目次
On The Cleverness of Nature and Pioneer Moths
親愛なる読者の皆さま、ごきげんよう。
いよいよ夏が本番を迎えたようですね。太陽は惜しみなく光を降り注ぎ、大地はそのぬくもりに包まれています。私は長いあいだ、素朴な田舎育ちの鬼らしく、「夏が暑いのは地球が太陽へ近づくからだ」と何の疑いもなく思っておりました。
ところが、ある初秋の朝、親戚のひとり―ええ、例によって人間の科学雑誌を飽きもせず読みふける従兄弟です―に、「日が短くなるということは、地球は太陽から離れていくのですね」と何気なく話したところ、なんとそれはまったくの勘違いだったのです。
実際には、地球が太陽から最も遠くなる「遠日点」は7月。つまり、まさに暑い季節です。そして最も近づく「近日点」は1月。ずいぶん寒い季節ではありませんか。
彼は続けて、季節が生まれる理由は「地軸」というものが傾いているからだと説明してくれました。これを聞いた私の第一声は、「うーん……どうにも納得がいきませんねえ」というものでした。
もっとも、人間が「科学」と呼ぶ世界には、私には驚くばかりで、理解はほとんど追いつかない不思議が山ほどあります。
Greetings dear readers! Well the summer now seems truly upon us as the sun radiates in all its resplendent power, bathing us in its great warmth as the earth dances ever closer to the sun – or so I had assumed for many, many years being a humble, country Oni. However, upon remarking casually to one of my many extended relations one early autumn morning – yes another cousin of mine who finds endless interest in the scientific journals of man – that we were drifting further from the sun as the days shortened, it turns out this is actually all wrong and in plain fact, earth’s aphelion (the period when the Earth is farthest from the sun) occurs in July (a very warm month indeed), and its perihelion (when we are closest to the sun) occurs in January (a very chilly month indeed). He then went on the explain that the reason for the seasons is because of something called “axis” which is apparently titled. Now, upon hearing this I must confess that my first response was something akin to, “Hmmm…this all feels very wrong to me,” but as I have noted before the preponderances of mysteries in what mankind calls “science” have always been a source of great wonderment, but has resulted in very little practical understanding in my case.
それでも、田舎育ちの私にも分かるようにと、その利口な従兄弟は図まで描いて説明してくれました。
しかも彼は、昼前にふらりとやって来ては長居をするタイプの親戚ですから、もう一杯コーヒーを飲みながら話は続きます。
そうしてようやく私は、「もし私が少々減量したほうがよい丸い鬼ではなく、本当に完全な球体だったなら、太陽へ傾いた側だけがこんがり日焼けして、反対側は青白いままになる」という理屈を理解し始めました。
「なるほど。もし私が燃え盛る球のまわりを回る大きな球体なら、たしかにそうなるでしょうね。」
ようやく私は白旗を上げました。
ところが彼の話はまだ終わりません。今度は、「ヘリオスフィア」という巨大な磁気の泡のようなものがあり、太陽が絶えず「太陽風」というものを吹き出して巨大な風船のようになっていて―などと熱弁を振るい始めたのです。
話せば話すほど彼は興奮し、言葉はどんどん速くなります。私はその情熱を水差ししたくはありませんでしたが、頭の中はぐるぐる回り始め、ついに耐えきれず言いました。
「今日の私の頭には、もう科学は十分です。ありがとうございます。つまり季節というのは、地球が傾いていて、どういうわけか真っすぐ立てなくなったせいなのですね。立ち方を忘れてしまったのでしょう。太陽の不思議な泡や『プラズマ』という風のお話は、また別の日にいたしましょう。」
ありがたいことに、その瞬間、彼も別の用事を思い出して帰ってくれました。私はようやく一息つき、庭のハーブに水をやり、壮大な宇宙の舞踏会よりも、ずっと手触りのある日常へ戻ることができたのです。
Yet, despite my rusticated origins, my very clever cousin went on to diagram the whole marvelous phenomenon. And, after another cup of coffee (for he is one of those late-morning visiting cousins, you can imagine the type) I slowly began to understand how, if I were truly circular as opposed to perhaps slightly in need of shedding a few unsightly pounds, that a tilt towards the sun in one direction would most definitely cause one area of my round exterior to develop a noticeable bronzing while my lower “pole” would remain relatively pallid by comparison. “Yes, I suppose if I were a great glorious ball circling round another burning orb that would likely be the case.” I finally conceded. He then went onto explain that there was also, again according to the very intelligent and I presume kindly people who enjoy studying these sorts of things, this gigantic magnetic sort of bubble called the “heliosphere” which is a kind of huge balloon that is continuously inflated by the sun and filled with something called “solar wind” and at this point I began to become quite confused as he began speaking more rapidly and grew ever-more excited and while I hated to dash his enthusiasm, I started to feel quite dizzy all of a sudden and then abruptly said, “That’s quite enough science for my brain today, thank you. The seasons are seasons because the earth is tilted and for some reason it can’t seem to stand up straight again. Perhaps it has forgotten how? Anyways, that’s enough for now. We can talk about strange sun bubbles and “plasma” wind another time.” It was then, thank all the merciful gods, that he remembered he had some other errand to attend to and I was able to sit down and collect myself, water the herb garden, and return to things of a decidedly more appreciable and tangible scale than the great cosmic dance.
しかし、世界は傾いているという彼の話を聞いてから、私は考えるようになりました。
私が「ごく当たり前」と思い込んでいたものの中には、実はずいぶん奇妙で、不思議なものがまだまだあるのではないか、と。
たとえば私は長いこと、自然というものは、人間社会のように複雑な規則や法律、礼儀作法や慣習に縛られておらず、もっと率直で分かりやすい世界なのだろうと思っていました。
もちろん、私たち鬼も決して野蛮ではありません。しかし、人間の世界で正式な晩餐会になると「サラダフォークはどれだろう」と悩まねばならないことを思えば、鬼の流儀はずいぶん素朴で気楽なものです。ましてや日本の茶道など、今では文化というより観光客向けの珍しい体験になりつつあるようにも見受けられます。
However, thanks to his observation about the world’s titled quality, I began to wonder how many things I had assumed to be very plain and ordinary were actually quite strange and even fantastic. For example, I had longed assumed that nature, in her own savage and captivating way, was a bit more honest and plain than the complex dictates of mankind what with all its various rules, laws, etiquette and conventions (of course we Oni are not entirely uncivilized mind you, but I must confess that I find our ways quite simple, straightforward and, on the whole, rather pleasant as compared to something as thorny and perilous as identifying a “salad fork” at a formal dinner, to say nothing of the Japanese art of the “Tea Ceremony” which apparently has become more of a novelty for tourists these days as opposed to a refined cultural expression).
ところが、それもまた思い込みだったようです。
「ベーツ型擬態」という現象を知ってから、自然は私が考えていた以上にずっと策士なのだと分かりました。
これは11年間アマゾンで蝶や野生動物を研究したイギリスの博物学者、ヘンリー・ウォルター・ベーツにちなむ名前だそうです。なんとも羨ましい職業ではありませんか。
この現象では、害のない生き物が危険な生き物そっくりの姿をまねることで、天敵を追い払います。
たとえば「スズメバチガ」という虫は、黄色と黒の縞模様だけでなく、驚かされたスズメバチが見せる、あの鋭くジグザグ飛ぶ動きまで見事に真似しています。
よほど熱心に研究したのでしょう。努力を続ければ、そのうち低く響く羽音まで習得するかもしれません。
However, it turns out nature is far more cunning than I had, in my naivety, assumed when I learned about something called “Batesian Mimicry” named after the great English naturalist Henry Walter Bates, who spent eleven years in the Amazon studying butterflies and other wildlife (what a marvelous profession, I think). This strange phenomenon is found in cases wherein a harmless species imitates the appearance of a harmful species in order deter would-be predators. There is a very clever creature called the “hornet moth” which not only has the same yellow and black coloration of a hornet but has even figured out, presumably due to intense study, how to mimic that very frightening zig-zagging flight pattern that hornets and bees tend to exhibit when disturbed. I presume, if they continue to work very hard at it, they could probably also produce a very convincing imitation of that deep buzzing tone as well.
ここで少し、この小さな虫たちの知恵に思いを巡らせてみましょう。
スズメバチの針を手に入れるなど、なんと難しいことでしょう。しまっておく鞘もありませんし、スズメバチたちは幼いころから鍛錬を積み、生まれつき自前の細剣を自在に操る名手です。
騎士や剣士がハチにたとえられることがあるのも、なるほどとうなずけます。
それに比べ、この哀れなガには針もなければ鞘もありません。武術一家とは縁のない家に生まれ、それでも剣道を始めたいと願う若者のようなものです。
私としては、古くなった針の一本くらい近所のガに貸してあげれば、お互い助かるのではないかと思うのですが、どうやらスズメバチという一族は誇り高く、歌舞伎役者のように門外不出を貫く気質らしいのです。
しかし、その程度の障害で最初のスズメバチガが諦めるはずもありませんでした。
彼は見抜いていたのです。本当に恐れられているのは針そのものではなく、あの黄色と黒の制服なのだと。あの縞模様を見るだけで、「攻撃すれば猛烈な反撃が返ってくる」と誰もが思うのです。
新選組やテンプル騎士団の姿を思い浮かべる、と言えば伝わるでしょうか。
But now let us reflect for a moment how truly brilliant these litter critters are. Imagine how very difficult it would be to obtain something like a hornet’s stinger. Where would you keep it? Presumably hornets have their own ready-made sheaths and, having practiced since a very young age, are expert wielders of their natural fencing foils. I suppose it is no wonder that knights, fencers, and other warriors are often compared to wasps or stinging insects. But now, consider again this poor moth who has no sheath and no stinger and – we must guess – no means to take up the training like a curious student of kendo who comes from a family with no history of interest in the martial arts. While it strikes me as a bit selfish that the hornets wouldn’t simply lend an old stinger to some of their moth neighbors and thereby improve their ranks by means of friendly cooperation, I suppose that the hornets must be a rather proud family of insects and, like Kabuki actors, are unwilling to open their world to outsiders. Yet, did these considerable hurdles deter the noble moth who founded this new species? Not at all! For he knew that it was those dashing yellow and black stripes that did most of the work, a uniform terrifying to all would be predators that clearly signaled that any attempted attack would be met with furious flight and flashing steel (Why I do say, it conjures up images of the Shinsengumi or the Knights Templar, doesn’t it?).
想像してみてください。
まだただのガだった最初の一匹が、「縞模様を変え、あの慌ただしい飛び方さえ身につければ、カササギだって私を食べようとはしないはずだ」とひらめいた、その瞬間を。
誰も挑んだことのない試みです。夜遅くまで続く孤独な練習。仲間や家族から浴びせられたであろう冷やかし。そして、よそ者に厳しいスズメバチたちの冷たい視線。
それでも彼は努力を重ね、ついには本物と見分けがつかないほど見事な姿を手に入れました。
久しぶりに帰郷した彼を見て、ご両親は最初、息子だと気づかなかったかもしれません。そして、その成長をどれほど誇らしく思ったことでしょう。
名も知られぬその開拓者のおかげで、子孫たちは武器ひとつ持たずとも、知恵だけで身を守れるようになりました。
まことに、小さな生き物ほど、想像を超える偉業を成し遂げるものです。
そして私は、名もなきその翼ある英雄もまた、季節が地球の少々悪い姿勢のおかげで生まれるとは、おそらく知らなかったのではないか―そんな気がしてならないのです。
それでは皆さま、また次回まで。どうぞお元気で。 Until next time, take care dear readers!
Hence, in a stroke of what can only be called genius, imagine the very first hornet moth (who at the time was only a mere moth) who realized that if he could only change his stripes and learn to fly in that frenzied zig-zagged manner, why there wouldn’t be a magpie on earth that would try to gobble him up. Think of the long nights, the solitary practice, and we can only assume – for this was an unprecedented attempt – the unkindly jeers of his peers and perhaps even his family, to say nothing of the hornets who, as we have already established, are quite leery of outsiders, even their fellow flying insects. Yet, all this labor and ceaseless toil was finally brought to fruition when, through great perseverance, he was able to appear almost identical to one of those fearsome fighting hornets. I suppose his parents could’ve scarcely recognized him at first and oh how proud they must have been! And think of all the generations of hornet moths who have this nameless (to us poor Oni anyway) founder and hero to thank for their great people who now, despite being weaponless, gained a great victory and enjoy great protection thanks to his cunning and strategic excellence.
Yes my friends, truly even the smallest creatures among us is capable of great deeds that defy the imagination, and I should like to think that this unsung winged father of his people also was unaware that the seasons were the result of the earth’s bad posture.
Until next time, take care dear readers!
What a splendid land this is, and how lovely are its people! Fear not, I promise not to eat anyone!
-Aka-Oni
