転ばぬ先の杖 Look Before You Leap

転ばぬ先の杖　

先週、私の知人（８９歳）が歩行中に、つまづいて転倒し、目と鼻と腕に大怪我をした。先々週には８１歳の別の知人が自転車に乗っていて転倒し、その日の古武道の稽古を休んだが、３週間は休まなければならないそうだ。私の父は７６歳のとき自転車に乗っていて、お茶屋の前で転倒して起き上がることができなかったが、幸いお茶屋の奥さんが父を助け起こした怪我と聞いている。今、私は７６歳。他人ごとではない。転倒しないように注意しなければならない。しかし、どうしたら危険を避けられるのか。

Look Before You Leap

　　One of my friends aged 89 tripped and fell to the ground while walking and injured his eye, nose, and arm, and was hospitalized last week. In the previous week, another friend my mine aged 81, I guess, fell while he was riding a bicycle, and so, he was absent from the martial art training class. He said he would be absent from the class for three more weeks.
　　My father also fell while riding a bicycle at the age of 76 in front of a tea shop and injured. Fortunately, the tea shop owner helped him to stand up.
Now I am 76 years old and under these circumstances, I will have to be very careful not to fall. But how could I prevent such a danger?

様変わりの街並み The City Has Changed

様変わりの街並み

久しぶりに大垣の墓参りに行ってきた。タクシーで10分ぐらいであったが、帰りは、テクテクと大垣駅まで歩いた。清水町を通って、本町を抜け、郭町から大垣駅だ。途中で、少年時代に行っていた「清水湯」という風呂屋が駐車場に変わっていた。風呂屋の面影は何もない。清水湯の近くにあった茶褐色ののレンガ造りの、確か二階建てのA耳鼻咽喉科の病院を探したが、なかった。そのあとに、美術館か洒落たレストランのようなものが建っていた。なんと、A耳鼻科病院が古い建物を壊してモダンな病院に建て替えたのだ。重厚な病院が白いハイカラな病院に変わっていた。
A耳鼻科病院については、少年時代の思い出がある。病院の正面玄関の近くに猿の檻があった。檻は高さ二メートルぐらいで、直径１．２メートルぐらいの円柱形であった。檻には鉄の格子があった。ある日の夕方、父と清水湯に行くときサルの檻を見ていた。どういう状況だったか思い出せないが（おそらく私が履いていたゴム草履で檻を叩いたかも）、私が履いていたゴム草履を檻の向こうから猿が手でつかんだ。私は、びっくりして叫んだ。「草履を取られた！」とかなんとか。父が猿の手から、猿と格闘して、草履を取り戻してくれた。
怖かった。猿は恐ろしい、急に何をするかわからない。あのいきり立った猿の動きを思い出す。
新しい耳鼻科の駐車場の前に、当時の古い耳鼻科の正面玄関の門が、片方だけ残っていた。懐かしかった。手で触った。

The City Has Changed

　　I went to Ogaki to visit my ancestors' grave after one year’s absence. It took about 10 minutes to go to the grave from Ogaki Station by taxi. After I finished praying in front of the grave, I walked back to the station. While I was walking, I noticed that Shimizu Yu or Shimizu public bath had disappeared and instead, there was a parking lot at the same place. There was no trace of the bath at all. After that, I looked for the ontological hospital, a two-storied brown brick building which I used to pass on my way and back from the bath, but I couldn’t find it. I saw a modern building resembling an art museum or an elegant restaurant at the site where the hospital had stood. To my surprise, however, the modern building was the renewed hospital. The old building had been demolished and rebuilt. The gloomy, dark, huge building covered by ivy had turned into a bright, white hospital. 

　　 I have an unpleasant memory about the hospital which took place when I was a boy about 5 or 6 years old. There was a circular-cylinder-shape monkey cage, about two meters high and 1.2 meters in diameter. The cage had iron bars covered with a net. One evening my father and I stopped in front of the cage to watch the monkey on our way to Shimizu Yu. While I was watching the monkey, it grabbed my rubber slipper probably because I hit the iron bar with it to tease the animal and was trying to pull it into the cage.

“My slipper!” I screamed half crying.

 　　My father fought with the monkey for several minutes and took it back. I was scared. I still remember how frantically the money was screaming.

　　 There was a remain of the gate of the old building (the picture above). I touched it feeling nostalgic.