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MAGCHIMERA WARTIME 10
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英訳「二本山の兄弟犬」
2004年01月22日発行
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CONTENTS
▼ [news mail] 22 Jan 04
▼ PREFACE (By Nofrills / Translator)
▼ THE TWO BROTHER SPARROWS IN WAQLAND : A FABLE
はじめに
今日はチャイニーズ・ニュー・イヤー、息子の学校で２年生の子どもたちといっしょに「お習字」をしてきました。黒絵の具と太い絵筆を使い、「福」と今年の干支の「申」を書き、さらに、何か日本のお正月を表す文字をとのリクエストで「賀」の字を書きました。ビギナーにはかなりむずかしかった、わたしにもむずかしかった。
それから、それぞれの子どもたちの名前をひらがなとカタカナで書きました。マイケルとかアガサとかそんな名前のロンドンに住む子どもたちです。世界にはいろいろな国があり、それぞれ異なる文化があること、お互いにそれを尊重することをこうして学んでいくのだと思います。いつも通
りの曇り空で明けた今日のロンドンは午後から雨になりました。
マグキメラ８号号外でご紹介したDoXさんの寓話「二本山の兄弟犬」の英訳プロジェクトはあれから着々と進み、ついに完成しました。さきほど、写
真展のビジター宛てに英文ニューズメールを配信したのですが、以下にこの全文を転載します。日本語話者以外のかたに転送いただけると嬉しいです。「兄弟犬」が「兄弟雀」に変わったいきさつなど英訳プロジェクトのあれこれは以下のページでご覧ください。
＊方針の説明は
http://ch.kitaguni.tv/u/917/special/0000031007.html
＊ 翻訳の仕事場は
http://bbs2.otd.co.jp/230938/bbs_plain
また、今週末に予定されている自衛隊イラク派兵反対のレイブデモのお知らせなど、「できること情報」を後ほど（たぶん明日）１０号号外としてお送りします。先遣隊がイラク入りしたからと言って、まだあきらめるのは早い。既成事実の積み上げて制度化にまで持ち込もうという、いつものあの手です。政府はわたしたちの「あきらめ」を待っています。（藤澤みどり）
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[news mail] 22 Jan 04
"The Two Brother Sparrows in Waqland : a fable"
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Dear friends,
Midori at the 'Children of the Gulf War' photo exhibition UK tour writing.
You might be heard the news Japanese government sent their troops to Iraq for
helping the occupation by the US and the UK. More than half of Japanese people
I am one of them against it.
Here is a fable titled “The Two Brother Sparrows in Waqland” written by a Japanese
young blogger DoX who is a younger brother of a soldier of our SDF (Self-Defense-Force).
His brother might be send to Iraq next month or later this year. One of my friends
who called Nofrills translated it in English.
Please read it; will be sharing with your younger friends or children. It is little
bit long but is easy to understanding by little one. It has written like a fairy
tale but it’s a true story.
My son, he will be eight years old next month said just after hearing this story,
'It has not its the ending. I want to know the story after his brother sending
to Crescentia, what has happen there.' I don't have any answer to him. I wish
the story after it will be happy and peaceful.
You can read some note by translator it has not shown on this email, and also
be able to write down your opinion on its message board at the below; http://nofrills.hp.infoseek.co.jp/hon/index.html
NOTE : I'm looking for the person who can translate this story from English to
in Arabic. The author wishes sending his message to the ordinary Iraqi people.
Please contact me.
Please spread widely!
With love and peace,
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PREFACE (By Nofrills / Translator)
*****************************************************
http://nofrills.hp.infoseek.co.jp/hon/index.html
This story was written by a Japanese whose brother is in the SDF (Self-Defense
Force) and will be sent to Iraq by the government. In the story, Oto-to's brother,
Ni-san, might be sent to Crescentia as a soldier next month.
The author, with an online-pseudonym DoX, has been blogging since November 2003.
His words shocked me, because it was the first "real" voice for me, though I had
heard on TV some SDF men say, "I'll go if it's an order," or "That's my job."
When I first read his blog, I was too shocked to say a word... to type a letter.
I felt so sorry for not having been really interested.
At first, DoX's blog were full of harsh words against the government and its supporters.
But in time, as more people read his blog and wrote supportive comments, his words
became mild. It was then I clearly saw the author's warmheartedness.
In 11th December, he wrote, "Who becomes a 'terrorist'?" He says his hatred against
Japanese politicians was getting uncontrollable and he felt as if he was becoming
a 'terrorist.' (Please note that Japanese press far too often use the word 'terrorism/terrorist.'
For them, a 'suicide bombing' is a 'suicide terrorism,' etc.) He thought of the
pictures in Afghanistan and Iraq, bombed, destroyed, injured and killed.
If someone in your family is dying in your arms and there's nothing you can do,
and if the one who ordered to kill is out of your reach, then, whom do you have
as the 'enemy'? It would be the soldiers you can see. What if the only solution
is to attack the 'enemy'? Is this 'terrorism'?
If my brother were to be killed, I would not hesitate to kill Koizumi. I hate
him this much. I think I am a 'would-be terrorist.' This is what they are doing
in Iraq - installing hatred to turn an ordinary person into a 'terrorist.'...
I only hope my brother will never ever kill the 'enemies' he doesn't hate!
On 16th December 2003, DoX wrote an entry titled "Something to ask the Iraq people."
On one website, he had read a letter from Iraq to Japan. The letter said, "We
do respect Japan. But the SDF must not come now. Now is not the time. Please don't
be our enemy."
In response to this letter from Iraq, I tried to write. But I have so many things
I want to say that I've got very confused. So I put them into a fable here...
This fable is the one translated below.
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*****************************************************
THE TWO BROTHER SPARROWS IN WAQLAND : A FABLE
originally written and copyrighted by Dox, Japan
translated by nofrills, Tokyo, Japan
*****************************************************
http://nofrills.hp.infoseek.co.jp/hon/index.html
One upon a time, there lived two brother sparrows in a place called Waqland. The
elder was named Ni-san, and the junior was Oto-to.
The two brother sparrows lived with their family - aged parents, and very old,
weak grand-parents. Ni-san had a lovely, cheerful wife and two little babies.
They were not wealthy but lived happily, because they were so closely tied together
and always helping each other.
It was Ni-san who supported the family. He was a soldier. Many years ago, when
his father fell ill and had to give up his job, he joined the military force.
One day, Ni-san sparrow was told he would be sent in his troop to a place called
Crescentia. The family had never thought of such a thing. Happy smiles were now
gone from these nine birds.
Waqland had their "peace rule" and had long avoided any single war. The government
had never sent troops to a foreign land. The soldiers' job was to guard their
land, not to fight in a war. No one had thought they would go abroad in his combat
uniform.
But now, Waqland birds were changing their way as some big birds in Megaland were
pushing.
"You've given money, but it's not enough to make you 'first-rate,'" they said
to the chief of Waqland. "Why don't you send troops to Crescentia? We want you
to help our boys in the area. It's for the world. Of course, you are aware of
the fact that you can live peacefully because we protect your land, aren't you?"
The Waqland chief nodded, "You are absolutely right. Money is not enough. This
time, we will send troops to make Waqland 'first-class.' It's also good for every
birds' society."
The chief seemed to have forgotten about the past at all: in the last war about
sixty years ago, Waqland lost thousands of soldiers, leaving hundreds of thousands
of fathers, mothers, wives and kids in deep sorrow. That was why they wished no
more wars and had the "peace rule." But the chief said, "Now, we have to work
for the world. We alone can't live in the peace."
Oto-to heard the sparrows talking about the chief's decision. To his disappointment,
no one around him talked against the chief. Oto-to just wanted them to know that
his brother had no other choice but going to Crescentia regardless of his own
will. But every one seemed to have stopped thinking. Some even cold-bloodedly
told Oto-to not to speak about his brother. "Because it's your brother's job!
He is paid for it!"
Sad and humiliated, Oto-to felt as if his heart were being torn. He wanted to
say, "Will you say so if it is your brother that would be sent as a soldier?"
but he was too discouraged to say a word.
"In Crescentia, what would they think of Ni-san? Maybe they hate him, or even
kill him," Oto-to said to himself and shook his head. Oto-to knew what the Megaland
birds were doing in Crescentia. He never thought it was a right thing to do. But
the Waqland troops were going to help the Megaland forces.
Oto-to stood up. He would visit the Lake. At the Lake, you can talk to the Land,
who knew everything. To the Lake, Oto-to went a long way in cold darkness, and
finally got there.
Oto-to bowed down and said, "Oh, please tell the chief to send me instead of my
brother! He has his wife and children. I have nothing to lose. So please, please
tell the chief - me, not my brother!"
Soon the Land replied, "I feel sorry for the soldier sparrows like your brother.
But you are not trained, are you? You have never touched a gun, have you? They
are trained, so they can work. That is why they go there, not you."
Oto-to cried, "But I can learn how to use a gun, I can take training!"
"I am very sorry, but there is nothing I can do for you," the Land continued.
"In the last war, thousands were killed in my name. So I have decided not to interfere
with the public decision."
Oto-to felt despaired. The Land talked to him gently, "My dear Oto-to, don't say
you have nothing to lose. You don't want to make your mom and dad sad, do you?
Now, go home, go back to where your family are waiting for you." The Land's voice
sounded very sweet. Oto-to was feeling so down that he couldn't fly. As walking,
he looked up at the night sky and found the full moon shining broadly and brightly.
He stopped. He felt lonely, and made a loud, deep sigh at the moon.
Then, he heard so many sighs like his from everywhere around. He thought the sighs
might come from Crescentia. Or from many other families - who had a son, father
or husband be sent as a soldier. "There is nothing I can do," the Land's voice
echoed.
He thought about Crescentia as he trudged. "Some Waqland sparrows recently visited
Crescentia to bring food and medicines. They say Crescentia partridges are having
a difficult time."
Indeed, Crescentia had long been suffering. No water supply. No electricity. Food
would easily go bad and cause stomach trouble.
Oto-to looked up at the sky again and imagined: Crescentia birds in a dark house
surrounded by armed foreign soldier birds. "I've heard some Megaland soldiers
were even taking their food away... And because of the horrible poisonous bombs
Megaland has dropped, they get sores on their skin. Tens of hundreds of young
and adult birds are dying every day." Oto-to was thinking about a picture he had
seen. The bombs hurt everyone - babies or adults. "Poor Crescentia partridges!"
he murmured. "I even heard sometimes the Megaland soldiers shoot baby birds by
mistake!"
"But," he went on thinking, "Are Megaland soldiers happy to do such things? I
don't think so. They are scared because they are hated. They are so scared of
being attacked that they shoot even if it is just a baby bird."
He had read a story about a Megaland soldier crying for shame and regret. "This
soldier is shaking," the author wrote, "saying, 'What a horrible thing I have
done!'" Also he had heard the poisonous bombs hurt Megaland soldiers, too. Some
of them had a baby after going back home, but very often the baby was very sick
at birth. "Look at what happened!" Oto-to almost shouted.
"Look at what happened to those birds! They used to be happy and promised! If
there was no war, they should have lived happily, either in Crescentia or in Megaland.
Now, they hate each other, pointing guns at each other! Who wanted this?"
Oto-to took a few steps before he thought of some faces. "The ones with no imagination.
The ones who do not even try to understand how it feels to be hurt or killed!"
He was quivering with rage.
No matter how angry he was, the chief's decision was Waqland's decision. Waqland
had decided to help Megaland. Oto-to was now miserable.
"Just to make Waqland 'first-class,' as the chief said, will Ni-san be hated in
Crescentia? If they hate Ni-san, he may hate them. My kind and gentle brother,
who has never hated others, might change."
Some voices echoed in his ears - "It's decided. There's no stop about it. It's
too late," "We must be protected by Megaland, and so we have to send troops."
"They talk without really thinking about it, without deeply minding the tragedy
caused," Oto-to cried, "Because it's not their brother or husband! They never
think this is their problem."
Oto-to dropped his head. Oto-to's tears kept dropping on to the ground.
Indeed, Waqland sparrows had been regarded as kind and gentle ones, sending food,
medicine, tools and engineers, not guns and troops. That had earned trust and
friendships, not hostility.
"But now, a Waqland sparrow might be hurt, or even killed, just because he is
from Waqland." Oto-to thought this was a shame.
Right after he got home, Oto-to took out a pen and paper from the drawer to write
to Waqland chief. He had heard Crescentia birds did not want guns and soldiers.
What they needed were tools and engineers to fix water pipes and power grid, and
many kinds of medicines.
Dear Chief of Waqland,
You are sending our troops to Crescentia. Please let them have things which are
really necessary for Crescentia partridges, not only the arms for self-defense.
Also, please supply the troops with loads of anti-poisons to prevent the effect
of Megaland's poisonous bombs. I'm hoping Waqland soldiers will look different
from Megaland soldiers in different combat uniform. ...
There he stopped writing. Oto-to remembered the grinning face of Waqland chief
standing next to Megaland chief. "The chief might not listen to me," he thought.
Actually, Oto-to had a suspicion. "The chief must be feeling as if he were playing
a game."
He hung his head in distress. "I really don't want anyone to hate or kill, and
to be hated, injured or killed! What can I do?"
Oto-to was trying really hard to find an answer. Then he remembered what his brother
had told him:
"We used to be so desperate to drive away the soldiers from our neighbour. But
we saw each other too often to be hostile. In the end, we felt as if we knew each
other very well. Actually, something really funny happened the other night, dear
brother." Ni-san sounded as if he was talking about a good old boy next door.
"When we went down to the border in our routine, one of them were there, as if
he had been waiting for us, and gave us a friendly smile. He said in his dialect,
'You are so late tonight! Why not think about us waiting in this cold weather?
Look at this dew.' We were astonished, really, but managed to reply, 'Sorry, we
are late because the road was so bad. It was frozen. We'll try to be, say, punctual
next time.' Do you know what he did next? He just went back away very happily."
Ni-san had even started learning their dialect secretly. "Maybe it's a good idea
to write about this to Waqland chief," Oto-to said to himself, and took the pen
again. But the next moment, he put it down.
Ni-san once said, "I'm not afraid of soldiers. A soldier is just watching and
guarding to protect his land, and it's the same here or there. It's the 'insane'
ones that I'm afraid of, who have lost imagination and sensibility. They won't
feel sorry when someone suffers or dies as long as they can live comfortably."
Saying this, Ni-san pulled a face.
"Not only the 'insane' ones," Oto-to said to himself. "Now in Waqland, ordinary
birds, too, don't think much. Everything is okay as long as they are comfortable.
They don't care whether a soldier is dead, injured or alive. My voice wouldn't
be heard... In a word, I have nothing to rely on!"
He was miserable again, but he went on thinking. After a while, one thought came
upon him. "The best way is to know each other, just like Ni-san did with 'the
neighbours.' But how?"
Oto-to took out another paper, thinking over and over, and began writing:
Dear Crescentia partridges,
How are you? I'm a Waqland sparrow.
Waqland is sending troops to Crescentia, and my brother will be one of them.
Waqland's soldiers, including my brother, have never expected they would be sent
abroad. Sixty years ago, when the last war was over, Waqland decided never to
send troops to other places again. The forces are to guard the land. That's what
the soldiers have been doing.
Let me explain first why my brother is in the in military service. He has to support
his family. You may not believe this, but my brother had no other choice, in a
'wealthy' land like Waqland, when he decided to become a soldier. Many other soldiers
too, I think, chose to join the military forces to solve money problems, not to
fight.
But now, things are changing. The chief of Waqland has decided to send troops
to your land. He says, "They are not going to fight a war but to help the Crescentia
partridges!"
I'm writing to him, "If our troops really go and help them, they should bring
things the Crescentia partridges desperately need now, such as medicines, rather
than guns and arms. We should not help spread the hatred." To tell the truth,
I'm suspicious about all the things the chief says. But I don't see anything else
I can do.
At the same time, here I'm writing to you. I've heard about what Megaland is doing
in your land, and I strongly believe they are doing something wrong. So I don't
want Waqland soldiers to help them. I don't want our troops to go, but I don't
seem to be able to stop them from being sent. That's why I decided to write to
you.
I don't want you to be killed or hurt, and I don't want them to kill or hurt.
So, now I'm begging you - please don't point guns at them.
Yes, it's true Waqland troops are armed and have guns. But the fact is, they have
never used guns against living things. If you aim a gun at them, they may shoot
someone by mistake. I don't want that to happen.
Waqland soldiers, with a red circle on their chest, may be carrying Megaland's
guns and arms, which can hurt you. But please let me explain why they are doing
it. I dare say it's like the Waqland soldiers' families and homelands are kept
as hostages by Megaland. The Waqland chief thinks we must be a 'faithful friend'
to Megaland, or we will be defenseless. There is no other choice but to help Megaland.
Please understand. Please forgive them for helping Megaland.
Back home, the soldiers are fathers, husbands and brothers of ordinary birds like
you. They never want to hate or be hated, to hurt or to be hurt, to kill or to
be killed.
I believe we are on the earth to work together. Let the Waqland soldiers work
together with you to make them realise that those who are pointing their guns
at you are doing something wrong.
I wish I could go to Crescentia to help you, but I can't. I'm so sorry I know
nothing about water pipes, power grids or medicines.
If you know anyone who hates us and who wants to shoot us, please tell about my
letter to him or her.
I wish there will not be any attacks - against Crescentia birds, Waqland birds,
Megaland birds, no matter who are attacked, just out of hatred.
Not a single life deserves to be a victim.
Thank you for reading my letter. Thank you for listening to me.
I wish no one harm. I wish everyone's happiness.
maa as-salaamah
from a Waqland sparrow
Oto-to read his letter over and over again before putting it in an envelope. "They
may think my words as selfish," he hesitated. "But this is all I can do."
Finally he decided to ask a crow to deliver his letter to Crescentia. The crow
was going to visit someone in Crescentia. "All right, my friend," said the crow
when Oto-to brought the envelope. "No problem. I will deliver your letter."
Oto-to wished again. "Oh, dear Megaland soldiers! Please don't shoot this crow!
Let him deliver my letter! I just want Crescentia partridges to understand Waqland,
so that there won't be hatred between Crescentia and Waqland."
Oto-to closed his eyes. His eyes were now red and swollen with crying. He made
another silent prayer, and fell asleep.
END
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MAGCHIMERA WARTIME 10
2004年01月22日発行
【編集・発行】藤澤みどり
midori@dircon.co.uk
【melma ID】m00101856
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