Chapter 3

第三章

JOHN FERRIER

ジョン・フェリアー

TALKS WITH THE PROPHET

預言者と話す

THREE weeks had passed since Jefferson Hope and his comrades had departed from Salt Lake City. John Ferrier’s heart was sore within him when he thought of the young man’s return, and of the impending loss of his adopted child. Yet her bright and happy face reconciled him to the arrangement more than any argument could have done. He had always determined, deep down in his resolute heart, that nothing would ever induce him to allow his daughter to wed a Mormon. Such marriage he regarded as no marriage at all, but as a shame and a disgrace. Whatever he might think of the Mormon doctrines, upon that one point he was inflexible. He had to seal his mouth on the subject, however, for to express an unorthodox opinion was a dangerous matter in those days in the Land of the Saints.

三週間が過ぎた / ジェファーソン・ホープと彼の仲間がソルトレイクシティを出発してから◆ジョン・フェリアーの心は / あの青年が帰ってくることを考えるとずきずき痛んだ / そして養女を失う時が迫ってくる事を考えると◆しかし彼女の明るい幸せそうな顔が / どんな意見にもまして、諦めて準備をさせた◆彼は常に決意していた / 心の奥深くで堅く / 何者も決してその気にさせないと / 娘とモルモン教徒の結婚を許す◆そんな結婚は彼は全く結婚とみなしていなかった / それは恥と不名誉以外の何物でもない◆彼がモルモン教の教義を何と考えようと / この一点に関して彼は譲らなかった◆しかし彼はこの件について口を閉ざさざるをえなかった / 非正統的な意見を言うのは / 最近は危険な事だった / この聖者の地では

Yes, a dangerous matter – so dangerous that even the most saintly dared only whisper their religious opinions with bated breath, lest something which fell from their lips might be misconstrued, and bring down a swift retribution upon them. The victims of persecution had now turned persecutors on their own account, and persecutors of the most terrible description. Not the Inquisition of Seville, nor the German Vehmgericht, nor the secret societies of Italy, were ever able to put a more formidable machinery in motion than that which cast a cloud over the state of Utah.

そう / 危険な事だ / / 非常に危険だったので最も高徳な人間でも / 彼らの宗教上の意見を声を潜めてささやくのが精一杯だった / 何か口から出た言葉が誤解されないようにと / そして迅速な懲罰をもたらさないようにと◆迫害の被害者は / 今や彼らの評価で迫害する立場となった / それももっとも恐ろしい種類の迫害者に◆セビリアの宗教裁判所でも / ドイツのフェーメ裁判所でも / イタリアの秘密結社でも / 決してこれより恐ろしい機構を働かすことはできなかった / ユタ州を覆う雲以上には

Its invisibility, and the mystery which was attached to it, made this organization doubly terrible. It appeared to be omniscient and omnipotent, and yet was neither seen nor heard. The man who held out against the Church vanished away, and none knew whither he had gone or what had befallen him. His wife and his children awaited him at home, but no father ever returned to tell them how he had fared at the hands of his secret judges. A rash word or a hasty act was followed by annihilation, and yet none knew what the nature might be of this terrible power which was suspended over them. No wonder that men went about in fear and trembling, and that even in the heart of the wilderness they dared not whisper the doubts which oppressed them.

不可視性と神秘性がそれに伴なっているのが / この機構を二重に恐ろしいものにしていた◆それは全知全能のようだった / しかし目撃される事もなく聞かれることもなかった◆教会にたてつく男は消えた / そして彼が去ったのかあるいは何かが起こったのか誰も知る者はない◆妻と子供達は彼を家で待っていた / しかし戻ってきて語る父はいなかった / この秘密裁判の手によってどのような対価を支払わされたか◆短気な言葉や性急な行為には / 続いて破滅が訪れた / しかし誰も知らなかった / この恐るべき権力の性質がどんなものか / 彼らの上にぶら下っている◆恐れおののき震えて噂が広まったのも無理はない / そして荒野の真中であろうとも / 彼らを抑圧しているものに対する疑念をあえてささやきはしなかった

At first this vague and terrible power was exercised only upon the recalcitrants who, having embraced the Mormon faith, wished afterwards to pervert or to abandon it. Soon, however, it took a wider range. The supply of adult women was running short, and polygamy without a female population on which to draw was a barren doctrine indeed. Strange rumours began to be bandied about – rumours of murdered immigrants and rifled camps in regions where Indians had never been seen. Fresh women appeared in the harems of the Elders – women who pined and wept, and bore upon their faces the traces of an unextinguishable horror. Belated wanderers upon the mountains spoke of gangs of armed men, masked, stealthy, and noiseless, who flitted by them in the darkness. These tales and rumours took substance and shape, and were corroborated and recorroborated, until they resolved themselves into a definite name. To this day, in the lonely ranches of the West, the name of the Danite Band, or the Avenging Angels, is a sinister and an ill-omened one.

最初、このぼんやりとした恐るべき力は / ただ反抗的な人間にのみ執行された / モルモンの信仰を奉じ / その後、別の道に行くか捨てようと望む◆しかし、すぐに / 範囲が広げられた◆成人女性の供給が足らなくなり / そして頼りとする女性の人口がなくなった一夫多妻は / 実際に不毛の教義だった◆奇妙な噂が流れ始めた / / 入植者が殺されたり野営地が銃撃されたという噂が / インディアンが目撃されたことのない場所で◆長老たちのハーレムに新しい女が現われた / / 泣きやつれた女性が / そして彼女達の顔には拭い去れない恐怖の痕跡が残っていた◆山に遅れて到着した放浪者は / 武装し、マスクを被り、コソコソと音もない一団のことを語った / 彼らは闇の中を素早く通り過ぎた◆これらの話や噂は実体と形を持ち / 何度も裏付けられた / はっきりとした名前が生まれるまで◆今日では / 寂しい西部の牧場では / ダナイト団か、復讐の天使達、と言う名前が / 邪悪で不吉なものだった

Fuller knowledge of the organization which produced such terrible results served to increase rather than to lessen the horror which it inspired in the minds of men. None knew who belonged to this ruthless society. The names of the participators in the deeds of blood and violence done under the name of religion were kept profoundly secret. The very friend to whom you communicated your misgivings as to the Prophet and his mission might be one of those who would come forth at night with fire and sword to exact a terrible reparation. Hence every man feared his neighbour, and none spoke of the things which were nearest his heart.

この組織に関して伝聞が増えることは / こんなにも恐ろしい結果をもたらすという / 恐怖を減らすよりも増やす働きをした / 人の心に生じる◆誰もこの非情な集団に誰が属しているのか知らない◆参加者の名前は / 殺人や暴力を行う / 信仰の名のもとに / 堅く秘密にされていた◆非常に親しい友人に不信を漏らしたら / 預言者や彼の使命に関して / そのうちの一人が夜に現われるかもしれなかった / たいまつと剣を持って猛烈な償いを迫るために◆全ての人間が隣人を恐れたので / 誰も心の奥底に秘めた事を語るものはなかった