自閉症の東田君が英国で跳びはねる

自閉症の僕が跳びはねる理由―会話のできない中学生がつづる内なる心 (2007/02/28) 東田 直樹 商品詳細を見る

自閉症の東田直樹君が心情を綴った本『自閉症の僕が跳びはねる』が英語に訳されて出版されたそうです。恥ずかしながら日本語の本そのものを知りませんでした。

The Reason I Jump: One Boy's Voice from the Silence of Autism (2013/07/01) Naoki Higashida 商品詳細を見る

Composed by a writer still with one foot in childhood, and whose autism was at least as challenging and life-defining as our son's, THE REASON I JUMP was a revelatory godsend. Reading it felt as if, for the first time, our own son was talking to us about what was happening inside his head.'

Written by Naoki Higishida when he was only thirteen, this remarkable book explains the often baffling behaviour of autistic children and shows the way they think and feel - such as about the people around them, time and beauty, noise, and themselves. Naoki abundantly proves that autistic people do possess imagination, humour and empathy, but also makes clear, with great poignancy, how badly they need our compassion, patience and understanding.

David Mitchell and his wife have translated Naoki's book so that it might help others dealing with autism, and generally illuminate a little-understood condition. Like The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, it gives us an exceptional chance to enter the mind of another and see the world from a strange and fascinating perspective.

今では映画『クラウドアトラス』の原作者といった方が分かりやすい、David Mitchellと奥様が訳したそうです。というのも彼のお子さんも自閉症で、東田君の本に救われたとあります。奥さんが日本人なのでこの本を知ったのでしょう。英国の新聞ガーディアンで手記を発表していました。

David Mitchell: learning to live with my son's autism
Novelist David Mitchell looks back on the heartbreak – and joy – of learning that his son had autism. Plus, below, an extract from the book by a young Japanese boy that helped him
David Mitchell
The Guardian, Saturday 29 June 2013

Words checked = [2459]
Words in Oxford 3000™ = [85%]

淡々と自分の子供が自閉症と診断され、他の子や家族との交流が違ったものになっていくことが綴られています。いらだちややるせなさなども含めて。。。。

Your social horizon dwindles. Friends assure you, "Bring him over. It's fine – our place always looks like a bomb's hit it" but you know they'll be less laid-back when a curtain rail gets used as a gym bar and comes down in a shower of plaster. Babysitters, air travel, hotels and B&Bs are off the menu. You are offered respite care, but it feels too much like dumping your four-year-old among minimum-wage strangers in Mid Staffordshire, and turn down the offer. Soon after, you read about a teenager with autism who died at a nearby respite facility. He choked to death on a rubber glove and wasn't found until the morning. You feel a fuzzy anger at autism itself, for denying your kid so many childhood pleasures: making friends, trips to the cinema, birthday parties, a day at a theme park.

エッセイの最後に東田君のエッセイに出会ったことで、考えが変わったことが書かれています。For me, Naoki Higashida dissolves the lazy stereotype that people with autism are androids who don't feel. On the contrary, they feel everything, intensely. What's missing is the ability to communicate what they feel. Part of this is our fault – we're so busy being shocked, upset, irritated or looking the other way that we don't hear them.と、むしろ自閉症児の心内を理解しなかったのは、自分たちではないかと気づくのです。

The book that helped me the most to "think Dutch" about my own son's autism was written by a 13-year-old Japanese boy called Naoki Higashida. It's called The Reason I Jump. The author would be classed as severely autistic, and writes by pointing to a "cardboard keyboard", one character at a time. A helper transcribes the characters into words, sentences and paragraphs. Part one adopts a Q&A format, where the author answers questions about life with his condition. Reading it was illuminating and humbling; I felt as if my own son was responding to my own queries about what it's like to live inside an autistic mind. Why do you have meltdowns? How do you view memory, time and beauty?

For the first time I had answers, not just theories. What I read helped me become a more enlightened, useful, prouder and happier dad. Part two of the book is a story, I'm Right Here, about a boy called Shun who discovers he's dead and can no longer communicate.

My wife and I translated The Reason I Jump clandestinely, just for our son's therapists, but when my publishers read the manuscript, they believed the book might find a much wider audience. For me, Naoki Higashida dissolves the lazy stereotype that people with autism are androids who don't feel. On the contrary, they feel everything, intensely. What's missing is the ability to communicate what they feel. Part of this is our fault – we're so busy being shocked, upset, irritated or looking the other way that we don't hear them. Shouldn't we learn how?

この記事の最後には、訳書の最初の部分を読む事ができますので、是非リンク先の記事をご確認ください。