風車 - Pinwheels

The following is an English translation of a speech I gave at a Japanese speech contest.

Curiously, I've found it very difficult to translate into English even though I'm a native-English speaker, my Japanese is really quite poor and that the idea for the speech and some of the phrases were originally conceived in English.

It sems that as the text developed, it was increasingly taken over by the Japanese language and further removed from my own. Or, as is more likely, I'm a terrible translator.

The small contest was held as light relief during the lunchbreak of an English-school English language speech contest at the International Forum in Tokyo. The audience mostly consisted of young children (the contestants in the English contest) and their parents - in retrospect, perhaps the choice of subject matter wasn't that appropriate...


Anyway, I hope you enjoy it.





Kazaguruma (Pinwheels)


The other day, I went to Mount Osore.

I get the impression that most Japanese people have heard of Mount Osore, but haven’t actually been there themselves. In Japan, it is famous for being “The Gateway to Hell”. When I told my colleagues that I was thinking of going there, their typical response was “Ooh - that sounds scary.” or “Doesn’t really interest me”. I didn’t know exactly why, but it still inspired an interest in me.

Even though it was a public holiday, Mount Osore was quiet. Perhaps it was the strong rain that morning, but there were very few people there. Everybody wore serious expressions – they didn’t look like holidaymakers to me.

The first thing that struck me was the smell. The sulphur smelt like the end of the world. Everywhere I looked, there were piles of small rocks, gathered in the memory of dead children. Lonely pinwheels had been carefully placed on top of the piles. In the rain, people were quietly praying. The only sounds I could hear were the pinwheels spinning in the wind and the rain hitting the barren ground. I felt like I was trespassing. Somewhere in the distance, a crow cried.

As I watched the parents pray, I remembered something from a very long time ago. On my 14th birthday, a few of my friends came around my house to visit. My elder brother and my mother sat quietly in another room. After my friends had left, my mother told me that my father, who had been suffering from leukemia, had died that day. We immediately visited my grandmother.

She spoke.

“It is a terrible thing for a son to die before his mother.”

At that time, I didn’t understand.

As I left the temple grounds, it was still raining. I ran to the car and sat inside, watching the raindrops gather on the windscreen. Despite the memories and everything else on the day, I didn’t feel sad. As the parents left, they all looked a little relieved.

There is something healing about Mount Osore. I really don’t know what it is - maybe it’s the beautiful surroundings, or the peace. Or, then again, maybe I was simply tired from the long journey to get there.

I turned on the engine and drove away, until the smell of sulphur had completely disappeared.




風車

このあいだ恐山に行きました。

ほとんどの日本人は、恐山を知っていますがいったことがないと思います。日本では地獄の入り口として有名です。同僚に恐山へ行こうと思っていると言うと怖いよとか興味ないと返事しました。どうしてか分かりませんでした、でも私はまだ興味をそそられていました。

祝日なのに恐山はすいていました。多分その朝の強い雨のせいだと思いました。少ししか人がいませんでした。みんな真剣な顔つきでした。行楽客ではないようでした。

最初にきづいたことはにおいでした。硫黄のにおいはまるで死後の世界のようでした。至る所に小石が積み上げられてありました。亡くなった子供を供養するためです。積み上げられた小石の上に寂しい風車が建てられていました。雨の中を人々は静かに祈っていました。風車が回っている音、不毛の土地を打つ雨の音しか聞こえませんでした。不法侵入のような感じがしました。遠くでカラスが鳴いていました。

祈っている親を見た時、昔のことを思い出しました。１４才の誕生日の時、数人の友達が遊びに来ました。兄と母はほかの部屋で静かに座っていました。友達が帰ってから、母は白血病だった父がその日に亡くなったと話してくれました。すぐに父方の祖母を訪ねました。その時、祖母が言いました。

「最も悲しいことは、母親が死ぬ前に息子が死ぬことだ」

その意味がその時は分かりませんでした。

恐山の寺の構内を出てからも、雨がまだ降っていました。車まで走って、車の中で座りながらフロントガラスに雨だれが集まるのを見ていました。昔のことを思い出したにもかかわらず、悲しくなかったです。祈っていた親が恐山を出た時は心が安らかそうでした。恐山にはどことなく癒しの力があるように感じました。それはどうしてか分かりません。多分周囲の美しさや、静けさのせいでしょう。または長い旅で疲れただけかもしれません。

車のエンジンをかけて、硫黄のにおいがすっかり消えてしまうまで運転しました。