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自分が読んで興味深く感じた英文記事を中心に取り上げる予定です

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ゆっくり味う読書

 

Brown Girl Dreaming (Newbery Honor Book)Brown Girl Dreaming (Newbery Honor Book)
(2014/08/28)
Jacqueline Woodson

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昨年の全米図書賞Young People's Literature部門を受賞したBrown Girl Dreamingを読みました。ニューヨークタイムズの書評に共感できたのでご紹介します。一息で読めてしまうけど、一つ一つをじっくり味わって読んでもいいと書いている部分です。

Where We Enter
Jacqueline Woodson’s ‘Brown Girl Dreaming’

AUGUST 22, 2014
Children’s Books
By VERONICA CHAMBERS

You can read “Brown Girl Dreaming” in one sitting, but it is as rich a spread as the potluck table at a family reunion. Sure, you can plow through the pages, grabbing everything you can in one go, like piling a plate high with fried chicken and ribs, potato salad and corn bread. And yes, it’s entirely possible to hold that plate with one hand while balancing a bowl of gumbo and a cup of sweet tea with the other. But since the food isn’t going anywhere, you’ll make out just as well, maybe even a little better, if you pace yourself.



Free verseの形式で書かれていて一章一章がとても短いですが、その分イメージがありありと喚起されるのです。動画ではSaturday night smells of biscuits and burning hair.について話していますが、その賞の書き出し部分です。

hair night
Saturday night smells of biscuits and burning hair.
Supper done and my grandmother has transformed
the kitchen into a beauty shop. Laid across the table
is the hot comb, Dixie Peach hair grease,
horsehair brush, parting stick
and one girl at a time.


具体的なエピソードなのに万人に訴えかけるものがあると語っているインタビューがこの箇所に通じるものがあります。

National Book Award Winner Jacqueline Woodson Talks brown girl dreaming
NOVEMBER 26, 2014 – 10:17 AM – 0 COMMENTS
By SONA CHARAIPOTRA

brown girl dreaming is very specific in the sense of place and character – but it’s very universal to, in its approach to family and friendship. When you were writing it, did you worry about that – people always say, when it’s a writer-of-color, that these things are not relatable. Even though I don’t think that’s true at all.

There were definitely points in writing this that I felt like no one else would be interested in this. It’s such a specific story to my life. But I think that’s what we don’t get about the specifics. The more specific we are, the more universal something can become. Life is in the details. If you generalize, it doesn’t resonate. The specificity of it is what resonates.


生きていることの息遣いを感じ取れるみずみずしい作品になっています。ぱっと見とてもお若い感じがしたので、公民権運動の話をするに違和感を感じたのですが、1963年生まれの方なのですね。。。



miss bell and the marchers

They look like regular people
visiting our neighbor Miss Bell,
foil-covered dishes held out in front of them
as they arrive
some in pairs,
some alone,
some just little kids
holding their mothers' hands.

If you didn't know, you'd think it was just
an evening gathering. Maybe church people
heading into Miss Bell's house to talk
about God. But when Miss Bell pulls her blinds
closed, the people fill their dinner plates with food,
their glasses with sweet tea and gather
to talk about marching

And even though Miss Bell works for a white lady
who said I will fire you in a minute if I ever see you
on that line!
Miss Bell knows that marching isn’t the only thing
she can do,
knows that people fighting need full bellies to think
and safe places to gather.
She knows the white lady isn’t the only one
who’s watching, listening, waiting,
to end this fight. So she keeps the marchers’
glasses filled, adds more corn bread
and potato salad to their plates,
stands in the kitchen ready to slice
lemon pound cake into generous pieces.

And in the morning, just before she pulls
her uniform from the closet, she prays,
God, please give me and those people marching
another day.

Amen.
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いまだにSalaryman=過労死のイメージ

 
先日紹介したNew Yorkerのサイト記事は東日本大震災直後に書かれたものですが、Toyota salary menとサラリーマンがそのまま使われていました。

MARCH 15, 2011
An Education

BY SUSAN ORLEAN

In the case of this horror in Japan, it is a reminder that Japan is not just Toyota salary men and post-modern punk kids in Shibu-ya. The tsunami washed over little villages and ordinary, work-a-day towns, the parts of Japan many of us didn’t even know existed. Now it will be hard to ever forget them.

salary manは和製英語として有名ですが、学習英英辞典でも見出語として採用されています。「毎日遅くまで働く日本のサラリーマン」をニュアンスとして含んでいるようです。ジーニアスはその辺りのことも丁寧に反映してくれています。

(ジーニアス)
salaryman 《略式》(特に日本の長時間働く)サラリーマン

(オックスフォード)
salaryman
(especially in Japan) a white-collar worker (= one who works in an office)


(ロングマン)
salaryman plural salarymen [countable]
a man who works in an office, often for many hours each day, and receives a salary as payment, especially in Japan


(ケンブリッジ)
salaryman
a Japanese businessman who works very long hours every day


もちろん辞書に載っているからといって、普通の表現になっているとは限りません。和製英語だけあって、10年前のニューヨークタイムズの記事では引用符付きで紹介されているように、ほとんど使われていないのが実情のようです。ちなみにここでOLはoffice girlsです。。。

In Tokyo, Lots to Eat For Very Little
By ELAINE LOUIE
Published: March 10, 2004

IN Tokyo, one of the most expensive cities in the world, where a cantaloupe is $17 and a glass of French white wine is $25, it is possible to eat an entire meal, excluding liquor, for $25 a person.

The secret? Follow the Japanese middle class, the ''office girls'' and ''salary men'' to their favorite restaurants, like a sushi place on the edge of the Tsukiji fish market or restaurants specializing in tonkatsu, a cutlet of the most tender pork, wrapped in a flaky, golden panko crust and nestled in a three-inch-high Mount Fuji of freshly grated crunchy cabbage.


日本について知識のある人ならsalary manという語は通じるでしょうが、日本について詳しく知らない人にはピンとこない語でしょうね。

では、TOEICではどのように使われているでしょうか? 辞書的にはoffice workerやcompany employeeが普通と説明されていますが、TOEICではemployeeが使われることが圧倒できに多かったです。

employee
All employees will be required to attend a training seminar this week to become familiar with the office's new Omega telephone system.


Workerは「作業員」という感じの使われ方でパート1によく登場します。他のパートでも修理・点検の場面で出そうです。

worker
Workers are repairing a copy machine.


business personはほとんど登場しません。以下のような広告っぽい文章で使われているくらいで、会社の内外で当事者が使うような語ではないようです。「事業主」や「企業経営者」の意味のbusiness ownerの方が登場回数もずっと多かったです。

business person
Even with outstanding credentials, any business person will need to rely on verbal communication skills in order to get a promotion, make an important sale, or impress a board of directors.

business owner
Unlike many workshops that provide one-size-fits-all solutions to every business owner who attends, Douglas Marketing offers customized assistance to help you develop the plan that works for your company.


ですからTOEICではemployeeが会社員を指す一般的な語のようですが、employer-employeeと労使関係を連想させる語でもあります。この連想を嫌ってか、associateという語を使って社内文書を出す会社もあります。

TOEICではまだWendrell & Associatesのように会社名として使われることが多く、employeeのように頻繁には使われていませんが以下のような使われ方がTOEICでもされていました。

associate
Associates who are travelling to Pusan for the sales conference will have to make their own travel arrangements.


associateを社員に使うような風潮がもっと広まれば、TOEICでも上記のような文を目にする機会が増えることになるのではないでしょうか。
 

キャンプデービット

 



Thirteen Days in September: Carter, Begin, and Sadat at Camp DavidThirteen Days in September: Carter, Begin, and Sadat at Camp David
(2014/09/16)
Lawrence Wright

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近くの図書館に入荷されたのでニューヨークタイムズの2014年ベストブック10に選ばれたこちらの本を読み始めました。演劇にもなっていたためか、まだプロローグの段階ですでに引き込まれています。

THIRTEEN DAYS IN SEPTEMBER: Carter, Begin, and Sadat at Camp David
By Lawrence Wright
Alfred A. Knopf, $27.95.
In 1978, over 13 days at Camp David, Anwar Sadat, Menachem Begin and Jimmy Carter hammered out a peace agreement between Israel and Egypt that remains the most profound diplomatic achievement to emerge from the Mideast conflict. In a fascinating account of the talks, Wright combines history, politics and, most of all, a gripping drama of three clashing personalities into a tale of constant plot twists and dark humor. He reminds us that Carter’s visionary idealism and doggedness represented an act of surpassing political courage.


Camp Davidはオックスフォードとロングマンの学習辞典に載っているレベルの単語だから抑えておいていいでしょう。「受験英語は役立つ」と青筋立てて反論する人ほどこう社会常識なのに無関心なのは困りものです。。。

(オックスフォード)
Camp David
the special home, office and camp for the US President in the Catoctin Mountains in the state of Maryland. It was called Shangri-La when first used in 1942 by President Franklin D Roosevelt but in 1953 President Eisenhower named it after his grandson David. Meetings there in 1978 led to the Camp David Agreement for peace between Egypt and Israel. compare Chequers


(ロングマン)
Camp David
the country home of US Presidents, where the President goes to relax. People remember it especially for the Camp David Agreement, which established peace between Egypt and Israel and was signed at Camp David in 1979.



自分としてはまだ小さかったのでこの合意のインパクトがいまいち想像できません。どちらかというと1993年のクリントン大統領のオスロ合意の方が印象的です。



この演劇でも登場している4人目の女性はカーター夫人のRosalynnさんです。下記の動画でも6分ほどで彼女を登場人物として積極的に採用しようとした理由を説明してくれています。



C-Spanの講演でも同じく6分あたりでこの話をしているので、欠かせない部分なんでしょうね。

動画6分あたり
Gerry said. “Mr. President, Larry works for The New Yorker. He recently wrote an article about Scientology. ”
“I read that. I found that most intriguing.
At the time, I was trying to decide who are my characters in the play.
And Begin, Sadat, and Carter. Yes, but anybody else.
Rosalynn turns around and said, “Since when did you start reading The New Yorker!?”
I had the fourth character. I needed someone who could talk to Jimmy Carter like that.

以下のインタビューではCarter said, “I read it every week!”とありますから、カーター元大統領は毎週New Yorkerを読んでいるようです(笑)

A Tripartite Drama
Maurice Chammah interviews Lawrence Wright

September 2, 2014
The Pulitzer Prize-winning writer mines the ongoing resonance of the Camp David Accords, on stage and on the page.

Guernica: Was it a struggle to take a series of days and events and people and turn that into a dramatic arc, or was it inherent in the material?
Lawrence Wright: The first tricky part is you have to decide who is on stage, and one of my frustrations was that I had to leave so many people out. That was one of the motivations for writing the book; there were so many interesting characters who were unaccounted for in the play. So you try to be economical in terms of the number of people that you put on the stage, and I knew I had three people: Carter, Begin, and Sadat.
Gerald Rafshoon was Carter’s media advisor. He took me down to Plains to introduce me to the Carters. He said, “Mr. President, Larry writes for The New Yorker. He wrote a story recently about Scientology.” Carter said, “Well, I read that.”
And Rosalynn [Carter’s wife] said, “Since when did you start reading The New Yorker!?”
Carter said, “I read it every week!”
And I knew I had my fourth character. I needed someone who knew how to talk to Jimmy Carter. Rosalynn Carter turned out to be a very important asset in both the play and the book because she left me her personal diary, and that was insightful in terms of the emotional piece of the story.


彼のScientologyについての本Going ClearはHBOのドキュメンタリーになっています。New Yorkerの記事では記事の全文が読めます。



Profiles FEBRUARY 14, 2011 ISSUE
The Apostate
Paul Haggis vs. the Church of Scientology.

BY LAWRENCE WRIGHT
 

気持ちによって意味が変わる

 
クリストフ・ヴァルツが次作の007の悪役に決まっていたのですね。自分はBig Eyesで彼のすごさを知ったのでようやくアンテナにひっかかりました。



Christoph Waltz: the coolest Bond villain ever
BY GQ 07 APRIL 15
It took Christoph Waltz 30 years to become an overnight sensation. The Austrian actor was thrust into the limelight by Quentin Tarantino and before you could say "next Bond villain" he's bagged two Oscars. GQ opens a file on Spectre, stardom and psychiatry with Hollywood's secret weapon

On whether a Bond film can be artistically fulfilling:
"A James Bond film can be artistically fulfilling. Absolutely it can. It can be complex and it can be interesting. I consider Bond movies to be an extension of popular theatre, a kind of modern mythology. You see the same sort of action in Punch and Judy, or in the folk theatre of various cultures, like Grand Guignol."
On achieving success later in his career:
"I do feel I can say - without smugness - that this feels good. I am entitled. I am entitled to judge the situation and say that yes: it feels good, and that yes, I agree with you. I feel like I served my time. I feel I have paid [my dues]."


彼の芸達者振りを感じ取れる動画がありました。オーストリア出身で英語が母国でないことを念頭にインタビューが進められて、セサミストリートがでてきました。大人になっても見ているというヴァルツがセサミストリートをIt’s so trenchant. It's raw, it's full of despair, it's poignant ... deep. The theme song alone, it haunts me.と語っていたので実際に彼にテーマソングを歌ってもらうという流れです。



昨年の11月のものですが、エンタメ記事になっていたのですね。

Christoph Waltz Delivers Hilariously Dark Version of 'Sesame Street' Theme
Oscar-winning actor re-imagines iconic sing-along as brooding spoken word piece on 'Jimmy Kimmel Live!'

By Ryan Reed November 12, 2014
Austrian thespian Christoph Waltz is a master of cinematic menace – just look at his Oscar-winning turns in Inglourious Basterds and Django Unchained. But on Tuesday night's episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, he took his dramatic skills to a new level with a chilling spoken word rendition of the Sesame Street theme song.

Chilling and hilarious, that is. The bit opens during the actor's sitdown interview with Kimmel, as Waltz explains that he previously forced his children to watch a German-dubbed version of Sesame Street. "It's raw, it's full of despair," he says. "It's poignant, deep." A puzzled Kimmel asks his guest if he's confused about the nature of the iconic kids show. But Waltz makes it clear that this alternate Sesame is quite different from the family-friendly American version. "The theme song alone, it haunts me," he says.




英語学習だと「音読=きれいな発音」のようになりがちですが、伝え方によって意味も雰囲気も変わってしまうことがわかります。彼が実践してくれたのは極端な例ではありますが。。。
 

リアルTOEIC 博物館の改修工事

 
広島を訪問した際に広島平和記念資料館が改修工事をするのを知りました。TOEIC学習者の方なら改修という英単語が何かすぐに出てきますよね。また、このような資料館は英語だとmuseumとなるようです。

サイト上にあった表現を日本語と英語で確認しておきます。TOEIC=実用英語の面目躍如という感じで、頻出表現ばかりですね。

多くの方にご来館いただき、ありがとうございます。
広島平和記念資料館では、現在改修工事を行っており、平成28年春(予定)まで東館を閉鎖し、本館のみ開館しています。
ご迷惑をおかけしますが、ご理解、ご協力いただきますようお願い申し上げます。

Thank you for visiting Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum.
The exhibition rooms of the Museum's East Building is closed for renovations until spring 2016.Currently, the Main Building is open to visitors.
We apologize for any inconvenience that may cause and ask for your understanding and cooperation in this matter.

ちらし日本語  リニューアル工事を行っています

ちらし英語 leaflet  We are undergoing renovations


新TOEIC TEST サラリーマン特急 満点リスニング新TOEIC TEST サラリーマン特急 満点リスニング
(2015/04/20)
八島 晶

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ちょうどOJiMさんが書かれた『サラリーマン特急』にundergoという動詞が名詞のコローケションと一緒に丁寧に紹介されていました。renovationではなくrepairの方が取り上げられていましたが、undergo renovationも以下のようにTOEIC公式実践にありますので、これを機会に抑えておきたいですね。大切なことはこのように実感のこもった例に出会うことでしょう。

Our theater has also undergone extraordinary renovations.

改修工事には仮の対応が発生しますが、例えば以下のように説明されていました。be temporarily closed for renovationsといった副詞のtemporarilyも頻出ですね。

観覧券売場
東館1階に仮設の観覧券売場を設置しています。

Ticket Counter: A temporary ticket counter is set up on the 1st floor of the East Building


予定の変更の可能性を訴える文言もTOEIC学習者にはおなじみです。

状況によって変更となることもあります。リニューアルの概要についてはウラ面をご覧ください。

Plans subject to change. See the opposite side for renovation details.

ちらしにある2018年のグランドオープンという表現は、英語だとGrand Reopeningとre-と-ingがついている点に英語的感覚を見出したいですね。

内容ある話をする前に必要事項などをきちんと伝えられるようになろうというTOEICの基本思想は英語初学者や社会人、学生をターゲットにしたものとしては本当によくできていると思います。
 

Granta Japan 第二弾

 

GRANTA JAPAN with 早稲田文学 02GRANTA JAPAN with 早稲田文学 02
(2015/04/02)
カズオ・イシグロ、イアン・マキューアン 他

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カズオ・イシグロ最新長篇の冒頭二章を先行掲載!『GRANTA JAPAN with 早稲田文学02』発売中 (2015/04/15)
世界10か国で展開するイギリスの文芸誌「GRANTA」と、日本でもっとも歴史の長い文芸誌「早稲田文学」がコラボレーションし、昨年創刊された『GRANTA JAPAN with 早稲田文学』。
今月発売の第2号『GRANTA JAPAN with 早稲田文学02』では、4月下旬刊行予定のカズオ・イシグロの最新長篇『忘れられた巨人』の冒頭2章が先行掲載されています。
どこよりも早く、カズオ・イシグロの最新作を楽しめるチャンスです。

その他にもGRANTAの看板企画である、イギリス、アメリカ合衆国の「40歳以下のもっとも優れた作家」を選び出す「The Best of Young Novelists」を特集するほか、日本からも豪華な執筆陣が参加し、誌面を盛り上げます。

ぜひお手にとってご覧ください!


個人的にはGrantaなんだから、日本人作家はいらなかったのではと思ってしまいますが。。。シャルリーエブド事件の後に発表されたイアン・マキューアンの短い論考「言論の自由」も読むことができます。オリジナルの英語を見つけたのでこちらに載せておきます。



Ian McEwan
Not religion's enemy but its protector

The devout cannot have it both ways, writes Ian McEwan. Free speech is hard, it's noisy and bruising sometimes, but the only alternative when so many world-views must cohabit is intimidation, violence and bitter conflict between communities.

西洋vsイスラムというようにならないようにまず、過去の西洋の宗教の苦い歴史を指摘した後に宗教の多様性を認めるsecular stateを評価します。

In the cities of the West, richly layered in race and religion, the only guarantor of freedom of religious worship and tolerance for all is the secular state. It respects all religions within the rule of law, and believes all – or none. The difference is negligible, since not all religions can be true. The principle of free speech is crucial. The cost is occasional offence. The lawful demand is that offence must not lead to violence or threats of violence. The reward is freedom for all to go about their business in lawful pursuit of their beliefs.

The freedom that allows the editors and journalists of Charlie Hebdo their satire is exactly the same freedom that allows Muslims in France to worship and express their views openly. The devout cannot have it both ways. Free speech is hard, it's noisy and bruising sometimes, but the only alternative when so many world-views must cohabit is intimidation, violence and bitter conflict between communities.


表現の自由が守られているから、宗教の自由も守られていると彼は主張したいようです。

Freedom of speech – the giving and receiving of information, asking of awkward questions, scholarly research, criticism, fantasy, satire – the exchange within the entire range of our intellectual capacities, is the freedom that brings the others into being.

Free speech is not religion's enemy, it is its protector. Because it is, there are mosques by the score in Paris, London and New York. In Riyadh, where it is absent, no churches are permitted. Importing a bible now carries the death penalty.

 

Hiroshima

 



HiroshimaHiroshima
(1989/03/04)
John Hersey

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ジョン・ハーシーのHiroshimaの洋書はKindleだと400円もしないで購入できます。和訳も最近増補版で出たようです。広島訪問前に読もうと思ったのですが、ようやく読み終えました。

内容(「BOOK」データベースより)
「20世紀アメリカ・ジャーナリズムの業績トップ100」の第1位に選ばれた、ピュリッツァ賞作家ジョン・ハーシーによる史上初の原爆被害記録。1946年の取材による1~4章は、6人の被爆者の体験と見聞をリアルに描いて世界に原爆の惨禍を知らしめ、原水爆禁止・核廃絶の運動に影響を及ぼした。85年の再訪で成った5章では、原爆症との闘い、市民としての生活・仕事・活動など、稀有な体験者たちの戦後史をヒューマンな筆致で跡づける。5章新訳を増補した決定版。

著者について
ジョン・ハーシー
(John Hersey)
1914年、中国天津に生まれ、家族がアメリカへ帰る1925年まで同地に暮らす。イェール大学ならびにケンブリッジ大学に学び、一時、シンクレア・ルイス(1885-1951、米国の小説家で、1930年に米国人で初めてノーベル文学賞を受賞)の秘書を務め、その後数年間、ジャーナリストとして活動。1947年以降、おもにフィクションの執筆に打ち込む。ピュリッツァ賞受賞。イェール大学で20年間教鞭をとり、その後、アメリカ著作家連盟会長、アメリカ芸術文学学校校長を歴任。1994年9月、谷本清平和賞受賞。1993年死去。


この本が出たのは、終戦翌年の1946年。驚きなのはNew Yorkerの1946年8月31日号を一冊まるまるHiroshimaにあてていることです。以下が最初のページの注意書きです。New Yorkerを定期購読すると当時の雑誌も読むことができます。日本の出版社で創刊号から読めるようにしている雑誌がいくつあるでしょうか。。。

TO OUR READERS
The New Yorker this week devotes its entire editorial space to an article on the almost complete obliteration of a city by one atomic bomb, and what happened to the people of that city. It does so in the conviction that few of us have yet comprehended the all but incredible destructive power of this weapon, and that everyone might well take time to consider the terrible implications of its use.
- The Editors.


日本では1950年代になり占領が終わるまで原爆報道ができなかったことを考えると1946年にこのような本がでたことは画期的なことですよね。

原爆被害の初公開
連合国軍の占領下、プレスコードにより、原爆被害の報道は厳しく制限されていた。宮武・松本両氏も広島を撮影したプリントは没収され、フィルムは焼却するよう申し渡された。6年余りにわたる占領期間中、二人はそれぞれ密かにフィルムを守り続けた。占領が終わった1952年夏、二人の写真はアサヒグラフ1952年8月6日号に掲載され、各方面に大きな衝撃を与えた。「原爆被害の初公開」と題されたこの特集号は発売と同時に売り切れとなり、朝日新聞社では表紙の多色刷りを単色刷りに改め4回にわたって増刷し、70万部が発行された。

Hiroshimaという本が出た当時の反応なども含めて以下のサイトがとても詳しくて勉強になりました。

"Hiroshima" by John Hersey in The New Yorker
An article called "Hiroshima" written by John Hersey was published in The New Yorker magazine in August 1946, a year after World War II ended. The article was based on interviews with atomic bomb survivors and tells their experiences the morning of the blast and for the next few days and weeks. It was a calm and accurate account of survival in the first city to be destroyed by a single weapon.
There were many remarkable things about the "Hiroshoma" article. Just a few:
• "Hiroshima" took over the entire issue of the The New Yorker, there were no articles or cartoons.
• The issue caused a tremendous effect, and sold out within hours.
• Many magazines and newspapers commented on the article.
• The full text was read on the radio in the U.S. and other countries.
• The Book-of-the-Month club sent a free copy in book form to all its members.
"Hiroshima" was quickly published as a book, and remains in print today.


先ほどのシングルストーリーの話と絡めると、このHiroshimaという本もシングルストーリーを打破する力があった話がNew Yorkerにありました。Japan is not just Toyota salary men and post-modern punk kids in Shibu-ya.という当たり前のことに生徒たちを気づかせることができたというのです。

MARCH 15, 2011
An Education
BY SUSAN ORLEAN

I teach a non-fiction writing class at New York University, and one of my great pleasures is deciding on the syllabus. This year, I decided to assign John Hersey’s epic “Hiroshima.” I knew it would be a surprise to my students. Even though it was so celebrated when it was first published, in 1946, as an article in this magazine and, later, as a book, “Hiroshima” seems to have slipped from notice. It’s such a staggering work, reported so precisely and written so masterfully, that I was excited to introduce it to my students.

None of them had ever read it before, and the Japan it describes—isolated and insular, made up of quiet working-class people—would have been hard for them to picture. In their lifetimes, Japan has always been portrayed as a rich and invincible modern monolith, almost more of a corporation than a country. I doubt most of my students imagined it also including shopkeepers, farmers, artisans, and poor fishermen. It’s not that these students aren’t worldly and well read; it’s that the image of an affluent, industrialized Japan has become so dominant that it has blotted out all the nuance of what that country really is like.
 

シングルストーリーの危険性

 


2009年のアディーチェのシングルストーリーの危険性のTEDトークです。こういうのは頭でわかっていても無意識的に自分も行使してしまうものです。彼女の話が説得力があるのは、彼女自身がシングルストーリーに囚われてしまっていることを率直に語ってくれているからでしょう。僕自身も無縁ではないです。アディーチェがナイジェリア出身ということは別に吹き出したり、見下したりしませんが、ナイジェリアはボビーオロゴンの出身地だと知ると、面白オカシイ国に思えてしまうからです。

TEDのサイトで日本語も読めます。ここでの英語と日本語はTEDのサイトから抜粋させていただきました。

チママンダ・アディーチェ:シングルストーリーの危険性
我々の生活や文化は数々の話が重なり合って構成されています。作家のチママンダ・アディーチェは、どのように真の文化的声を探しだしたのかを語り、ある人間や国に対するたった一つの話を聴くだけでは、文化的な誤解を招く可能性があると指摘しています。

I'm a storyteller. And I would like to tell you a few personal stories about what I like to call "the danger of the single story." I grew up on a university campus in eastern Nigeria. My mother says that I started reading at the age of two, although I think four is probably close to the truth. So I was an early reader, and what I read were British and American children's books.

私は作家です “シングルストーリーの危険性” と呼んでいる― 個人的なお話をいくつかしたいと思います 私は東ナイジェリアの大学キャンパスで育ちました 私が2歳から本を読みだしたと 母は言うけれど 実際は4歳が正しいでしょう そんな私が読んでいたのは イギリスやアメリカの子どもの本です


今ではハーフ芸人ネタにされるようなことをアディーチェも体験していたようです。

Years later, I thought about this when I left Nigeria to go to university in the United States. I was 19. My American roommate was shocked by me. She asked where I had learned to speak English so well, and was confused when I said that Nigeria happened to have English as its official language. She asked if she could listen to what she called my "tribal music," and was consequently very disappointed when I produced my tape of Mariah Carey. (Laughter) She assumed that I did not know how to use a stove.
何年もして私がアメリカの大学進学に 国を離れた際 この事を考えることになったのです 私は19歳でした アメリカ人のルームメイトは驚いて 私がどこで英語を身につけたのか尋ね ナイジェリアの公用語は 英語だと言うと困惑していました 彼女は私の“部族音楽” を聴きたがって 私がマライアキャリーのテープを見せると がっかりしていました (笑) 彼女は私がコンロの使い方を 知らないだろうと決め込んでいました


彼女はシングルストーリーの犠牲者であったことをことさらに強調するのではなく、加害者でもあったことを率直に語ってくるところに彼女のよさがあります。

But I must quickly add that I too am just as guilty in the question of the single story. A few years ago, I visited Mexico from the U.S. The political climate in the U.S. at the time was tense, and there were debates going on about immigration. And, as often happens in America, immigration became synonymous with Mexicans. There were endless stories of Mexicans as people who were fleecing the healthcare system, sneaking across the border, being arrested at the border, that sort of thing.
でも 私もシングルストーリーに 身に覚えがないとは言えません 数年前 アメリカからメキシコに行きました 当時 アメリカの政治風土は張り詰めており 移民に関する議論がなされていたのです アメリカではよく見られるように 移民はメキシコ人の類義語となりました メキシコ人が 保健医療制度を悪用したり こっそり国境越えをしたり 国境で逮捕される人たちだという― 話には切りがありませんでした

I remember walking around on my first day in Guadalajara, watching the people going to work, rolling up tortillas in the marketplace, smoking, laughing. I remember first feeling slight surprise. And then, I was overwhelmed with shame. I realized that I had been so immersed in the media coverage of Mexicans that they had become one thing in my mind, the abject immigrant. I had bought into the single story of Mexicans and I could not have been more ashamed of myself. So that is how to create a single story, show a people as one thing, as only one thing, over and over again, and that is what they become.
グアダラハラで過ごした初日に 通勤する人たちを眺め トルティーヤを食べ タバコを吸って 楽しい時間を過ごしました 最初に少し驚いた記憶があり そして恥ずかしさで打ちのめされました 報道されるメキシコ人に どっぷりと浸かっていた自分は 彼らをみじめな移民としか 思っていなかったことに気がついたのです 彼らのシングルストーリーを受け入れていた― 自分が恥ずかしくてたまりませんでした このようにシングルストーリーは 作りだされるのです 唯一のものとして 繰り返し人に見せられ 作られていくのです


知らず知らずのうちに一面的な物の見方しかできなくなる危険性は目新しいものではないのですが、自分はそのような偏見から逃れていると思っても無意識にそのような行動をとっている可能性もあるので難しいのでしょう。

All of these stories make me who I am. But to insist on only these negative stories is to flatten my experience and to overlook the many other stories that formed me. The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story.
こういった話のすべてが今の私を作り上げます しかし 否定的な話のみを強要するのは 自分の経験を打ちひしぎ 私を作り上げた他の話を 見落とすことになります シングルストーリーは固定観念を作りだします 固定観念の問題は 忠実でないことではなく 不完全だということです ある話を “唯一の話” に変えてしまいます

Of course, Africa is a continent full of catastrophes: There are immense ones, such as the horrific rapes in Congo and depressing ones, such as the fact that 5,000 people apply for one job vacancy in Nigeria. But there are other stories that are not about catastrophe, and it is very important, it is just as important, to talk about them.
確かにアフリカは不幸に満ちた大陸です コンゴで続く強姦のような測り知れない悲劇 ナイジェリアで一つの求人に 五千人が応募するような気の滅入る事実 でも 不幸と関係のない話はあって それについて話すことも重要です

I've always felt that it is impossible to engage properly with a place or a person without engaging with all of the stories of that place and that person. The consequence of the single story is this: It robs people of dignity. It makes our recognition of our equal humanity difficult. It emphasizes how we are different rather than how we are similar.
ある場所や人の話すべてに 関与せず それらに誤りなく関わるのは 不可能だといつも感じています シングルストーリーの結果は “人間の尊厳を奪う” のです 我々人間の平等の認識を困難にします 我々の類似点よりも 差異を強調します

彼女は、Stories can break the dignity of a people, but stories can also repair that broken dignity.と、物語の力にシングルストーリーを打破する希望を見出しています。

My Nigerian publisher and I have just started a non-profit called Farafina Trust, and we have big dreams of building libraries and refurbishing libraries that already exist and providing books for state schools that don't have anything in their libraries, and also of organizing lots and lots of workshops, in reading and writing, for all the people who are eager to tell our many stories. Stories matter. Many stories matter. Stories have been used to dispossess and to malign, but stories can also be used to empower and to humanize. Stories can break the dignity of a people, but stories can also repair that broken dignity.
出版社と私はFarafina Trust という NPOを立ち上げました 我々の大きな夢は 新しく図書館を建て 古いものは改修工事をして 空っぽの公立学校には 本を寄贈したいのです そして自分たちの物語を語りたいと 思っている全ての人へ 読書や執筆の研究会を開きたいのです 物語の影響は大きいのです 様々な物語がなくてはなりません 物語は略奪と中傷に使われてきましたが 物語とは人に力を与え人間味を与えることも出来るのです 物語は人の尊厳を砕くことができますが 打ち砕かれた尊厳を修復する力も持っています




ちょうど先週から公開された映画『グッドライ』はシングルストーリー寄りのものです。アフリカ=難民、文化的に遅れたところという視点とは無縁ではありません。特に予告編の55秒あたりはそうですね。

So this is the dog food section - Food for dogs?

Dear God, let us give thanks for this miracle food—Pizza!


だからといって「けしからん」という態度は、シングルストーリーの内容を入れ替えただけであって何も変わったことにならないでしょう。この映画はこの映画で実話がベースにあるそうですから。大切なことは、様々なストーリーに触れて固定観念から少しでも自由になろうとすることでしょう。Easier said than doneではありますが。。。



Reese WitherspoonはTIMEの100人にも選ばれていましたね。

Reese Witherspoon
By Mindy Kaling
April 16, 2015
Hollywood power player
 

(続)Silent service or Unsung service

 
前回の投稿でunsung heroのスペルが間違っていました。お詫びして訂正します。



ちょうどアメリカ版WiredのCover StoryがUnsung Geniusesという特集を組んでいました。Most of the time, the people doing the asking are not household names—not the Musks or Sandbergs of the world. They’re unsung talents, the ones doing the actual work of innovation, sleeves rolled up, meals skipped, families missed.とセレブになっていないイノベータを紹介するのが目的のようです。

Welcome to the Next List for 2015

A FEW TIMES a year, I get to see demonstrations of some of the most mind-blowing technologies and designs—explode-your-head kind of stuff—and I can’t tell a soul about them. Nobody, not even my wife. And certainly not you. Just imagine: You receive an invite from an engineering or product lead to come down and visit with a few folks at, er, Giant Tech Multinational to check out a new project, something they’re excited about and want some feedback on. Most of the time, the people doing the asking are not household names—not the Musks or Sandbergs of the world. They’re unsung talents, the ones doing the actual work of innovation, sleeves rolled up, meals skipped, families missed.

すでにサイト上でも選ばれた人のリストが公開されていました。

Next List

雑誌ではYoky Matsoukaという日本出身の方がトップバッターでした。

Taking Simple Tech and Giving It Some Smarts
Yoky Matsouka | VP of technology and analytics


AS ARTIFICIAL intelligence becomes integral to everything from health care to home heating systems, you can think of Yoky Matsuoka as one of the chief architects of the future. The winner of a MacArthur “genius” award, Matsuoka was on the founding team of Google X and helped build the Nest smart thermostat. At 43, she’s a polymath who has studied computer science, electrical engineering, neuroscience, robotics, and mechanical engineering. Her aim is nothing less than blending elements of each of these fields to redefine the relationship humans can have with technology. “With the combination of technology and neuroscience, there are so many things we can achieve,” Matsuoka says.

Her path to invention began with tennis. At 16, she came to the United States from Japan to improve her game, then attended UC Berkeley. After multiple injuries, she gave up her professional tennis ambitions and turned to engineering, focusing on building a robot that could play tennis with her. This pursuit brought her to MIT, where she got a doctorate in electrical engineering and computer science. But her tennis buddy, as she called the robot, fell short. “The limitation wasn’t in engineering or computer science but in understanding the human brain,” she says. So she began studying computational neuroscience: “I thought, ‘I’m going to create a brand-new way to study artificial intelligence.’” She became a pioneer in the emerging field of neurobotics.


This was part of the larger work that the MacArthur Foundation recognized in 2007.とUnsungといっても作家のAdichieも受賞していたMacArthur Foundationをもらっているのですから、業界では有名な方なのでしょう。TOEIC的には受賞関連で使われる場合の動詞recognizeを抑えておきたいですね。


 

Conjurer of character

 


彼女のTEDトークといえばBeyonceの曲に使われた“We Should All Be Feminists”の方が有名ですが、こちらの方も好きな話です。AdichieもTIMEの100名に選ばれていました。

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
By Radhika Jones
April 16, 2015
Conjurer of character

With her viral TEDxEuston talk, “We Should All Be Feminists,” she found her voice as cultural critic. (You can hear it rising midway through Beyoncé’s woman-power anthem “Flawless.”) She sets her love stories amid civil war (Half of a Yellow Sun) and against a backdrop of racism and migration (Americanah). But her greatest power is as a creator of characters who struggle profoundly to understand their place in the world.

あのTEDトークのおかげでcultural criticになってしまったけど、But her greatest power is as a creator of charactersと結んでいました。だからこそConjurer of characterというサブタイルをつけたようです。Conjurerは「魔術師」という意味なんですね。もちろんここではcreator of charactersをかっこよく言い換えたものですが。。。

(オックスフォード)
conjuror (also conjurer)
a person who performs conjuring tricks
It’s a mystery to me how the conjuror made that rabbit appear.

(ロングマン)
conjurer , conjuror [countable]
someone who entertains people by performing clever tricks in which things seem to appear, disappear, or change by magic [= magician]


ちょうど先々週の雑誌New YorkerでAdichieの短編を掲載していました。短編を読むのは状況がよくつかめなかったりして英語学習者には普通の小説よりも難しくなることが多いですが、この話はそんなことはなく、彼女のConjurer of characterぶりを味わうことができると思います。登場人物に共感して物語を味合うことの楽しみを感じていただけるはずです。

Fiction APRIL 13, 2015 ISSUE
Apollo
BY CHIMAMANDA NGOZI ADICHIE

Words checked = [4191]
Words in Oxford 3000™ = [90%]

短編は定年退職をして老後を暮らす80代の両親に会いに行くところから始まります。夫婦は年を重ねることで似てくるというのをThey seemed to look more and more alike, as though all the years together had made their features blend and bleed into one anotherと表しています。

Twice a month, like a dutiful son, I visited my parents in Enugu, in their small overfurnished flat that grew dark in the afternoon. Retirement had changed them, shrunk them. They were in their late eighties, both small and mahogany-skinned, with a tendency to stoop. They seemed to look more and more alike, as though all the years together had made their features blend and bleed into one another

年をとってから迷信じみた話をする両親という導入部もなぜかあるあるな感じですよね。この娘は教授でもあった両親が迷信深くなってしまったことに驚いてもあるようです。

They had, too, a new, baffling patience for incredible stories. Once, my mother told me that a sick neighbor in Abba, our ancestral home town, had vomited a grasshopper—a living, writhing insect, which, she said, was proof that wicked relatives had poisoned him. “Somebody texted us a picture of the grasshopper,” my father said. They always supported each other’s stories. When my father told me that Chief Okeke’s young house help had mysteriously died, and the story around town was that the chief had killed the teen-ager and used her liver for moneymaking rituals, my mother added, “They say he used the heart, too.”

Fifteen years earlier, my parents would have scoffed at these stories. My mother, a professor of political science, would have said “Nonsense” in her crisp manner, and my father, a professor of education, would merely have snorted, the stories not worth the effort of speech. It puzzled me that they had shed those old selves, and become the kind of Nigerians who told anecdotes about diabetes cured by drinking holy water.


別の機会には武装窃盗団の増加が話題になったのですが、昔この家のhouseboy(下男)だったRaphaelがリーダーだったという話がでます。両親にとっては大勢いた中の一人の印象なため、“You probably won’t remember him.”と話しかけますが、主人公である娘にとってはBut I remembered. Of course I remembered Raphael.という反応でした。Raphaelとのビタースイートな思い出がここから語られていきます。

“Do you know,” she continued, “one of the armed robbers, in fact the ring leader, was Raphael? He was our houseboy years ago. I don’t think you’ll remember him.”
I stared at my mother. “Raphael?”
“It’s not surprising he ended like this,” my father said. “He didn’t start well.”
My mind had been submerged in the foggy lull of my parents’ storytelling, and I struggled now with the sharp awakening of memory.
My mother said again, “You probably won’t remember him. There were so many of those houseboys. You were young.”
But I remembered. Of course I remembered Raphael.


両親とも先生なので本を読むように育てられたのですが、本人は本を好きになれなかったようです。Reading did not do to me what it did to my parentsなんて表現は受験英語好きの先生は喜ぶでしょうね

I worried, too, that I did not care for books. Reading did not do to me what it did to my parents, agitating them or turning them into vague beings lost to time, who did not quite notice when I came and went. I read books only enough to satisfy them, and to answer the kinds of unexpected questions that might come in the middle of a meal—What did I think of Pip? Had Ezeulu done the right thing? I sometimes felt like an interloper in our house.

一人娘である彼女が好きだったのはカンフー。まさにそれこそがRaphaelとの思い出の始まりだったのです。I longed to wake up and be Bruce Lee. I would kick and strike at the air, at imaginary enemies who had killed my imaginary family.なんて文章はブルースリーの強さに憧れた子供たちなら誰もが感じたことでしょう。

What I loved was kung fu. I watched “Enter the Dragon” so often that I knew all the lines, and I longed to wake up and be Bruce Lee. I would kick and strike at the air, at imaginary enemies who had killed my imaginary family. I would pull my mattress onto the floor, stand on two thick books—usually hardcover copies of “Black Beauty” and “The Water-Babies”—and leap onto the mattress, screaming “Haaa!” like Bruce Lee. One day, in the middle of my practice, I looked up to see Raphael standing in the doorway, watching me. I expected a mild reprimand. He had made my bed that morning, and now the room was in disarray. Instead, he smiled, touched his chest, and brought his finger to his tongue, as though tasting his own blood. My favorite scene. I stared at Raphael with the pure thrill of unexpected pleasure. “I watched the film in the other house where I worked,” he said. “Look at this.”

He pivoted slightly, leaped up, and kicked, his leg straight and high, his body all taut grace. I was twelve years old and had, until then, never felt that I recognized myself in another person.


YoutubeにもInstead, he smiled, touched his chest, and brought his finger to his tongue, as though tasting his own blood. My favorite scene.の動画がもちろんありました(笑)



ブルースリーといえばヌンチャク。もちろんヌンチャクも触れられています。

On weekends, if my parents went to the staff club without me, Raphael and I watched Bruce Lee videotapes, Raphael saying, “Watch it! Watch it!” Through his eyes, I saw the films anew; some moves that I had thought merely competent became luminous when he said, “Watch it!” Raphael knew what really mattered; his wisdom lay easy on his skin. He rewound the sections in which Bruce Lee used a nunchaku, and watched unblinking, gasping at the clean aggression of the metal-and-wood weapon.
“I wish I had a nunchaku,” I said.
“It is very difficult to use,” Raphael said firmly, and I felt almost sorry to have wanted one.
Not long afterward, I came back from school one day and Raphael said, “See.” From the cupboard he took out a nunchaku—two pieces of wood, cut from an old cleaning mop and sanded down, held together by a spiral of metal springs. He must have been making it for at least a week, in his free time after his housework. He showed me how to use it. His moves seemed clumsy, nothing like Bruce Lee’s. I took the nunchaku and tried to swing it, but only ended up with a thump on my chest. Raphael laughed. “You think you can just start like that?” he said. “You have to practice for a long time.”




共感できるキャラクターであることをわかってもらおうとちょっと長く引用しすぎたかもしれませんが、物語もオーソドックスな感じで展開するので話の筋も追いやすいと思います。Adichie版『悲しみよこんにちは』という感じでしょうか。

ちなみにApolloというのはここでは目の病気であるApollo diseaseを指しています。イラストは赤く腫れた目をイメージしていることを短編を読んだ後にわかりました。

(Wikipedia)
急性出血性結膜炎(きゅうせいしゅっけつせいけつまくえん、英:acute haemorrhagic conjunctivitis )は、アフリカのガーナが発祥の目の病気。エンテロウイルス70またはコクサッキーA24変異株によって引き起こされる結膜炎。別名はアポロ病 (Apollo disease )[1]。

「アポロ病」
1969年夏の大流行時は、アメリカの人工衛星アポロ11号が月の着陸を終えて、地球への帰還で人々が熱狂・興奮していた時期であった。当時は月に固有の微生物やウイルス等が全く存在しないという確証はなかったので、帰還した飛行士たちは3週間のあいだ厳重な隔離下におかれ、検査と経過観察を受けたほどであった。そのことと同時期に大流行が起きたため、「アポロ11号が月から病原体を持ち込んだ」というデマが流れ、俗にアポロ病と呼ばれた。


リンク先の記事は閲覧注意かもしれませんが、一応紹介しておきます。

Apollo: how dangerous?
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10.Jul.2014 Victor Ogunyinka

 

ヒラリーに推薦文を書いたのは?

 
日本からは作家の村上春樹さんと、近藤麻理恵さんがTIMEの100人に選ばれたことがニュースになりました。この特集は誰が推薦文を書くのかも楽しみですね、村上春樹さんにはオノヨーコ、近藤麻理恵さんにはなんとハリウッド女優のジェミリーカーティスでした。



インドのモディ首相にはオバマ大統領が、中国の習国家主席にはケビンラッド豪元首相が推薦文を書いていたりする中、ヒラリーの推薦文を書いたのはLaurene Powell Jobsという人でした。誰?という感じだったのです。。。同じように???の人にはJobsがヒントとなるでしょう。

Hillary Clinton
By Laurene Powell Jobs

April 16, 2015

Realist and idealist

Women who advocate for other women are often pigeonholed and pushed to the margins. That hasn’t happened to Hillary, because when she’s standing up for the rights of women and girls, she is speaking not only of gender but also of justice and liberty.

As Hillary has always made clear, these values are universal, and fulfilling them is a practical and moral pursuit. She is a realist with a conscience and an idealist who is comfortable with the exercise of power.

最後のPowell Jobs is the founder and chair of Emerson Collectiveでもなんかピンとこなかったし、Emerson Collectiveのサイトもいったのですが、社会起業家を支援する団体ということしかわからなかったです。まあ、アメリカ人でも同じ印象のようで、こんな動画が作られていました。



最新版のThe World’s Billionairesでは45位のようです。

#45 Laurene Powell Jobs & family
Real Time Net Worth As of 4/21/15

$20 Billion
Founder and Chair, Emerson Collective

Laurene Powell Jobs, widow of the late Steve Jobs, is making a name for herself as a political and social influencer. She is the founder and chair of the Emerson Collective, an organization that focuses on using entrepreneurship to advance social reform and help under-resourced students, and College Track, a nonprofit college completion program. In conjunction with President Obama's "My Brother's Keeper" program, Emerson Collective and its partners announced a $50 million commitment in July 2014 to collaborate with certain school districts to design better high school programs. She is among the top donors to super PAC Ready for Hillary. She makes regular visits to Capitol Hill to discuss pathways to citizenship for children of illegal immigrants. The Laurene Powell Jobs Trust is the largest individual shareholder in Disney, with a 7.7% slice of the company. An angel investor, she is a backer and board member at startup Ozy Media. She also sits on Stanford's Board of Trustees.






 

Silent service or Unsung service

 


広島の平和資料館は外国人の割合が4割くらいだったと思いますが、呉の大和ミュージアムではほとんどみかけなかったです。今回はちょっとした雑感です。

鉄のくじら館の英語版のちらしタイトルのところに以下の文言が付け加えられていました。

Silent service & minesweepers


3F
潜水艦の活躍

常に隠密に行動し、深い海の中から日本を守っている潜水艦の活躍を、その歴史と技術、乗員たちの生活など、さまざまな角度から紹介していきます。

3F
SUBMARINE ACTIVITIES

Submarines always operate silently and secretly in order to defend Japan deep under the sea. This section introduces their activities from various angles including their history, technologies and life of crew.



目立たない活動だが、重要な役割を担っている場合によく使われるのが、unsung heroという言葉。

(英辞郎)
unsung hero
〔達成した偉業を正しく評価されることが(ほとんど)ない〕陰の[詩歌にうたわれたことのない]英雄[ヒーロー]、縁の下の力持ち


(オックスフォード)
unsung
not praised or famous but deserving to be
the unsung heroes of the war


(ケンブリッジ)
unsung
not noticed or praised for hard work, courage, or great achievements:
an unsung hero/heroine
Many of her achievements went unsung until after her death.


人に対して使われることが多いですが、serviceのような活動にも使えるかちょっと調べてみたら、以下のような社説がありました。over countless hours of unseen and largely unsung laborやthe unsung nature of their serviceのような表現で長年の貢献をたたえています。

EDITORIAL: An Unceremonious Finale To Unsung Service
DECEMBER 8, 2010

Hardy, Robison and Doty have each had a direct role to play in the laying of groundwork for the future of Moapa Valley. Sometimes their positions on the board have been unpopular and the resulting actions of the board have moved into rather controversial territorial. Nevertheless, over countless hours of unseen and largely unsung labor, these men have helped forge agreements and negotiate complex contracts that should ensure water resources will be supplied to this desert community well into the future.

*******

But the unsung nature of their service doesn’t make it less important. These men have faithfully filled difficult positions that have been fundamental and vital to the well being of the Moapa Valley community.


Silentという形容詞にはこの語にあるようなbut deserving to beというニュアンスはないので、Unsung serviceとすれば、この博物館の基本コンセプトがすっきり伝わる気がします。
 

初学者の問題

 

風船爆弾についてWikipediaを読んでる時に知った事件です。このような事件があったなんて知りませんでした。少数ながらも死者も出ているので笑いごとでもないようです。

英語学習に絡めるタイトルをつけましたが、結構本気で、中級者ぐらいまでというのはこのようなものではないかと思っています。全体もつかめていないので、いろいろあることないこと推測してエネルギーを使ってしまうのではないでしょうか。Wikipediaでは詳しく説明してくれています。

ロサンゼルスの戦い(ロサンゼルスのたたかい、英語:Battle of Los Angeles)は、第二次世界大戦中の1942年2月25日に、アメリカ合衆国カリフォルニア州のロサンゼルス市で起きたアメリカ陸軍による軍事作戦。
日本海軍の艦載機による空襲が行われたと誤認したアメリカ陸軍が対空砲火を中心とした「迎撃戦」を展開、その模様はラジオ中継されアメリカ西海岸のみならずアメリカ全土をパニック状態に陥れた。しかし実際に日本海軍がそうした空襲を行った記録はなく、騒動の真相は未だ闇の中にある。

The Battle of Los Angeles, also known as The Great Los Angeles Air Raid, is the name given by contemporary sources to the rumored enemy attack and subsequent anti-aircraft artillery barrage which took place from late 24 February to early 25 February 1942 over Los Angeles, California.[1][2] The incident occurred less than three months after the United States entered World War II as a result of the Japanese Imperial Navy's attack on Pearl Harbor, and one day after the bombardment of Ellwood on 23 February.
Initially, the target of the aerial barrage was thought to be an attacking force from Japan, but speaking at a press conference shortly afterward, Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox called the incident a "false alarm." Newspapers of the time published a number of reports and speculations of a cover-up. Some modern-day UFOlogists have suggested the targets were extraterrestrial spacecraft.[3] When documenting the incident in 1983, the U.S. Office of Air Force History attributed the event to a case of "war nerves" likely triggered by a lost weather balloon and exacerbated by stray flares and shell bursts from adjoining batteries.


今ではUFOと結びつけられて、恐怖からの過剰反応という側面が薄れてしまっているようです。UFOというのは戦後の現象というWikipediaの指摘は面白いですね。



(Wikipedia)
なお、事件が起きた1942年においては、アメリカにおいていわゆる「UFO」の概念は一般市民のみならず軍内部においても認識されていなかった(「地球外生命体の乗り物」という意味でUFOの語が広く用いられるようになったのは戦後の1947年以降のことである)ため、事件当時には「UFOの飛来ではないか」という意見は大戦後に至るまで軍民、マスコミのいずれからも起きることはなかった。

いずれにしても、実際の被害の大きさよりも、アメリカ軍民に衝撃と混乱を与えることが目標とされた2月24日のサンタバーバラへの日本海軍艦艇による砲撃の成功が、このような形でのアメリカ軍の混乱と、同士討ちによる被害を招いたともいえる。
 

「ふ号」兵器は世界初の大陸間弾道ミサイル

 
加害者としての日本、被害者としての日本を知ろうと、今週末は広島の大久野島と呉、広島平和記念公園、岩国といってきました。アシアナ航空のせいで冷や冷やしましたが、予定通り飛行機に乗れてよかったです。。。

IMG_0319.jpg

大久野島を散策していておやっとおもったのはこちらの標識。ここでも風船爆弾が作られていたようです。





風船爆弾というと、自分は風船おじさんのイメージが強いためか、大真面目に受け止めていなかったのですが、この工場でも作られていたと知り、1月にJapan Timesで紹介されていたFu Goをこの旅の移動時間で読みました。


Fu-go: The Curious History of Japan's Balloon Bomb Attack on America (Studies in War, Society, and the Military) (English Edition)Fu-go: The Curious History of Japan's Balloon Bomb Attack on America (Studies in War, Society, and the Military) (English Edition)
(2014/11/01)
Ross Coen

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Fu-go
BY J.J. O'DONOGHUE
SPECIAL TO THE JAPAN TIMES
JAN 3, 2015

At the same time as the U.S. Air Force was reducing Japanese cities to rubble in the final year of World War II, mainland America was also being threatened by aerial attack. Free-floating balloons, loaded with bombs, were launched from Japan’s Pacific coast aimed at the U.S. mainland more than 10,000 km away.

These lethal balloons, known as Fu-Go, were, on the whole, hugely ineffective. They were intended to engulf western swaths of the U.S. in forest fires, but in only a few cases did they do any real damage.

日本での本だとドキュメンタリーにあるように女学生が必死になって作った側面が強調されがちですが、この洋書が興味深いのはアメリカ側の反応が追いかけられている点です。当初は正体不明で、天候調査の気球が誤ってやってきたのだろうとか、日本の潜水艦が調査目的で飛ばしたのだろうとか、たかをくくっていた段階から、ドイツのV2ロケットに匹敵する日本軍の新兵器だと過剰反応したりといった経緯を知ることができました。

At first the Americans believed them to be weather balloons, but as more and more made land in the U.S. and Canada, they were able to build a fairly precise picture of the spectacular and desperate measures the Japanese were undertaking in their last-ditch war effort.

The American’s biggest fear was that the balloons would be the harbinger of biochemical warfare on American soil. This, as we know, never materialized.

Coen is mostly concerned with events as they unfolded in America, but along the way he documents soldiers and civilians, from both sides, who got caught up in a story that at times will have you scratching your head: transoceanic balloon warfare? It’s hard to believe, but in war, it seems, anything is possible.




まさかこういう形で結びつくとは思わなかったです。ジェット気流というものを日本は把握していたが、アメリカは知らなかったという事実も興味深かったです。それを知らなかったら、どうやって到達したのか恐怖を感じますよね。
 

被害者としての日本と加害者としての日本

 
「原爆投下は当然だ!」と言い切った『くたばれ、ジャップ野郎!―日本軍の捕虜になったイギリス兵の記録』の著者ジャックエドワーズさんが気になってしまっていた時に読んだイアン・ブルマの『戦争の記憶―日本人とドイツ人』で大久野島を知りました。



恥ずかしながら今までこの島の存在を知りませんでしたし、東京の新宿区に毒ガス研究所があったんですねえ。1994年のイアンブルマさんの本を種本としたのかわかりませんが、1995年にニューヨークタイムズのコラムニストのニコラス・クリストフが大久野島のことを取り上げていました。

Okunoshima Journal; A Museum to Remind Japanese of Their Own Guilt
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
Published: August 12, 1995

"If you ask why America dropped the atomic bomb, Japan should also ask why it made chemical weapons at Okunoshima," said Hatsuichi Murakami, who worked at the poison gas factory as a teen-ager.

Some Americans and Japanese alike complain that Japan suffers from a "victim consciousness," in which it is obsessed by the atomic bombing but forgets the aggression that preceded it. Okunoshima both confirms and undermines this interpretation of Japan.

On the one hand, every Japanese knows that the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, and 1.5 million people each year pass through the museum in Hiroshima that shows the awful human effects of the bomb. But few Japanese have ever heard of Okunoshima and its poison gas factory, and only 52,000 visitors a year pass through the island's poison gas museum and its grisly exhibits about the effects of the gas.


被害者意識だけを前面に押し出すことに対する日本人への違和感を感じていたジャックエドワーズさんの気持ちがようやくわかったような気がしました。そもそも広島は軍都であったんですよね。

Japanese soldiers used the gas more than 2,000 times against Chinese soldiers and civilians in the war in China in the 1930's and 1940's. At the end of the war, Japan left munitions dumps that China says contain 2 million poison gas shells.

The Japanese Government early this year confirmed that the poison gas in China had been left by Japan and accepted responsibility for cleaning up the dumps.

After the war, the Japanese Army tried to hide its activities at Okunoshima. But Allied soldiers found the plant, and the Americans dumped almost 5,000 tons of poison gas into the sea in 1946.

Those who seem to feel guiltiest about the gas are in some cases the survivors of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Acutely sensitive to the agonies of war, many have visited Okunoshima and called for more attention to what went on here.

"We should think of other victims as well," said Akihiro Takahashi, an atomic bomb survivor who until recently was the director of the Hiroshima peace museum. "We should think more of the victims in Okinawa, of the Tokyo firebombing, of the toxic gas made in Okunoshima. Have the atomic bomb survivors thought enough about these people? I'm afraid we haven't, and that's what I feel badly about."


1995年はちょうど戦後50年ということもあってか、クリストフさんは広島なども取り上げていました。

Hiroshima: A special report.; The Bomb: An Act That Haunts Japan and America
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
Published: August 6, 1995

HIROSHIMA; Justified Bombings? A Survivor's Reply
Published: August 6, 1995

Kokura, Japan: Bypassed by A-Bomb
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
Published: August 7, 1995

いよいよ22日の水曜日にバンドンのアジアアフリカ会議で、29日には米国議会で安倍首相が演説をします。被害者か加害者かという二者択一ではなく、日本は紛れもなくどちらでもあったんですよね。そのあたりの現実を踏まえた内容であることを期待します。

 

KenさんのShall We Dance?

 


Japan Times On Sundayで渡辺謙さんのミュージカルデビューについて記事にされていました。残念ながら英語力が足を引っ張っているというのです。Japan Timesは閲覧回数制限があるので、Kyodo Newsをシンガポールのサイトでご紹介。

Actor Watanabe slammed for poor English in New York musical reviews
PUBLISHED: 4:01 PM, APRIL 18, 2015
NEW YORK — Japanese actor Ken Watanabe received scathing remarks about his English skills, although not his acting, as critics reviewed on Friday (April 17) the opening of the Broadway musical The King and I in New York.

“His diction is not always coherent,” The New York Times said, while The New York Post called Watanabe’s English “rough”. “His solo turn, ‘A Puzzlement’, is just that — a garbled mess,” it added.
inline

The Daily News said the 55-year-old actor’s English “is a work in progress, so sometimes his lines and lyrics are blurry”.

The Wall Street Journal said: “His thick Japanese accent is something of a trial in ‘A Puzzlement’, but that’s the only thing slightly wrong with him.”


映画は撮り直しがききますが、ミュージカルはそうもいきませんから難しいのかもしれませんね。

Watanabe spoke about the challenge his English skills face in a musical the day after the first preview show.

“Movies are more forgiving of mistakes, whereas if you make too many mistakes in a musical, you won’t be able to reach the audience,” he told a press conference on March 13.
KYODO NEWS


Kyodoでも触れていたNew York Postの記事です。

How Ken Watanabe polished the King’s speech for ‘King and I’
By Michael Riedel
April 7, 2015

Cast members were panicky because they could hear those blue-haired ladies who make up much of the Lincoln Center audience saying things like “What’s he saying?,” “What kind of an accent is that?” and, my favorite, “Speak English — like Yul Brynner!”

Apparently, Watanabe was nervous about the language problem as well. And so he decreed about three weeks ago — after all, he is the King — that everybody on the show address him in English at all times.

‪Yul BrynnerとDeborah Kerr ‬のKing and IがYouTubeにありました。



まだ始まったばかりですから、今後の挽回を期待してたいです!!

“He has spent every day since previews speaking in English and in English only,” a source says. “Even at home, I think.”

Well, the Rosetta Stone crash course paid off. Watanabe can now be understood, for the most part, by everybody in the theater. The little old ladies have settled down. They are no longer puzzled by “A Puzzlement.”



 

細かいことですが、アラビア数字とローマ数字

 
2006年のTOEICリニューアルで変わったことで一番地味なのはパートの数字表示がローマ数字からアラビア数字に変わったことでしょうか。

以下のサイトでも新旧でパート表示が変わっています。
TOEICテストリニューアルの背景

toeicpart.png

以下の説明を読んでもかき分けていますよね。

リーディング セクションの変更点
▪ 従来のTOEICテストのパートVIを削除。
▪ 新TOEICテストのパート5は短文の中の空所に単語を補充。パート6では長文の中に複数ある空所に単語を補充。
新TOEICテストのパート7では2つの文書を読んで設問に答える問題を追加。


本家大元のETSのサイトでも以下のようにアラビア数字を使っています。

Test Content

The TOEIC® Listening and Reading test is a paper-and-pencil, multiple-choice assessment. There are two timed sections of 100 questions each. For more detailed information on test content, please see pages two and three of the TOEIC® Listening and Reading Examinee Handbook (PDF).
For information on disability accommodations, please see the Disabilities Accommodations page.
Section I: Listening
Test takers listen to a variety of questions and short conversations recorded in English, then answer questions based on what they have heard (100 items total).
▪ Part 1: Photographs
▪ Part 2: Question-Response
▪ Part 3: Conversations
▪ Part 4: Short Talks

Section II: Reading
Test takers read a variety of materials and respond at their own pace (100 items total).
▪ Part 5: Incomplete Sentences
▪ Part 6: Error Recognition or Text Completion
▪ Part 7: Reading Comprehension


まあ、問題分析と違いこのような点はトリビアですが、Part IIとかPart Vとか書いている人がいるとついつい気になってしまいます。。。旧TOEICからやり込んだ方なんでしょうかねえ。そんな人でも教材を作る場合は、しっかりとアラビア数字でパート表示してもらいたいです。

 

Junot Díazの意外な一面

 
ネタニヤフの勝利でパレスチナに対して絶望するしかない状況ですが、以下のような本が出版されたようです。Junot Díazはオタク系作家で政治にはコミットしていないと勝手に思っていたので、彼が関わっていたのは意外でし
た。


Letters to Palestine: Writers Respond to War and OccupationLetters to Palestine: Writers Respond to War and Occupation
(2015/04/14)
Vijay Prashad

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Letters to Palestine: Writers Respond to War and Occupation
Edited by Vijay Prashad
Impassioned and intimate writing to Palestinians from celebrated American writers
Operation Protective Edge, Israel’s seven-week bombing campaign and ground invasion of Gaza in the summer of 2014, resulted in half a million displaced Gazans, tens of thousands of destroyed homes, and more than 2,000 deaths—and, yet, it was only the latest in a long series of assaults endured by Palestinians isolated in Gaza. But, following the conflict, polls revealed a startling fact: for the first time, a majority of Americans under thirty found Israel’s actions unjustified. Jon Stewart aired a blistering attack on Israeli violence, and a video of a UN spokesperson weeping as he was interviewed in Gaza went viral, appearing on Vanity Fair and Buzzfeed, among other sites.

This book traces this swelling American recognition of Palestinian suffering, struggle, and hope, in writing that is personal, lyrical, anguished, and inspiring. Some of the leading writers of our time, such as Junot Díaz and Teju Cole, poets and essayists, novelists and scholars, Palestinian American activists like Huwaida Arraf, Noura Erakat, and Remi Kanazi, give voice to feelings of empathy and solidarity—as well as anger at US support for Israeli policy—in intimate letters, beautiful essays, and furious poems. This is a landmark work of controversial, committed literary writing.


彼のインタビューが出版社のサイトに載っていました。意外にも貧しいニュージャージのコミュニティではアイルランドのIRAや南アフリカのANCとは無縁ではなかったようです。勝手に政治とは無関係と思っていただけでした。。。

Junot Díaz: "I think the occupation of Palestine is fucked up"
By Gayatri Kumar / 14 April 2015

Americans Are So Deranged About Palestine

I grew up in the '80s in Central New Jersey, and every single kind of colonial settler calamity was present in my community. I was friends with an Irish kid, the only white kid in our community, and a hard-core Irish Catholic republican. His family used to pass the hat around in church to raise money for the IRA. My other friend was an Egyptian kid whose family extended into Palestine, and throughout the '80s, while everybody else was watching John Hughes movies, this kid had me on point on Palestine. And then of course this was at the height of the apartheid movement. So all of my African American friends, well, two of them, not all of them, had parents who were part of the leftwing, pro-ANC, anti-apartheid movement. I'm in this poor community and this is all just getting beamed into my head.

(中略)
On the basic, basic level: If you are occupying other people's shit, guess what—you are fucked up. That's that. And that's a tough thing for people to stomach. Because we live in a country that's currently occupying people's fucking land. Perhaps Americans are so deranged about Palestine because Americans are thinking, if we give up here, these fucking Indians are going to want their shit back. Well, maybe they should get their shit back. Since 90 percent of us don't own anything, I don't know how much it would hurt us.


Teju Coleも寄稿しているようなので、とりあえず二人のは先に読んでみます。
 

これで話すスピードはどれくらい

 
再びバードマンねたです。映画だと随分と長く話している気がしたんですが、Youtubeで見てみると1分ほどでした。話すスピードは1分間で200語ほどですが、それほど早いというほどではないんですね。娘にグサグサくることを言われてしまうシーンです。



RIGGAN
It’ s my chance to do some work that actually means something.
SAM
Means something to who? You had a career before the third comic book movie, before people started to forget who was inside the bird costume. You're doing a play based on a book that was written 60 years ago, for a thousand rich, old white people whose only real concern is gonna be where they go to have their cake and coffee when it's over. Nobody gives a shit but you. And let's face it, Dad, you’re not doing this for the sake of art. You’re doing this because you want to feel relevant again. Well, guess what there's a whole world out there where people fight to be relevant every single day. And you act like it doesn't even exist! Things are happening in a place that you ignore, a place that, by the way, has already forgotten about you. I mean who’s the fuck are you? You hate bloggers. You mock twitter. You don't even have a Facebook page. You're the one who doesn't exist. You're doing this because you're scared to death, like the rest of us, that you don't matter. And you know what? You're right. You don't. It's not important. OK. You're not important. Get used to it.
Silence. Riggan seems devastated, and Sam can see that.
Dad...

Words checked = [201]
Words in Oxford 3000™ = [94%]


単なる自分メモの投稿ですが、一応フレーズチェックです。Get used to itに関しては、個人的には今回の例のように、よくないことを受け入れる、慣れる、といった意味に使われることが多い気がします。

Let’s face it. 現実を見る
Nobody gives a shit but you. And let's face it, Dad, you’re not doing this for the sake of art. You’re doing this because you want to feel relevant again.
誰も何とも思っていない、お父さんだけ。認めなよ、芸術のためにやっているんじゃないでしょ。これをやるのはまた存在感を示したいだけ。

Get used to it. (悪いことなど)慣れる、受け入れる
You're the one who doesn't exist. You're doing this because you're scared to death, like the rest of us, that you don't matter. And you know what? You're right. You don't. It's not important. OK. You're not important. Get used to it.
お父さんは存在感ゼロなの。これをやるのは死ぬのが怖いからでしょ。他の皆と同じ。お父さんはどうでもいい存在なの。分かる。そうよ。お父さんはたいしたことないの。わかる。大物なんかじゃないの。もう慣れたらどう。


バードマンのスクリプトが公開されていましたが、実際のものとは少し違っていました。

SAM
Means something to who? You had a career
before the third comic book movie, before people began to forget who was inside the bird costume. You're doing a play based on a book that was written 60 years ago, for a thousand rich, old white people whose only real concern is gonna be where they go to have their cake and coffee when it's over. Nobody gives a shit but you. And let's face it, Dad, it's not for the sake of art. It's because you just want to feel relevant again. Well, there's a whole world out there where people fight to be relevant every day. And you act like it doesn't even exist! Things are happening in a place that you willfully ignore, a place that has already forgotten you. I mean who are you? You hate bloggers. You make fun of twitter. You don't even have a Facebook page. You're the one who doesn't exist. You're doing this because you're scared to death, like the rest of us, that you don't matter. And you know what? You're right. You don't. It's not important. You're not important. Get used to it.
Silence. Riggan seems devastated, and Sam can see that.
Dad...
Sam (CONT'D)

この映画は内輪ネタも多く、類型的なキャラクター設定を大げさにしている印象です。コミカルな感じがするのはそのためでしょうか。メディア取材を受けているところですが、小難しく語ろうとする記者、ゴジップ記者、英語のよくわからないアジア系記者が登場しています。



話している内容は真逆のことなのに、聞き取れたフレーズだけで勘違いの反応をしてしまう。外国語学習者としては笑うに笑えないところですね(苦笑)スクリプトにはHANとありますが、日本人記者も念頭にあるのではないかと勘ぐってしまいます。

GABRIEL
Are you afraid at all that people will say you're doing this play to battle the impression that you're a washed-up super hero?
RIGGAN
No. Absolutely not. And that’s exactly why 20 years ago I said no to do Birdman 4.
HAN
Birdman 4??? You do Birdman 4???

こちらもスクリプトとはちょくちょく変わっていますね。

GABRIEL
Why does somebody go from playing the lead in a comic book franchise to adapting Raymond Carver for the stage?
Riggan tries to remain calm.
GABRIEL (CONT’D)
I mean, as you're probably aware, Barthes said, “The cultural work done in the past by gods and epic sagas is now done by laundry detergent commercials and comic strip characters.” It's a big leap you've taken...
Riggan shifts nervously.

RIGGAN
Well... Absolutely. As you said... that Barthes said... Birdman, like Icarus...
CLARA
Hang on. Who's this Barthes guy? Which Birdman was he in?
GABRIEL
Roland Barthes was a French philosopher, who--
CLARA
Oh. Okay. Sure. Now, is it true you’ve been injecting yourself with semen from baby pigs?
RIGGAN
What?
CLARA
As a method of facial rejuvenation.
RIGGAN
Who told you that?
CLARA
It was tweeted by... (checks her notes)
@prostatewhispers.
RIGGAN It's a lie.
CLARA
I know. But did you do it?
RIGGAN No!
GABRIEL
Are you afraid at all that people will say you're doing this play to battle the impression that you're a washed-up super hero?
What?
RIGGAN
No. I’m not. And that’s exactly why 20 years ago I refused to do Birdman 4.
HAN
Birdman 4??? You do Birdman 4???
Jake opens the door and the camera pans to him.
JAKE
Okay. That's enough for today.
Thank you for coming. We’re expecting some great pieces from you...
 

バードマンの予習のために

 


映画バードマンでは『愛について語るときに我々の語ること』の舞台化を軸に物語が進んでいきます。短編のすべてを以下で読むことができてしまいます。

WHAT WE TALK ABOUT WHEN WE TALK ABOUT LOVE

もとのビギナーズも以下のリンクで読めるので、どのように原稿が減らされたのか比較できるます。

Fiction DECEMBER 24, 2007 ISSUE
Beginners
Drinking gin and talking about love

(This is a draft of Carver’s story “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love” without Gordon Lish’s edits.)
BY RAYMOND CARVER

(Wikipedia 愛について語るときに我々の語ること (小説))から抜粋)
上記短編集に収められた作品の多くが編集者のゴードン・リッシュによって文章の大幅な削除を受けているが、本作品もその例に漏れず、オリジナル原稿の「50パーセント」が削られている[1]。
元のタイトルである「ビギナーズ」は次の一節から取られた。
"What do any of us really know about love?" Mel said. "It seems to me we're just beginners at love."
「我々は愛についていったい何を知っているだろうか?」とメルは言った。「僕らはみんな愛の初心者みたいに見える」

そしてリッシュは、メル・マギニスが別の箇所で述べた次の言葉を取って本作品と短編集の両方のタイトルとした。

"You see, this happened a few months ago, but it's still going on right now, and it ought to make us feel ashamed when we talk like we know what we're talking about when we talk about love."
「このことは二、三ヵ月前に起こった。でもそれは今でも続いていて、この話を聞いたら僕らはみんな恥じ入ってしかるべきなんだ。こういう風に愛についてしゃべっているときに自分が何をしゃべっているか承知しているというような偉そうな顔をしてしゃべってることについてね」


なんか自分にはよくわからなかった短編でした。映画は楽しめましたが。。。

映画で繰り返し登場するエピソードを2つ紹介します。一つは老夫婦の話。

“Okay,” Mel said. “Where was I?” he said. He stared at the table and then he began again.
“I dropped in to see each of them every day, sometimes twice a day if I was up doing other calls anyway. Casts and bandages, head to foot, the both of them. You know, you’ve seen it in the movies. Little eye-holes and nose-holes and mouth-holes. And she had to have her legs slung up on top of it. Well, the husband was very depressed for the longest while. Not about the accident, though. I mean, the accident was one thing, but it wasn’t everything. I’d get up to his mouth hole, you know, and he’d say no, it wasn’t the accident exactly but it was because he couldn’t see her through his eye-holes. He said that was what was making him feel so bad. Can you imagine? The man’s heart was breaking because he couldn’t turn his goddamn head and see his goddamn wife.”
Mel looked around the table and shook his head at what he was going to say.
“I mean, it was killing the old fart just because he couldn’t look at the fucking woman.”


もう一つは拳銃自殺する元彼の話。

Laura leaned forward with her glass. She put her elbows on the table and her glass with both hands. She glanced from Mel to Terri and waited with a look of bewilderment on her face, as if amazed such things happened to people you were friendly with.
“How’d he bungle it when he killed himself?” I asked.
“I’ll tell you what happened,” Mel said. “He took his twenty-two pistol he’d bought to threaten Terri and me with. Oh, I’m serious, the man was always threatening. You should have seen the way we lived in those days. Like fugitives. I even bought a gun myself. Can you believe it? A guy like me? But I did. I bought a gun for self-defense and carried it in my glove compartment. Sometimes I’d have to leave the apartment in the middle of the night. To go to the hospital, you know? Terri and I weren’t married then, and my first wife had the house and kids, the dog, everything, and Terri and I were living in this apartment here. Sometimes, as I say, I’d get a call in the middle of the night and have to go to the hospital at two or three in the morning. It’d be dark out there in the parking lot, and I’d break into a sweat before I could even get to my car. I never knew if he was going to come out of the shrubbery or from behind a car and start shooting. I mean, the man was crazy. He was capable of wiring a bomb, anything. He used to call my service at all hours and say he needed to talk to the doctor, and when I’d return the call, he’d say, ‘Son of a bitch, your days are numbered.’ Little things like that. It was scary, I’m telling you.”
“I still feel sorry for him,” Terri said.
“It sounds like a nightmare,” Laura said. “But what exactly happened after he shot himself?”
Laura is a legal secretary. We’d met in a professional capacity. Before we knew it, it was a courtship. She’s thirty-five, three years younger than I am. In addition to being in love, we like each other and enjoy each other’s company. She’s easy to be with.
***
“What happened?” Laura asked.
Mel said, “He shot himself in the mouth in his room. Someone heard the shot and told the manager. They came in with a passkey, saw what had happened, and called an ambulance. I happened to be there when they brought him in, alive but past recall. The man lived for three days. His head swelled up to twice the size of a normal head. I’d never seen anything like it, and I hope I never do again. Terri wanted to go in and sit with him when she found out about it. We had a fight over it. I didn’t think she should see him like that. I didn’t think she should see him, and I still don’t.”
“Who won the fight?” Laura said.
“I was in the room with him when he died,” Terri said. “He never came up out of it. But I sat with him. He didn’t have anyone else.”
“He was dangerous,” Mel said. “If you call that love, you can have it.”
“It was love,” Terri said. “Sure, it’s abnormal in most people’s eyes. But he was willing to die for it. He did die for it.”
“I sure as hell wouldn’t call it love,” Mel said. “I mean, no one knows what he did it for. I’ve seen a lot of suicides, and I couldn’t say anybody knew what they did it for.”
Mel put his hands behind his neck and tilted his chair back. “I’m not interested in that kind of love,” he said. “If that’s love, you can have.”
Terri said, “We were afraid. Mel even made a will out and wrote to his brother in California who used to be a Green Beret. Mel told him who to look for if something happened to him.” Terri drank from her glass. “But Mel’s right—we lived like fugitives. We were afraid. Mel was, weren’t you, honey? I even called the police at one point, but they were no help. They said they couldn’t do anything until Ed actually did something. Isn’t that a laugh?” Terri said.
She poured the last of the gin into her glass and waggled the bottle. Mel rose from the table and went to the cupboard. He took down another bottle.


映画の序盤から何度も登場するエピソードなので別にネタバレにはならないと思いますが、
このエピソードを抑えておくとラストで登場する批評家の言葉で、映画のサブタイトルでもある The Unexpected Virtue of Ignoranceの意味がよく分かるようになります。
 

150年前の記事でも読める!

 
Read the Associated Press’s 1865 Story About Lincoln’s Assassination
By Ben Mathis-Lilley

Abraham Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth on April 14, 1865—Tuesday is the 150th anniversary of the attack. The Associated Press marked the occasion by posting an edited version of the story that its correspondent, Lawrence Gobright, filed from the scene. Amazingly, as noted by the New Republic’s Brian Beutler, the story doesn't mention that Lincoln had gotten shot until its third paragraph!

リンカーン暗殺から150周年ということでAP通信が当時の記事を公開していました。3パラグラフ目にようやく撃たれたことに触れているようです。

AP Was There: Original AP report of Lincoln's assassination
By The Associated Press
Apr. 13, 2015 12:42 PM EDT

On the night Abraham Lincoln was shot, April 14, 1865, Associated Press correspondent Lawrence Gobright scrambled to report from the White House, the streets of the stricken capital, and even from the blood-stained box at Ford's Theatre, where, in his memoir he reports he was handed the assassin's gun and turned it over to authorities. Here is an edited version of his original AP dispatch:

WASHINGTON, APRIL 14 — President Lincoln and wife visited Ford's Theatre this evening for the purpose of witnessing the performance of 'The American Cousin.' It was announced in the papers that Gen. Grant would also be present, but that gentleman took the late train of cars for New Jersey.

The theatre was densely crowded, and everybody seemed delighted with the scene before them. During the third act and while there was a temporary pause for one of the actors to enter, a sharp report of a pistol was heard, which merely attracted attention, but suggested nothing serious until a man rushed to the front of the President's box, waving a long dagger in his right hand, exclaiming, 'Sic semper tyrannis,' and immediately leaped from the box, which was in the second tier, to the stage beneath, and ran across to the opposite side, made his escape amid the bewilderment of the audience from the rear of the theatre, and mounted a horse and fled.

The groans of Mrs. Lincoln first disclosed the fact that the President had been shot, when all present rose to their feet rushing towards the stage, many exclaiming, 'Hang him, hang him!' The excitement was of the wildest possible description...

There was a rush towards the President's box, when cries were heard — 'Stand back and give him air!' 'Has anyone stimulants?' On a hasty examination it was found that the President had been shot through the head above and back of the temporal bone, and that some of his brain was oozing out. He was removed to a private house opposite the theatre, and the Surgeon General of the Army and other surgeons were sent for to attend to his condition.


150年前の記事でも結構普通に読めるものだなというのが感想でした。リンク先で全部読んでみてはどうでしょうか。
 

ナショジオ日本版20周年

 

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC (ナショナル ジオグラフィック) 日本版 2015年 4月号 [雑誌]NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC (ナショナル ジオグラフィック) 日本版 2015年 4月号 [雑誌]
(2015/03/30)
ナショナル ジオグラフィック

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ナショナルジオグラフィックの日本版が20周年ということで、植村直巳が表紙になっています。そのことについてアメリカのサイトでも以下のように紹介していました。

This month, the Japanese edition of National Geographic—the very first of our local-language editions—is celebrating its 20th anniversary. On the cover is a retelling of Uemura’s trek, which includes Block’s recollections of their time together. Uemura died in February 1984 on Mount McKinley, shortly after becoming the first person to make a solo winter summit. Block recently met with Uemura’s widow, Kimiko, while on a visit to Japan, bringing full circle this story of two men with explorers’ souls.

植村直己 北極点へ、ともに
1978年4月29日、冒険家の植村直己がひとり、地球の頂点に立った。北極点単独行を取材したナショジオ写真家が、人生を変えた植村との日々を語る。

文=アイラ・ブロック

アイラブロックさんの視点から植村さんの単独行を追いかけたことを振り返っています。1978年9月号のNational Geographicで記事になっていたようです。

A New York Photographer, a Japanese Explorer, and a Historic Trek to the North Pole
Ira Block was a 27-year-old photographer with one National Geographic assignment under his belt when he was asked to cover legendary Japanese explorer Naomi Uemura’s attempt to be the first person to journey alone to the North Pole.

It was 1978, and in those days things worked a bit differently in the magazine’s photography department than they do now. For one, there were no budgets for the stories. Regardless of cost, “You just went out and did them,” Block recalls. And then there was the legendary director of photography, Bob Gilka. “[He] liked to test new photographers—to take them out of their comfort zone, see what they could do,” Block remembers. Block grew up in Brooklyn and was a self-described city kid with street smarts. It was his first trip to the Arctic.


時代を感じるのは植村さんの日記をブロックさんに手渡したというくだりです。今は南極でも北極でもメールや電話でやりとりできるんですよね。

Uemura made history when he reached the top of the world on April 29, 1978. The next day, Block flew in to capture the moment. Uemura gave Block his diary, which needed to be brought back to National Geographic headquarters and translated for the magazine story.

A month later, all was ready to go, save a few details that Uemura needed to verify. Today this might be achieved by sending an email or maybe even calling via satellite phone, but back then, this involved hand-delivery. Who better to do this than Block, who had mastered the logistics of navigating the polar climes? Uemura had since moved on to circumnavigate Greenland, so Block met him out on the ice, manuscript in hand.

The story of the 37-year-old explorer who was the first to trek alone to the North Pole and the 27-year-old photographer on his first trip to the Arctic made the cover of the September 1978 issue.


リアルタイムで植村さんの冒険を知ることはなく、学校の推薦図書で読まされたり、西田敏行の映画をみさせられたりというのが個人的思い出です。。。


 

(続)Fall – fallen

 

A True NovelA True Novel
(2014/10/28)
Minae Mizumura、Juliet Winters Carpenter 他

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先ほど紹介させていただいた本の訳者のお一人がJuliet Winters Carpenterさんでした。水村さんの『本格小説』もA True Novelとして訳されたばかりのようです。以下の経歴を見ておっと思いました。

About the Author
Minae Mizumura was born in Tokyo, moved to New York at the age of twelve, and studied French literature at Yale University. Acclaimed for her audacious experimentation and skillful storytelling, Mizumura has won major literary awards for all four of her novels--one of which, A True Novel, was recently published in English. She lives in Tokyo.

Mari Yoshihara is professor of American studies at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa. She is the author of Embracing the East: White Women and American Orientalism and Musicians from a Different Shore: Asians and Asian Americans in Classical Music.

Juliet Winters Carpenter studied Japanese literature at the University of Michigan and the Inter-University Center for Japanese Language Studies in Tokyo. In 1980, Carpenter's translation of Abe Kobo's novel Secret Rendezvous ( Mikkai) won the Japan-United States Friendship Commission Prize for the Translation of Japanese Literature.



Secret Rendezvous (Vintage International)Secret Rendezvous (Vintage International)
(2002/07/09)
Kobo Abe

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安部公房の『密会』も訳されていたのですね。

弱者への愛にはいつも殺意がこめられている………
“Love for the weak always includes
a certain murderous intent.”


「明日の新聞」という奇妙なものが登場した後の主人公の言葉と小説の最後を紹介します。絶望的なんですが、なぜか惹かれてしまっています。

しかしまだ始まっていない過去などというものを認めるわけにはいかない。
I find it possible, however, to accept such a thing as a past which has not yet begun.

**********

もう時計も見えないので、何日たったのかもよく分らない。食料も底をつき、飲み水もなくなった。それでも疲れると、電池を抜いては娘を抱きしめた。娘はめったに反応を示さなくなった。いずれは盗聴器の電池も切れ、ぼくは誰にも気兼ねなしに娘を抱きつづけることになるのだろう。

ぼくは娘の母親でこさえたふとんを齧り、コンクリートの壁から滲み出した水滴を舐め、もう誰からも咎められなくなったこの一人だけの密会にしがみつく。いくら認めないつもりでも、明日の新聞に先を越され、ぼくは明日という過去の中で、何度も確実に死につづける。やさしい一人だけの密会を抱きしめて

I can no longer see my watch, so I do not know how many days have gone by. Our provisions have run out, and so has our supply of drinking water. Even so, whenever I grow tired I take out the batteries and put my arms around the girl. She hardly even responds any more. One of these times the batteries in the listening device will go dead, too, and then I will be able to go on holding her without fear of anyone.
I gnaw on the quilt made of the girl's mother and lick drops of water oozing from the concrete walls, clinging tightly to this secret rendezvous for one that no one can begrudge me now. However much I may resent the fact, “tomorrow's newspaper” has stolen a march on me; and so, in the past called tomorrow, over and over again I continue certainly to die.


「しかしまだ始まっていない過去などというものを認めるわけにはいかない。(I find it possible, however, to accept such a thing as a past which has not yet begun. )」という言葉は、英語を本格的に学び始めた頃あまりの範囲の広さと上達の遅さに絶望的になった時に妙に元気をもらったんですよね。。。。
 

Fall – fallen

 
天皇皇后両陛下 パラオご訪問時のおことば」で「遺骨の収集」の英訳にto collect the remains of the fallenが当てられていました。

この度のパラオ共和国訪問が,両国間にこれまで築かれてきた友好協力関係の,更なる発展に寄与することを念願しています。私どもは,この機会に,この地域で亡くなった日米の死者を追悼するとともに,パラオ国の人々が,厳しい戦禍を体験したにもかかわらず,戦後に,慰霊碑や墓地の清掃,遺骨の収集などに尽力されてきたことに対し,大統領閣下始めパラオ国民に,心から謝意を表したいと思っております。

英訳
It is our sincere hope that our visit to the Republic of Palau will contribute to the further development of the friendly cooperative relations that our nations have forged so far. While we are there, we will mourn and pay tribute to both the Japanese and Americans who perished in the region. At the same time, taking this opportunity, we wish to offer our heartfelt thanks to His Excellency the President and all the people of Palau, for, although they suffered the ravages of war themselves, the people of Palau worked hard after the war to care for the memorial cenotaphs and cemeteries and to collect the remains of the fallen.

Fallenというのはウィズダムには「〖the ~; 名詞的に; 集合的に」戦死者 (!複数扱い)」とあるように今回のような文脈では独特の意味を持ちます。

(オックスフォード)
fallen
(formal) (of a soldier) killed in a war
Each year on the anniversary of the battle he remembered his fallen comrades.
They had to issue death announcements to the families of fallen soldiers.


(ロングマン)
the fallen
[plural] formal soldiers who have been killed in a war



増補 日本語が亡びるとき: 英語の世紀の中で (ちくま文庫)増補 日本語が亡びるとき: 英語の世紀の中で (ちくま文庫)
(2015/04/08)
水村 美苗

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「日本語が亡びるとき: 英語の世紀の中で」の文庫版が出たばかりですが、英訳版も1月にでました。このタイトルでもThe Fall of Language in the Age of Englishとfallが使われていました。まあ、あのギボンの『ローマ帝国衰亡史』もThe History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empireでしたから、意外な意味というほどではありませんが、「滅びる」でfallというイメージがなかったので新鮮な発見となりました。


The Fall of Language in the Age of EnglishThe Fall of Language in the Age of English
(2015/01/06)
Minae Mizumura

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案内

Winner of the Kobayashi Hideo Award, The Fall of Language in the Age of English lays bare the struggle to retain the brilliance of one's own language in this period of English-language dominance. Born in Tokyo but also raised and educated in the United States, Minae Mizumura acknowledges the value of a universal language in the pursuit of knowledge, yet also embraces the different ways of understanding offered by multiple tongues. She warns against losing this precious diversity.

Universal languages have always played a pivotal role in advancing human societies, Mizumura shows, but in the globalized world of the Internet, English is fast becoming the sole common language of humanity. The process is unstoppable, and striving for total language equality is delusional--and yet, particular kinds of knowledge can be gained only through writings in specific languages.

Mizumura calls these writings "texts" and their ultimate form "literature." Only through literature, and more fundamentally through the diverse languages that give birth to a variety of literatures, can we nurture and enrich humanity. Incorporating her own experiences as a writer and a lover of language, and embedding a parallel history of Japanese, Mizumura offers an intimate look at the phenomena of individual and national expression


ちょうど半分くらい読み終わったところです。キャッチ的な部分ですが、妙に共感出来る部分が以下でした。

「しかも、この非対称性は、さらに大きな波紋を広げつつあります。なぜなら、それは、過去の栄光さえ、あなたがたから奪ってしまうからです。そうです。ついこのあいだまで、ラシーヌはシェークスピアと肩を並べる存在だった。ところが今はどうか。世界のほとんどの高校生はシェークスピアの名を知っているでしょう。ハリウッド映画のおかげで『ロミオとジェリエット』の名さえ知っているかもしれない。そして、そのうちの一人が『ロミオとジェリエット』を読もうとし、次は『マクベス』を、次は『ヴェニスの商人』、次は……と読もうとするかもしれない。それにひきかえ、ラシーヌは? ラシーヌとはいったい誰ぞいない。世界の高校生のうち、ほんのわずかしか、ラシーヌの名を知りはしないでしょう。お気の毒は、その高校生の数は、『源氏物語』の作者、紫式部の名を知る高校生の数に、だんだんと近づいていっているかもしれません」

Moreover, this asymmetry does not end there. It even robs you of your past splendor. That's right. Until just a while ago, Racine was a figure on a par with Shakespeare. But look where he is now. Most high school students in the world— which has now come to include the whole non-West as well—are probably familiar with the name of Shakespeare. But what about Racine? Who is he? Probably only a very few high school students anywhere have heard his name. I am afraid their number may eventually dwindle to the number of those who have heard the name of Lady Murasaki Shikibu, the author of The Tale of Genji. What a shoking demise!


ラシーヌの方がずっと高貴で、シェークスピアなんて俗な感じがすると言っても通じない人の方が多そうですよね。10年以上も前に『フェードル』が銀座で公演されていましたが、マクベスの上演回数と比べると差は歴然です。。。
 

Champion / advocate

 


てっきり自宅の一室であいさつから始まると思ったら、意外な仕上がりでしたね。Championという言葉は「擁護者」の意味もあるそうです。

(オックスフォード)
champion (of something) a person who fights for, or speaks in support of, a group of people or a belief
She was a champion of the poor all her life.


(ロングマン)
champion of something/somebody someone who publicly fights for and defends an aim or principle, such as the rights of a group of people:
a champion of women's rights




I'm getting ready to do something. I'm running for president.

Americans have fought their way back from tough economic times, but the deck is still stacked in favor of those at the top. Everyday Americans need a champion, and I want to be that champion.

So you can do more than just get by -- you can get ahead and stay ahead. Because when families are strong, America is strong.

So I’m hitting the road to earn your vote because it’s your time. And I hope you’ll join me on this journey.


このビデオの様子をニューヨークタイムズは以下のように描写していました。In the video, she does not appear until after 90 seconds of imagesとあるように、なかなかでてきませんでた。

In the video, she does not appear until after 90 seconds of images featuring personal stories of others, each describing how they are getting ready to start something new.
The video prominently features a black couple expecting a child, a young Asian-American woman and two men who say they are getting married. It also shows plenty of the white, working-class people who were crucial to her previous White House bid and signals that she intends to make helping the middle class and reducing income inequality major themes of her campaign.
Near the end of the video, Mrs. Clinton finally appears outside a suburban home and says: “I’m getting ready to do something too. I’m running for president.”




チェルシーさんも最新号のElleの表紙になったようです。彼女はchampionではなくadvocateという言葉を使っています。

EXCLUSIVE: CHELSEA CLINTON OPENS UP ABOUT MOTHERHOOD AND WOMEN'S RIGHTS
Chelsea Clinton talks to ELLE about No Ceilings, coming into her own as an advocate, her new baby girl, and her own role as first daughter.


(オックスフォード)
adovocate
a person who supports or speaks in favour of somebody or of a public plan or action
advocate (for something/somebody) an advocate for hospital workers
advocate (of something/somebody) a staunch advocate of free speech

 

(続)レインフォレスト

 


アマゾンの熱帯雨林について、NGO代表の南さんもおっしゃっていましたが、日本はブラジルからも大量に大豆を輸入していますので他人事ではないようなのです。

日本の大豆主要輸入相手国と輸入量 (2013年)

ですが、先週のNatureでは社説で熱帯雨林保護のブラジルの取り組みを賞賛していました。

Tree cheers
The world must follow Brazil’s lead and do more to protect and restore forests.

01 April 2015

When deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon started to fall a decade ago, many scientists and environmentalists attributed the drop to unrelated trends in global commodities markets, which briefly depressed agricultural production in 2005–06. The assumption was that a developing country such as Brazil could not possibly assert control over its domain, and that farmers and ranchers would soon return to their old habits. But they didn’t. Production recovered and then increased, while the rate of deforestation continued to fall. Brazil proved the sceptics wrong, and in doing so it changed the global conversation on forests, food and rural development.

As we explore in a News Feature on page 20, the drop in deforestation is down to a number of factors, including government policies and corporate efforts to clean up beef and soya-bean supply chains. Academics are still dissecting out cause and effect, trying to understand what worked where and how to help other countries to follow suit.


また3000語の長い記事で詳しく状況説明してくれています。このあたりはもう少し丁寧に読んでみようと思います。

Stopping deforestation: Battle for the Amazon
Brazil has waged a successful war on tropical deforestation, and other countries are trying to follow its lead. But victory remains fragile.

Jeff Tollefson
01 April 2015

出掛ける前に書いときたかったのは、three cheersとかけたTree Cheersというタイトルのダジャレについてです(苦笑)

(ロングマン)
three cheers for somebody!
spoken used to tell a group of people to shout three times as a way of showing support, happiness, thanks etc:
Three cheers for the birthday girl!


(オックスフォード)
Three cheers for the winners! (= used when you are asking a group of people to cheer three times, in order to congratulate somebody, etc.)

Youtubeに映像がありました。。Hip, Hip, Hoorayを確かに3回言っています。



REMOVE (grip hat) HEADDRESS (remove hat)
Three Cheers for Her Majesty the Queen. Hip, Hip, Hooray! Hip, Hip, Hooray! Hip, Hip, Hooray!
REPLACE (hat on head) HEADDRESS (cut away hand).
 

来週で150周年

 

National Geographic [US] April 2015 (単号)National Geographic [US] April 2015 (単号)
(2015/04/10)
不明

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洋書売り場の雑誌コーナーではリンカーン大統領の表紙の雑誌がいくつかあって、なんのことかと思ったら、暗殺された日が1865年4月14日とちょうど150周年にあたるようです。

ニューヨークタイムズは暗殺によって歴史の流れが変わるのかという論考を載せていました。

Do Assassins Really Change History?
APRIL 10, 2015
By BENJAMIN F. JONES and BENJAMIN A. OLKEN
DAYS after John Wilkes Booth entered the presidential box at Ford’s Theater and shot Abraham Lincoln on April 14, 1865, Benjamin Disraeli, the British prime minister, declared that “assassination has never changed the history of the world.” Was Disraeli right?

One view, the “great man” theory, claims that individual leaders play defining roles, so that assassinating one could lead to very different national or global outcomes. In contrast, historical determinism sees leaders as the proverbial ant riding the elephant’s back. Broader social, economic and political forces drive history, so that assassinations may not have meaningful effects.


以下の説明にあるように、この論考の特徴は統計処理をして傾向を読み取ろうとするものです。どういう結果を導き出しているのかは、お読みになってください。まあ、焦らすほど意外な結果があるわけではないですが。。。

For any given individual historical episode, it is hard to know for sure. But averaging over many such examples, statistics can begin to provide a guide.

To better understand the role of assassinations in history, we collected data on all assassination attempts on national leaders from 1875 to 2004, both those that killed the leader and those that failed. There’s a lot of data: Since 1950, a national leader was assassinated in almost two out of every three years. (Today’s leaders may rest considerably easier than those in the early 20th century, when a given leader was about twice as likely to be killed as now.)




National Geographicの特集はさっそくWebで読むことができます。遺体を載せて巡回したFuneral Trainをアメリカの歴史と絡めながら紹介しています。70歳の老人が自身の祖父から葬列のことを聞かされていたという冒頭のエピソードが印象的です。

Lincoln’s Funeral Train
On the 150th anniversary of the Great Emancipator’s assassination, Americans along the route of his funeral train reflect on his life and legacy.
By Adam Goodheart

During the weeks after Lincoln’s death, as his funeral train made a circuitous journey from Washington, D.C., back to his hometown of Springfield, Illinois, perhaps a million Americans filed past the open coffin to glimpse their fallen leader’s face. Millions more—as much as one-third of the North’s population—watched the procession pass.

That history isn’t so very far away: A 70-something friend of mine recalls hearing his grandfather talk about seeing the funeral cortege as a young boy in New York City. And even today, as I recently discovered, to follow the route of Lincoln’s train is to discover how much his spirit still pervades the nation he loved and saved.


動画でも説明していますが、黒人の葬列への参加は禁止されていたんですね。現在、人種問題が再燃していますので、リンカーンの暗殺150周年も新たな意味合いを帯びるかもしれません。

Those words, spoken through tears by an elderly woman as she watched Lincoln’s coffin pass through the streets of lower Manhattan, captured how she and many other African Americans felt about the president’s death. Everyone—white and black—knew that Lincoln’s role in ending slavery had spawned the murderous hatred that took his life. Understandably, African Americans hoped to take their places in the front ranks of the mourners; more than 5,000 planned to march in New York City. But many white Americans had different ideas. Several days before the funeral train arrived, municipal authorities decreed that no black marchers would be allowed in the procession. Edwin Stanton, the secretary of war, sent a furious telegram from Washington overruling the ban, but the intimidation had worked. The vast parade down Broadway on April 24 included Irish firemen by the thousands, German marching bands, Italian social clubs, Roman Catholic priests, and Jewish rabbis, as well as special delegations of bakery employees, cigarmakers, Freemasons, glee club members, and temperance activists. A couple of hundred African Americans brought up the very rear.

当時列車というのは新技術だっただけではなくnational cultのようだったというのは、今から振り返ると見落としてしまいやすい点ですね。

In 1860s America the railroad was more than just a new technology—it was a kind of national cult. A few months before the end of the Civil War, the abolitionist leader William Lloyd Garrison waxed mystical about the revolution that trains had brought, fostering not just economic prosperity but also human connection on a vast scale: “So may the modes of communication and the ties of life continue to multiply, until all nations shall feel a common sympathy and worship of a common shrine!”

Eugene Richards: Looking for Lincoln’s Legacy


 

レインフォレスト

 


日本語の雑誌の方のエコノミストを整理していて、以下のインタビューに目が留まりました。アマゾンの長老ラオーニさんが昨年来日していたんですね。

〔ワイドインタビュー問答有用〕/531 アマゾンのメッセンジャー=南研子・熱帯森林保護団体代表
エコノミスト 第93巻 第4号 通巻4381号 2015.1.27

森林喪失が進むアマゾンの保護活動に奔走する南研子さん。インディオの長老たちと過ごす中で南さんは何を感じたのか。(聞き手=内田誠吾・編集部) ◇「次世代のためにも地球の資源を守りたい」 ◇「私たちはいつの間にか本来持っていた五感の能力を退化させてしまった」── なぜアマゾンの支援活動を続けているのですか。南 ブラジルのアマゾンの森林がものすごいスピードで消えています。森林伐採の要因となっているのは…

きっかけは1989年のスティングのワールドツアーだったと知って妙ななつかしさを感じました。



クラウドファンディングで資金調達していたようで、こういう取り組みも進んでいるんだなと感心してしまいました。

アマゾンからカヤポ族長老ラオーニと青年男性を日本に呼びたい!

このプロジェクトについて
アマゾンの偉大な長老ラオーニと、カヤポ族の男性2名を日本に招待し、広島、静岡、東京にて講演会や各種交流イベントを実施します。

NPO法人熱帯森林保護団体代表、南研子です。私は1989年にイギリスの歌手スティングが「アマゾンを守ろう」というワールドツアーを実施し、来日した際、同行していたアマゾンの先住民の長老ラオーニと出会い、それを機に同年5月に当団体を設立しました。それから25年、毎年支援対象地域であるブラジル中西部に位置するシングー国立公園の先住民の村に毎年数ヶ月滞在し、支援活動を続けています。また、日本でアマゾンの深刻な開発の現状や、先住民の文化を紹介する講演会のため各地に出向いております。


南さんにしても、スティングにしても、現在進行形で関わっているようで、すごいことです。






 

To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow

 


映画『バードマン』といえば、レイモンドカーバーを取り上げるべきでしょうが、途中でマクベスのtomorrowスピーチが使われていました。そんな重要な役回りではなかったですが、メモ代わりに。映像付きのものはなかったので、こちらで。。。




(5幕5場)
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

(No Fear Shakespeare)
Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow. The days creep slowly along until the end of time. And every day that’s already happened has taken fools that much closer to their deaths. Out, out, brief candle. Life is nothing more than an illusion. It’s like a poor actor who struts and worries for his hour on the stage and then is never heard from again. Life is a story told by an idiot, full of noise and emotional disturbance but devoid of meaning.

(松岡和子さん訳)
明日も、明日も、また明日も、
とぼとぼと小刻みにその日その日の歩みを進め、
歴史の記述の最後の一言にたどり着く。
すべての昨日は、愚かな人間が土に還る
死への道を照らしてきた。消えろ、消えろ、束の間の灯火!
人生はたかが歩く影、哀れな役者だ、
出場のあいだは舞台で大見得を切っても
袖へ入ればそれきりだ。
白痴のしゃべる物語、たけり狂ううめき声ばかり、
筋の通った意味などない。



 

リラックスしたやり取り

 


Intimate Rivalsという日本と中国の外交を扱った専門書が発売されたようで、先週のJapan Timesでも書評が出ていました。


Intimate Rivals: Japanese Domestic Politics and a Rising China: A Council of Foreign Relations Book (Council on Foreign Relations Book)Intimate Rivals: Japanese Domestic Politics and a Rising China: A Council of Foreign Relations Book (Council on Foreign Relations Book)
(2015/04/07)
Sheila A. Smith

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‘Intimate Rivals’ gives needed context to Japan and China’s volatile relationship
Only show author if their role is equal to author

BY J.J. O'DONOGHUE
SPECIAL TO THE JAPAN TIMES

Over several chapters Smith addresses all the headline issues: the Senkaku Islands, maritime defense, food security and safety, and the impact of World War II on successive generations. But her book delves deeper and provides a great deal more context than a single newspaper article can.

Smith shows that all of the issues involved in Sino-Japanese relations — from territorial standoffs to “seemingly irreconcilable differences over policy” — have greatly influenced domestic politics locally. This is evident in Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s move to roll back the pacifist Constitution or the debate over whether or not politicians should visit Yasukuni Shrine — visits that are as much about honoring the war dead as a symbolic act of not kowtowing to China.


発売に合わせてCFRで講演会があったようです。ベテラン研究員だけあって、質問にもユーモアを交えて答えていました。TOEICkerの方々が続々と教材を出したり、講師になったりしてきましたが、このような余裕が出てくるともっともっと幅が出てくるでしょう。Jayさんこと、早川先生みたいな方がもっと生まれて欲しいですね。



トランスクリプトも公開してくれています。15分40秒あたりからの質疑応答を見てみます。まずはアナウンスメントから。

HIATT: So, let's see. I'm supposed to say, please wait for the microphone and keep your questions brief. State your name and affiliation, and one question per person so other people can have a shot. Sir.
それでは、まずお伝えしなければいけないことから。マイクを待ってから、質問は短くお願いします。お名前と所属をおっしゃってください。お一人の質問は一つで、他の方にも機会を与えてください。

ハチントンの文明の衝突に絡めた質問の答えです。最初はおちゃらけた感じですが、もちろん後半はきっちりと答えています。

QUESTION: I'm Mark Kennedy, George Washington University. Long before you saw the changes, Samuel Huntington, in "The Clash of Civilizations", in analyzing the region, said that Japan was in essence a bandwagon hopper, and that they were on the board of whoever was the biggest power. And he says you can't count on Japan always being on the American bandwagon, that if China rises fast enough, far enough, that they'll jump on China's bandwagon.
Do you have a comment on bandwagon supposition a decade before you ever wrote this?
SMITH: Sometimes Sam Huntington is wrong? (LAUGHTER) Only sometimes. No, I mean...
HIATT: The meeting is on the record...
SMITH: Oh, it is. I'm sorry... (LAUGHTER) Rarely is Sam Huntington wrong. No, I apologize, Professor Huntington. I—you know, the Clash of Civilizations was one of those threshold books. It really got us to think differently. As a Japan scholar, I remember he put Japan in a civilization all by itself. And I always thought that was kind of curious.
But I do think, you know, we could step back with a long, long lens of 10, 20, 30 years from now. And then the answer is going to be contingent on U.S. behavior. It's really going to be contingent on where we are. Because right now the strategic bargain that keeps Japan safe, and that underpins the premises that we were just talking about, is the alliance with the U.S.
And if the order, global or regional, shifts to the extent that the U.S. is either no longer willing or able to ally with Japan and provide that partnership and that security guarantee against that rising China, then I suspect Japan will have to revisit some of those choices.
But I don't think we're going to see that tomorrow or 10 years from now. Maybe not even 20 years from now. But I think our choices are—there's contingency in there, intervening variables, if you'd like. But I think—I believe in human agency a little bit more than that large thesis would suggest.


戦時の謝罪についても丁寧に回答されていました。難しい質問に対してWe could have a very long night now, with this question.という返しは多少ベタかもしれませんが、抑えておいてもいいでしょう。

QUESTION: Barry Wood, RTHK in Hong Kong. Why do the Japanese have such a hard time apologizing for the war and convincing the Chinese, the Koreans that they mean it, when that's worked so well in the case of Germany, where they really—remorse has gotten them a long way in Europe. It seems to an outsider like myself who doesn't go to the region that often that Japan would benefit powerfully from some kind of atonement for World War II.
SMITH: We could have a very long night now, with this question. But it's a very important question, and it's a question I get asked a lot these days, because, A, I've been in Japan with a number of CFR members and others, and they are puzzled.
The short answer is Japan has apologized a lot. So, are those apologies sufficient? Are those statements of remorse sincere? Are they persuasive? So there's two parts to the question.
So the apologies have existed. So I talk a little bit in the book about the Chinese—the Japanese Emperor went to Beijing in 1992. He went, and that was very nervously viewed by many Japanese and many Chinese elites, right? It was a very successful trip. He spoke about remorse and the suffering of the Chinese people, and his remorse over that.
So, the agent of apology—I think one of the most effective agents of apology has, in fact, been the Imperial Household, right? It doesn't get wrapped into politics of apology in the same way that you witnessed the Murayama statement and then the Koisumi (ph) statement, and what we're going to see in August is the Abe statement.


4000円近くするので躊躇していましたが、TOEICの受験代よりは安いですね。時間ができたら思い切って買ってしまうかもしれません。
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