世界SF大会、CoNZealand 参加者の皆さんに、わたくしの朗読のご案内です。
四つのてのひら怪談を読む予定です。I'll read four flash fiction.
Wednesday July 29, 2020 7月２９日（水）
Reading: Umiyuri Katsuyama（朗読：勝山海百合）
Programming - Reading Room 1
4:30 PM - 4:55 PM | 25 minutes （日本時間午後１時３０～５５分、二十五分間）
☆☆☆
My Reading Programme
1. Greeting from Umiyuri Katsuyama
The English texts are as below:
2. "A Strange Incident at Mount Luofu" Translated by Toshiya Kamei「羅浮之怪」RaFu no kai
Home - AntipodeanSF
【追記】"A Strange Incident at Mount Luofu"が掲載されたAntipodean SF Issue 262は下記でダウンロードできます
ePub: https://www.antisf.com.au/e-reader/antipodeansf/antisf-e-reader-generic/file/214-antipodeansf-issue-262
Kindle: https://www.antisf.com.au/e-reader/antipodeansf/antisf-e-reader-kindle/file/215-antipodeansf-issue-262
3. "The Return of Warhorses" Translated by Osamu Kaikou「軍馬の帰還」Gunba no kikan
"Ao’s coming back, father." My youngest son said and got up from bed. "I heard the sound of him.”
Our horse was impressed by the army two years ago. They said he would be sent for the war in the continent. I had never heard of him since then. In fact, there should be no horse that could come back home alive.
"It can’t be him. Get some sleep, laddie." When I said it I also heard the sound, a horse kicking bars to ask for forages in the barn.
I sat up to catch the eyes of my son in darkness.
"It should be a neighbor’s horse running away from the common. Anyway, I’m going to check it.”
I slipped on my worn chestnut geta clogs and walked down to the yard in my underwear. It’s a bright and quiet night. Under gleaming persimmon leaves, I heard a familiar whinny of the horse.
"Ao!" My son ran out to the barn.
I saw a silhouette of a horse. I knew it -- black except for the mouth, without markings. His eyes glint by moonlight for a moment. I couldn’t believe it but tears blurred my eyes. I ran after my son. Ao, I’m getting you to the brook to wash you soon, I thought. You should be cleaned up after your long journey. How can you come back all the way from --
What we found was the empty barn. No horse, no surprises.
"He’s got to be here. I’ve just heard it..."
My son mumbled and started sobbing.
Later, I heard about a horse that survived the war in my county. He got a medal and kept shrapnel in his belly. His owner got a short notice after the end of the war and hurried off to the designated camp near the capital to take in him. They walked back home together good four hundred miles to the north.
When they arrived at a hill overlooking their village, the horse neighed in a delightful tone for the first time.
It’s a bright night. the owner somehow felt as if he led a band of horses in the moonlight at that moment. Or at least so I heard.
4.“The Exchange” Translated by Osamu Kaikou「とりひき」Torihiki
When I was a first grader, I went out with an acquainted woman and had been confined in her apartment for a week.
I remember that I lay down on the worn Tatami floor of the room, thinking about grandma’s steamed sweet potato. Late afternoon sunlight, which slanted through the too short curtain, turned everything red. A sweet potato, simply steamed with a bit of salt. Grandma used to put it on the low table in the dining room for me coming home from school. I lived alone with her, so I was hardly allowed to eat cakes except for special occasion. Though I’d had enough of them until then. I couldn’t think about anything but her sweet potato. I didn’t want any more cakes.
The woman had led me out of home while grandma had talked with a fish peddler at the back door. She had promised to buy me cakes as much as I had wanted. But I had already begun to regret as she had taken my hand hurrying off to the station beyond a barley field. I hadn’t even said I’m leaving to grandma...
She had piled lots of boxes of cakes in the room. They went bad after a week. Cream was decayed. Strawberries got blue mold. The woman told me that there’s no other food, though. I was forced to eat them. They were rancid. But when I spat them out, she beat me and shoved the mess into my mouth. She said that she would bury me in a mountain if I couldn’t finish all of them till that night. I definitely couldn’t, I thought.
The night was coming. I imagined coming back home as I lay down on the floor in tears. Grandma would be working in the backyard garden. I would call to her I’m home, rush into the dining room, put the dish cover away and eat her sweet potato with a glass of cold barley tea in the kettle... Suddenly, the door opened and I was rescued. Later I was told that who suggested to the police to investigate the apartment was grandma.
“I prayed to gods to tell me it. In exchange for a year of my life,” she once said jokingly.
If you had kept it for yourself, could you see me in wedding attire today? I wonder. She passed away in her sleep just a year ago.
“I’m leaving, grandma.”
5."The Early Morning Garden" 「朝の庭」Asa no niwa
In the morning garden, an old woman received a message.
朝の庭で、老いた女性はメッセージを受け取った……（８００字）
6. Acknowledgements.
☆☆☆
