時間を買う
昨日、映画「タイム」を見たが、ポイントが二つあった。一つは文字通り「時は金」で、「タイム」の世界では時間の売買や貸借が行われている。手首を器械にあてがって時間の売買をする。賃金は時間で支払われ、道路料金も時間で払う。公衆電話代金には１分を支払う。
二つ目のポイントは、全ての人は２５歳で寿命が尽き、もっと生きたければ時間銀行で時間を買う。時間が買える限り身体は歳を取らず、２５歳の身体を保つことができる。金持ちは１００年とか、１０００年とか買うことができるが、映画の主人公ウイル・サラスのように貧乏な人は１０時間とか、一日しか買うことができない。
話の筋は，裕福な娘が下層階級の男と恋に陥る「タイタニック」に似ており、ウイル・サラスは億万長者の娘と恋仲になる。二人は娘の父親が経営する時間銀行から時間供給器を盗み、タイムキーパーが二人を追跡する。二人は100万年供給器械を盗み、スラム街の人に時間を分け与える。
この物語は長寿が必ずしも幸せをもたらさないというメッセージを伝えている。映画の出だしで、１００年以上の時間を持った男がサラスにすべての時間を与えて自殺をする。長く生きていることが嫌になったからであった。
「タイム」を見て葛飾北斎（1760-1849)のことを思った。北斎はモネ、ドガ、ゴッホ等の印象派画家に影響を与えた世界的な画家である。北斎は魚、植物、動物、人間、風景等を見事に描くことができた天才であった。死期が近づいたとき北斎は、猫一匹満足に描けないことを嘆いたという。89歳の最後の言葉は「あと１０年、いや、あと５年長生きできたら、絵の達人になれたのに」であった。もし北斎が「タイム」の世界に生きておれば、１０年を買えたのに。達人の絵とはどんなものになっただろう。
私の母は４６歳で、兄は１８歳で亡くなった。二人とも、せめて７０歳までは生きて欲しかった。「タイム」の器械があれば、母に２４年、兄に５２年買うことができるのだが……。
TO BUY TIME
I saw a movie “In Time” yesterday. The story consists of two features. First, it depicts a world where time is literally money. You buy, lend, or borrow time. You just touch your wrist to a tool that supplies or deducts your time. Your salary is paid with time; you give your time at a toll gate; and you pay one minute of your time for making a public phone call.
Another feature is that all people die at the age of 25 when your time expires. If you want to live longer, you buy time at a time bank. As long as you continue to buy time, your body does not get old, but stays as young as a 25-year-old person's. The wealthy people, therefore, can buy a lot of time, say 100 years or 1000 years, but poor people like Will Salas, the protagonist in the movie, live day to day by buying only 10 hours or, at most, a day.
The plot is similar to “Titanic,” where a wealthy girl falls in love with a low class man. In “In Time,” Will Salas falls in love with a daughter of a billionaire. They steal time-supplying tools from her father’s banks. Timekeeper chases them. After robbing a tool that supplies a million years from the billionaire’s safe, they donate the time to the slum people.
The story gives a message that longevity does not necessarily bring happiness. At the outset of the movie, a man who has more than 100 years to live commits a suicide by giving his time to Salas because he is tired of living such a long a life.
The movie reminded me of a world-famous Japanese painter, Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849), who influenced the impressionist painters including Monet, Degas, and Gogh. His paintings of fish, plants, animals, people, and landscapes are amazingly real. He had a genius level talent. In his final years, however, he repented that he was not able to paint even a cat satisfactorily. It is said that his last words at the age of 89 were: “If I had 10 more years or even 5 more years to live, I could be a master.” If he had lived in the “In Time” world, he could have bought 10 years. I wonder what the master’s paintings would be like.
My mother died at the age of 46, and my brother at the age of 18. They should have lived longer, till at least 70 years old. I wish I had the tool and could give 24 years to her and 52 years to him.
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
暫定的健常者 TEMPORARY ABLE-BODIED
暫定的健常者
半分水が入っているコップを見て、楽観主義者は「まだ半分ある」と思い、悲観主義者は「もう半分しかない」と思うそうだ▼英語にフィジカリー チャレンジドという言い回しがある。「身体的に挑戦されている」という意味だ。足が不自由な人は、足がその人に対して「俺と勝負しようじゃないか。俺に勝てるか」と挑みかかっている。その人は「お前なんかに負けてたまるか（「天声新語」応募作品につき、以下読みたい方は、mhiroshi62@yahoo.co.jpまでメールを下さい。）
TEMPORARY ABLE-BODIED
Looking at a glass which is half full of water, an opportunist says, “The glass is half full” and the pessimist says, “The glass is half empty.”
There is an English expression: “physically challenged.” It stirs my imagination. One's crippled leg challenges one saying, “Can you compete with me? I don’t think you will win.” One shoots back, “All right. I accept your challenge. I do not mind my limping. I will overcome the disability.”
Compared with the expression, "physically challenged," I deplore the insensitive Japanese expression "shintai-shogai-sha," which is literally translated into “physically obstructed and harmed person.” What a cruel expression! No one wanted to be born this way. Recently, since the word “gai” (obstruct) gives a negative image, they write “gai” not in hieroglyphic Chinese character (害), but in phonetic character of hiragana (がい), which gives a soft and graceful impression. Such a cheap trick, however, shows the arrogance of an able-bodied person.
Concerning “able-bodied,” there is an eye-opening expression in English: “temporary able-bodied.” It means that since an able-bodied person might lose his leg in a traffic accident the next day, he is ‘temporarily’ able-bodied. He should be careful not to be too complacent.
Of course, however differently you may describe the same phenomenon, the essence does not change, but a different description may give you a totally different view of the world. I want to live my life with a glass-half-full approach free from stereotypes and with flexible viewpoints.
半分水が入っているコップを見て、楽観主義者は「まだ半分ある」と思い、悲観主義者は「もう半分しかない」と思うそうだ▼英語にフィジカリー チャレンジドという言い回しがある。「身体的に挑戦されている」という意味だ。足が不自由な人は、足がその人に対して「俺と勝負しようじゃないか。俺に勝てるか」と挑みかかっている。その人は「お前なんかに負けてたまるか（「天声新語」応募作品につき、以下読みたい方は、mhiroshi62@yahoo.co.jpまでメールを下さい。）
TEMPORARY ABLE-BODIED
Looking at a glass which is half full of water, an opportunist says, “The glass is half full” and the pessimist says, “The glass is half empty.”
There is an English expression: “physically challenged.” It stirs my imagination. One's crippled leg challenges one saying, “Can you compete with me? I don’t think you will win.” One shoots back, “All right. I accept your challenge. I do not mind my limping. I will overcome the disability.”
Compared with the expression, "physically challenged," I deplore the insensitive Japanese expression "shintai-shogai-sha," which is literally translated into “physically obstructed and harmed person.” What a cruel expression! No one wanted to be born this way. Recently, since the word “gai” (obstruct) gives a negative image, they write “gai” not in hieroglyphic Chinese character (害), but in phonetic character of hiragana (がい), which gives a soft and graceful impression. Such a cheap trick, however, shows the arrogance of an able-bodied person.
Concerning “able-bodied,” there is an eye-opening expression in English: “temporary able-bodied.” It means that since an able-bodied person might lose his leg in a traffic accident the next day, he is ‘temporarily’ able-bodied. He should be careful not to be too complacent.
Of course, however differently you may describe the same phenomenon, the essence does not change, but a different description may give you a totally different view of the world. I want to live my life with a glass-half-full approach free from stereotypes and with flexible viewpoints.
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
人生のもう一つの楽しみ方 ANOTHER WAY TO ENJOY LIFE
一昨日変な夢を見た。一日の仕事を終えて学校の門を出ると、元の教え子が私を待っていた。顔がはっきりしないが、確かに私の教え子だ。
「先生、車で家まで送りますよ」と教え子が言う。
「それは、済まない」と言って教え子の後について行く。すぐに緑色の簡易トイレのところに来る。高さが２メートルで奥行きが１メートルぐらいある。
「先生、乗って下さい」と教え子が言う。
はて、どこかで乗ったことがあるような簡易トイレだと思いつつ、中に入る。教え子はトイレの内側に備え付けてある棚に座っている。私はトイレの中に立つ。トイレの底に斜めになった長方形の木製の踏み板がある。私は踏み板の持ちあがった部分を足で押す。すると、トイレが地面から浮いて前進しだす。
「先生、運転うまいっすよ」と教え子が言う。
トイレは地面から１０センチぐらい浮いた状態で白い広い道を走る。右に曲がるには身体を右に傾ければ良い。板を踏み込めばスピードが上がる。
やがて、トイレは道から外れて道沿いの池の上を飛ぶ。池の周りに木が生えている。池の上を飛んでいる簡易トイレが見える。怖くなって私は身体を大きく左に傾ける。トイレは大きくカーブして長い白い大きな道に戻って、ずんずん進んでいく。なんて愉快なんだ。
ここで、残念、目が覚めた。
朝、女房に夢の話をしたら「羨ましいわね、夢でも人生を楽しんでるって」と言った。
ANOTHER WAY TO ENJOY LIFE
The day before yesterday I dreamed a strange dream. When I come out of the school after a day’s work, one of my ex-students, whose face I do not recognize, is waiting for me.
“I will drive you home, Mr. Matsuoka,” he says.
“Thank you,” I say and follow him. Soon we come to a porta potty about 2 meters tall and one meter deep.
“Please take a ride in it,” he says.
Remembering that I have driven this kind of toilet before, I step in it. The ex-student sits on the shelf inside the toilet and I stand on the bottom. There is a beveled rectangle wooden pedal on the bottom. I push it with my foot and the toilet floats and moves forward.
“You’re good at driving,” he says.
The toilet runs along a wide white road about 10 centimeters above the ground. To turn right, all I have to do is just lean my body to the right. To gain speed, I just push the pedal hard.
Soon the toilet deviates from the road and flies above a pond surrounded by trees alongside the road. I see the toilet flying over the pond from outside it. Feeling scared, I lean left hard to put the toilet back on the road. After a long curve, I succeed in getting it back on the track. Then I continue driving the toilet on a long white wide road. What fun it is to ride in a toilet!
Then I awake, to my disappointment.
The next morning when I talked about the dream to my wife, she said, “I envy you. You are enjoying life even in a dream.”
「先生、車で家まで送りますよ」と教え子が言う。
「それは、済まない」と言って教え子の後について行く。すぐに緑色の簡易トイレのところに来る。高さが２メートルで奥行きが１メートルぐらいある。
「先生、乗って下さい」と教え子が言う。
はて、どこかで乗ったことがあるような簡易トイレだと思いつつ、中に入る。教え子はトイレの内側に備え付けてある棚に座っている。私はトイレの中に立つ。トイレの底に斜めになった長方形の木製の踏み板がある。私は踏み板の持ちあがった部分を足で押す。すると、トイレが地面から浮いて前進しだす。
「先生、運転うまいっすよ」と教え子が言う。
トイレは地面から１０センチぐらい浮いた状態で白い広い道を走る。右に曲がるには身体を右に傾ければ良い。板を踏み込めばスピードが上がる。
やがて、トイレは道から外れて道沿いの池の上を飛ぶ。池の周りに木が生えている。池の上を飛んでいる簡易トイレが見える。怖くなって私は身体を大きく左に傾ける。トイレは大きくカーブして長い白い大きな道に戻って、ずんずん進んでいく。なんて愉快なんだ。
ここで、残念、目が覚めた。
朝、女房に夢の話をしたら「羨ましいわね、夢でも人生を楽しんでるって」と言った。
ANOTHER WAY TO ENJOY LIFE
The day before yesterday I dreamed a strange dream. When I come out of the school after a day’s work, one of my ex-students, whose face I do not recognize, is waiting for me.
“I will drive you home, Mr. Matsuoka,” he says.
“Thank you,” I say and follow him. Soon we come to a porta potty about 2 meters tall and one meter deep.
“Please take a ride in it,” he says.
Remembering that I have driven this kind of toilet before, I step in it. The ex-student sits on the shelf inside the toilet and I stand on the bottom. There is a beveled rectangle wooden pedal on the bottom. I push it with my foot and the toilet floats and moves forward.
“You’re good at driving,” he says.
The toilet runs along a wide white road about 10 centimeters above the ground. To turn right, all I have to do is just lean my body to the right. To gain speed, I just push the pedal hard.
Soon the toilet deviates from the road and flies above a pond surrounded by trees alongside the road. I see the toilet flying over the pond from outside it. Feeling scared, I lean left hard to put the toilet back on the road. After a long curve, I succeed in getting it back on the track. Then I continue driving the toilet on a long white wide road. What fun it is to ride in a toilet!
Then I awake, to my disappointment.
The next morning when I talked about the dream to my wife, she said, “I envy you. You are enjoying life even in a dream.”
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