人面おでき Human-faced Tumor

　　

人面おでき

中国奇談集（岡本綺堂）翻案

　今から１５０年ぐらい前、岐阜県の池田村に甚平という男が住んでいた。奇妙なことに、知らぬ間に左の腕に人間の顔をしたおできができていた。痛くないので、そのままにしておいた。
　ある日、からかい半分に人面おできの口に酒を注いでやると、酒を飲み干し、顔を酔っぱらいのように赤くした。甚平が食べ物を与えるとなんでも食べた。たくさん食べたあとは腕が太り、少ない場合は肘が麻痺して腕が動かなくなった。
　医者に行くと医者は「なんでも食べさせてください」と言った。そこで、甚平はおできにいろいろなものを食べさせた。ところが、ゆりの一種のバイボだけは、顔をしかめ、口を閉じて食べようとしなかった。
　「でかした。薬がわかった」と医者は言って、芦の管で無理やり口をこじ開けて、中にバイボの汁を流し込んだ。
　数日後、おできは干からびて消えた。

Human-faced Tumor

　　About 150 years ago, there lived a merchant named Jinbei in the village of Ikeda, Gifu Prefecture. Strange to say, a human-faced tumor was formed in his left arm before he knew it. As it was not painful, he did not care about it.
　　One day, he poured sake in its mouth for fun. The human-faced tumor drank all of the sake, and its face became red as if it were drunk. When Jinbei gave it food, it ate almost anything. When it ate much, the arm became fat, and when it ate little, his elbow grew numb and he could not move his arm.
　　When he went to see a doctor, the doctor said, “Let it eat everything from soup to nuts for trial.”
　　Following the doctor’s advice, he gave the tumor all kinds of food. It ate all of them except the grass named “baibo,” a kind of lily. When Jinbei gave baibo to the tumor, it frowned and closed its mouth tight and would not eat it.
　　“Good. That is the medicine,” the doctor said.
The doctor forced the tumor to open its mouth with a tube of a reed. He poured the juice of baibo through the tube. Several days later, the tumor dried and disappeared