働き蜂と怠け者のオス蜂

ｓｐｔｔ自由訳

夏がくると、怠け者のオスバチたちが働きバチたちにけしかけて言った、この蜜はいったいだれのものか？そこで働きバチたちは裁判官の女王バチに訴えた。女王バチは答えた。
＜私にはすぐには判定できかねる。お前たちのうちどちらが蜜をこさえたか言えないのだ。でもここにふたつの蜜が入っていない蜂の巣がある。一つは働きバチに、もう一つはオスバチにあたえる。今から一週間待ってどちらがよく、多く蜜を作るか見ることにしよう。
怠け者のオス蜂たちは反対して言った。
＜私どもはその案には賛成できません。今すぐ判決を下してください。＞
女王バチは答えた。
＜それでは、いま判決を下そう。オス蜂たちよ、お前たちはいまそのようの不服を申したてたが、それはお前たちが蜜を作ることができないからだ。おまえたちはただ働きバチたちをからかうだけなのだ。働きバチよ、外で刑の執行だ。そして働きバチたちはオス蜂をみな殺しにしてしまった。

－－－－－

 トルストイの話は古いPhaedrus の話をもとにしているのだろうが、創作があり、劇的な効果がある。

１）　Phaedrus の話は場所の記述はあるが時節の記述がない。一方トルストイの話は場所の記述はないが時節の記述がある（夏）。夏は働きバチが働く時期だ。Phaedrus の話の場所、高い樫の木上の巣、は特に意味がない。またPhaedrus の話では女王バチが判断しかねる理由として働きバチとオスバチの姿、色が同じで区別がつかないをあげているが、これはトルストイの話にはない。

２）劇的な違いは＜一週間待ってどちらがよく、多く蜜を作るか見ることにしよう＞という女王バチの提案だ。これとオスバチたちの反応でオスバチたちウソがその場でわかってしまう。その場で判決を下すように主張したのはオスバチたちなのだ。

３）最後の場面も劇的だが、これはミツバチ世界の生態もとづいている。（下記参照）


 注）ミツバチ　（Japan-wiki)

ミツバチの働きバチは受精卵から発生する2倍体(2n)であり全てメスである。通常メスの幼虫は主に花粉と蜂蜜を食べて育ち働きバチとなるが、働きバチの頭部から分泌されるローヤルゼリーのみで育てられたメスは交尾産卵能力を有する女王バチとなる。オスは未受精卵から発生する1倍体(1n)であるが、巣の中では働き蜂に餌をもらう以外特に何もしない。働きバチに比べて体が大きく、働きバチや女王バチよりも複眼と単眼が非常に発達していることが外見上の特徴である^[2]。オスバチを指す英語「drone」は「なまけもの」の意味である。
オスは女王バチと交尾す るため、晴天の日を選んで外に飛び立つ。オスバチは空中を集団で飛行し、その群れの中へ女王バチが飛び込んできて交尾を行う。オスバチは交尾の際に腹部が 破壊されるため交尾後死亡するが、女王バチは巣に帰還し産卵を開始する。交尾できなかったオスも巣に戻るが、繁殖期が終わると働きバチに巣を追い出される 等して死に絶える。


Origin - Tolstoy Fables for Children (Fable from Aesop)

ПЧЁЛЫ И ТРУТНИ

Как пришло лето, стали трутни ссориться с пчёлами, кому мёд есть. Позвали пчёлы на суд осу. Оса и говорит:
– Мне вас рассудить сразу нельзя. Я ещё не знаю, кто из вас мёд делает. А разойдитесь вы в два пустые улья – в один пчёлы, а в другой трутни. Вот через неделю я увижу, кто больше и лучше мёду наделает.
Трутни стали спорить:
– Мы, – говорят, – не согласны. Ты нас сейчас рассуди.
Оса и говорит:
– Теперь я вас сейчас рассужу. Вы, трутни, не согласны оттого, что мёду делать не умеете, а только чужое жрать любите. Гоните их вон, пчёлы.
И пчёлы побили всех трутней.

Latin Vesion

Aesop's Fables: Phaedrus

Book III - XIII. Apes et Fuci Vespa Iudice

Apes in alta fecerant quercu fauos.
Hos fuci inertes esse dicebant suos.
Lis ad forum deducta est, uespa iudice;
quae, genus utrumque nosset cum pulcherrime,
legem duabus hanc proposuit partibus:
"Non inconueniens corpus et par est color,
in dubium plane res ut merito uenerit.
Sed, ne religio peccet inprudens mea,
aluos accipite et ceris opus infundite,
ut ex sapore mellis et forma faui,
de quis nunc agitur, auctor horum appareat."
Fuci recusant, apibus condicio placet.
Tunc illa talem rettulit sententiam:
"Apertum est quis non possit et quis fecerit.
Quapropter apibus fructum restituo suum."
Hanc praeterissem fabulam silentio,
si pactam fuci non recusassent fidem.

英語訳
The Bees and the Drone (trans. C. Smart)
Up in a lofty oak the Bees
Had made their honey-combs: but these
The Drones asserted they had wrought.
Then to the bar the cause was brought
Before the wasp, a learned chief,
Who well might argue either brief,
As of a middle nature made.
He therefore to both parties said:
"You're not dissimilar in size,
And each with each your color vies,
That there's a doubt concerning both:
But, lest I err, upon my oath,
'Hives for yourselves directly choose,
And in the wax the work infuse,
That, from the flavor and the form,
We may point out the genuine swarm."
The Drones refuse, the Bees agree-
Then thus did Justice Wasp decree:
" Who can, and who cannot, is plain,
So take, ye Bees, your combs again."
This narrative had been suppress'd
Had not the Drones refused the test.


Version - 1


THE BEES, THE DRONES AND THE WASPS
Perry 504

The bees had built their honeycombs up high in an oak tree but the lazy drones insisted that the honeycombs were theirs. The case went to court, with the wasp presiding. Given that the judge was well acquainted with both the bees and the drones, she made the following proposal to the two parties: 'Your bodies are not dissimilar and your colouring is the same, which makes this an undeniably difficult decision. Of course, I want to be absolutely scrupulous, avoiding any hasty judgments. So, please take these hives and fill them full of waxen cells. The taste of the honey and the shape of the combs will reveal which party is actually responsible for the honeycombs in question.' While the drones refused to comply with this request, the proposal greatly pleased the bees. Thereupon the judge pronounced the following sentence: 'It's clear who was incapable of making those honeycombs, and who it was that made them. Accordingly, I return to the bees the fruit of their labours.'
I would not have included this fable except for the fact that the drones refused the chance to prove their credibility.

Version - 2

Aesop’s Fable of the Worker Bee, the Drone, and the Wasp

One day some worker bees made a honeycomb in the hollow trunk of an oak. They settled nearby to rest. Then, the drones from their hive flew by. The drones said, "We made that honeycomb. It belongs to us."
"You did not make that honeycomb," replied the worker bees. "You know very well that you did not. We made it."
The drones insisted, "That honeycomb belongs to us and we are going to have it."
So the worker bees said, “Let us go together and see what the wasp has to say about whose honeycomb it is.”
The worker bees and the drones flew in a big swarm to the wasp’s nest. When the wasp came outside to see what the buzz was all about, the bees all talked at once about their dispute.
"You worker bees and drones," said the wasp, "are so much alike in shape, color, and sound that I cannot easily tell you apart. Surely I cannot tell which of you I have seen building the honeycomb in the oak tree.
“But I think the matter can be justly decided. Each group of you, the workers and the drones, must go to a hive in which there is no honey, and build up a new honeycomb. The group that makes a honeycomb and honey like that found in the oak tree is the owner of the tree comb."
"All right," said the worker bees, "we will do it! Let’s go!" But the drones said, "We will have nothing to do with such a plan."
So the wasp said, "I see the worker bees are ready to make another honeycomb. But the drones don’t want to do it. That must be because the drones do not know how! Surely, they did not make the honeycomb in the oak tree. It belongs to the worker bees."
The drones buzzed away very angry. For they knew the wasp was right. They didn’t know how to make a honeycomb at all. And the worker bees happily flew back to the oak tree.

Version - 3

Title:     The Bees, The Drones, And The Wasp
Author: Aesop (author of Aesop's Fables) [More Titles by Aesop (author of Aesop's Fables)]

Some Bees had built their comb in the hollow trunk of an oak. The Drones asserted that it was their doing, and belonged to them. The cause was brought into court before Judge Wasp. Knowing something of the parties, he thus addressed them: "The plaintiffs and defendants are so much alike in shape and color as to render the ownership a doubtful matter. Let each party take a hive to itself, and build up a new comb, that from the shape of the cells and the taste of the honey, the lawful proprietors of the property in dispute may appear." The Bees readily assented to the Wasp's plan. The Drones declined it. Whereupon the Wasp gave judgment: "It is clear now who made the comb, and who cannot make it; the Court adjudges the honey to the Bees."



sptt