Nagaki Kono Yoru

[Machine Translation] I wake up in the middle of the night and see in my mind's eye my newly married wife with ponytail, my young self, my 97 year old father who changed my diapers every day and looked after me at home, and even my dead face at my own funeral... I can even see my own dead face at my own funeral.... The long night of an old man without light ("Choki Kono Yoru"). The men argue over "incompetence" - "It seems that when the red bead appears, it's the end of the world. The sex of old age ("The Red Pearl") is depicted through funny conversations. Four retired men start a cooking class. The strange flamboyance and bittersweetness that surrounds the young female instructor ("Onindon"). Are the eerie old men and women the same Komori sisters and brothers who "offered" rice crackers to me during the evacuation of school children? ("Zuru Zuru Buttan Chek" from "The Dead" ). On the bridge of the Sumida River, my father, a young pawnshop boy Nobudon, told me of his youth in the early Showa period. The truth of his father's dream, which survived the war ("Hashi no Koe"). Twelve years after "Kochi", seven stories depict the momentary glow of old age with a mature brush. The latest collection of short stories.

夜中眼覚め脳裏に浮かぶのは、新婚時代のポニーテールの妻と若い自分、毎日オムツを取り替え自宅で見取った97歳の父。そして自分の葬式の死顔まで見えて…。老人の無明長夜(「長きこの夜」)。「赤い珠が出たらもう終わりらしい」-「不能」をめぐる男たちの侃々諤々。滑稽な会話で描く老年の性(「赤い珠」)。仕事をリタイアした4人の老年の男たちが始めた料理教室。その若い女講師を囲む奇妙な華やぎとほろ苦さ(「おにんどん」)。不気味な老男女は、学童疎開で私に煎餅を「献納」したコモリ姉弟なのか。(「死者たち」より「ズルズル・バッタン・チェッ」)。隅田川の橋の上、昭和初期の若き日の父・質屋の小僧信どんは語った。戦火のなか生き延びた父の描いた夢の真相(「橋の声」)。『黄落』から十二年、さびしくおかしい老年の一瞬の輝きを円熟の筆で描く七篇。最新短篇集。