyake).
 The family had two sons.The younger son was born only one year after the older son.The two brothers were close friends and hard-workers, they were also very good to their parents.When the brothers became a marriageble age they both found brides(yomeko) on the same day.The brothers then married onthe same day.

 Their first children were also born on the same day.The older brother's wife gave birth just a few minutes before the younger brother's wife did.One baby was a boy and the other a girl, but unfortunately the midwife was so busy that she couldn't remember which baby belonged to whom.
Up until that time the two couples had lived happily together, but after the babies were born the couples began to fight over the boy baby.

 The wives both fed the boy baby as much milk as he needed but it was the grandmother who fed the baby girl.She gave her a drink made from boiled water and flour (neriko).Soon the baby girl became very thin and she 1ooked as if she was going to die.

 The brothers' parents realised that they had to do something so they decided to ask Daikan no kami (a top samurai judge) to decide who the baby boy belonged to.Daikan no kami at first didn't know what to do.He thought and thought all day and all night.
 The next morning he overheard some children talking about the upcoming trial (they had heard their parents talking about it).One child had an idea, he said "If you put a drop of blood from one parent and a drop of blood from one child into a bowl of water, if they stick together they are parent and child, if they don't, they are not!"
 Daikan no kami heard this and decided to try it.He wondered if it would work but he had no other solution so he had to try it.
 First of all he put a drop of blood from each brother into a bowl of water.Then he put a drop of blood from each baby into the water.The baby boy's blood stuck to the older brother's drop of blood and the baby girl's blood stuck to the younger brother's drop of blood.

 So Daikan no kami confidently told everyone that the boy belonged to the older brother and the girl to the younger brother.

 After that the brothers stopped fighting.They accepted Ooka Ichizen's decision and became close friends again, as they were before.And the brothers, their wives, their parents and the little boy and girl lived happily ever after.「Me kara uroko ga hangareta 」(they had the scales pulled-off from their eyes).

 Tottsuparekkopi.(the end)


小砂もどる