文芸大賞授与式 Award Ceremony for Literature Prize

文芸大賞授与式

 

昨日、岐阜県文芸祭表彰式で文芸大賞（小説部門）を受賞した。表彰されたのは児童文学、随筆、詩、短歌、俳句、川柳、狂俳、連句の８部門である。会場は岐阜市のサラマンカホールの大会議室で、約１５０人が参加した。
表彰式はウエルカムバイオリン演奏（愛の挨拶、ロンドンデリーの歌、ユーモレスク）に引き続き、主催者の挨拶があり、その後賞状授与式が行われた。
私は最初の受賞者で、大勢の参加者の前に立ち、岐阜県文化局長から賞状を受け取るときは緊張した。
授与式に引き続き来賓の祝辞と審査員の紹介があり、最後に詩の朗読と歌曲があった。
全体で４５分で終わった。（名古屋市の表彰式は２時間ぐらいかかった）
家を１０時過ぎに出て、帰ったのは５時半ごろだった。緊張のためかよく眠られず、今日は身体の調子が悪い。
（受賞した拙文は「暴れ川」で江戸時代に薩摩藩士が木曽三川を分流した普請の話である）

Award Ceremony for Literature Prize

　　Yesterday I was awarded the first prize in the literature genre for the Gifu Prefecture Cultural Festival. There were seven other genres: children literature, essay, poetry, haiku, senryu, kyohai, and renku. 　　
　　The award ceremony was held in the main conference room in the Salamanca Hall in Gifu City, attended by about 150 people.
The ceremony started with the “welcome violin performance” in which the violinist played “Salut d'amour” by Elgar, “Londonderry Air” (an Ireland’s folk song), and “Humoresque” by Dvořák. After the host’s speech, the awards were given to the winners.
　　Since I was the first to get the award, I was nervous when I stood in front of the Gifu Prefecture culture section chief. (The prize-winners had a rehearsal for the ceremony.) Guests’ speeches followed that and the judges were introduced. The prize-winning poem was read aloud at the end of the ceremony accompanied by a violin performance.
　　It lasted for about 45 minutes. (Nagoya’s ceremony lasted for about staggering 2 hours.) I returned home around 5 o’clock in the afternoon. Probably because of the tension and exhaustion, I was not able to sleep well that night.
　　The story I got the prize for is about the Satsuma Hanshi (Kagoshima Prefecture bushi) who were ordered by the Edo Government to construct the banks that would divide the three large violent rivers in the Kiso District in Gifu Prefecture during the Edo era (1754-1755).