【翻訳】《母の小説》：「TOKIYA -時屋-」 Chapter I / Episode1
原文はこちら《母の小説》:「時屋」第一章 第一話.+*:ﾟ+｡.☆.+*:ﾟ+｡.☆.+*:ﾟ+｡.☆.+*:ﾟ+｡.☆TOKIYA -時屋--Chapter I-Episode1Twenty years have passed since World War II and economic growth continues its vigorous boom. This is a story set in those times of a little girl who grew up in Hokkaido, the northernmost part of Japan, in a town called Asahikawa, right in the middle of Hokkaido. I was then in Grade School 2nd Year. I had just turned eight. From today I was to be someone called Yahagi Kazuko. Sayonara to the girl known as Honda Kazuko. Filled with sadness and loneliness, strangely I also felt excited. Still, I was wondering if, as a child … was I shamming, feeling excited? Why, when my dear mother was there by the front door her tears dropping steadily. We continue on – mum, my elder brother, our aunt and me. Dad had been with us, but, he got cancer of the gut and three months previously he had gone to heaven. I did help each day with making sure miso soup and side dishes were taken to the hospital. Anyway … in a very short space of time he was dead. Mum was short, about 145 cm, cheerful and, most of all, she was pretty. Mum was short, about 145 cm, cheerful and, most of all, she was pretty: [めんこい]. The word [めんこい] comes from Hokkaido dialect. It does mean ‘pretty’ but amiable is more what is meant. Mummy was perhaps about 40 years old, from memory. My brother ten years older than I, I do love him very much, however … he would often punch me, and really maliciously. What’s more he would perfectly merrily tease me about my nose: ‘Knobby nosed snob!’ It is my elder brother’s fault that my nose really feels like it is turned up towards the sky. My elder brother is in Year 12 of Secondary College. The aunt who lives with us is my mother’s elder sister. She is quiet and is ever smiling and cheerful. But, because she smokes, it is as if she is wearing a coating of tobacco as well as her clothes. My aunty’s room is always cloudy! Anyway, when all that is said and done, she too is short, about 146 cm. That’s just a little taller than my mother. Grandpa came to pick me up that day! Among the adults there had been steady preparations and discussions and I guess it would have been pretty well perfect. For me that day came out nowhere. It was the day my family name changed. Hand in hand with grandpa I passed something like an hour in a local park. On my child’s legs. That was the house where my new family was waiting. Bustling, glorious, downtown Asahikawa! From a small home and a small family into a large house and a big family. My new lifestyle began in an Ryokan called TOKIYA.
