I received the package which contained Keisuke Kuwata's new single CD
, a copy of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and a copy of Never Let Me Go from Amazon this Wednesday evening.
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, as you might know, is originally described in England as Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.
Yes, I bought a US version of it because it's much cheaper than UK version, and what is more, because I know there's not much difference between US version and UK.
Flicking through several pages of it, I saw the words, The Boy Who Lived, which is sometimes seen in the final volume of the Harry Potter series, written as the title of the first chapter, and felt like my heart beat fast in a strange way.
Though I'd like to see little Harry for the first time in years, I'm going to read Never Let Me Go written by Kazuo Ishiguro, who was born in Japan in 1954, settled in England in 1960 when he was 5 and acquired English nationality in 1983.
He is introduced on the book as follows:
Kazuo Ishiguro is the author of five previous novels, including The Remains of the Day, which won the Booker Prize and became an international bestseller. His work has been translated into twenty-eight languages. In 1995 he received an Order of the British Empire for sevice to literature, and in 1998 was named a Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government. He lives in London with his wife and daughter.
I read 33 pages out of 288, and I couldn't help feeling uneasy, especially when reading the first few pages, as if some parts of it hadn't made sense at all or I'd misread something important despite his writing being not very difficult to understand, so I had to reread it a few times.
Now I can read it with no problem, but yet I sometimes feel the same way - something is missing, something important or essential.
Anyway, I'm enjoying Kazuo Ishiguro's mysterious world heartily.
Oh, one more thing.
I listened to Keisuke Kuwata's new single CD including three songs, Darling, Gendai Tokyo Kitan (a strange story of today's Tokyo) and The Common Blues, and I love Gendai Tokyo Kitan above all!!
When listening to it for the first time without any preliminary information about it, tears came before I could stop them, though not when having listened to his previous song, Kaze no Uta wo Kikasete (let me hear the songs of winds), which I think is generally more touching.
I don't know why, but no doubt it's a really great song.
Also I watched him singing under the cold night sky on FNS Music Festival on Wednesday.
He was so cool as usual, and his songs sounded better than usual to me.
A very happy night it was. (^^)
私が買った 『Never Let Me Go』 は実はこちら。
オリジナルはイギリスですが、これはたぶんアメリカ版で、『Reprint版』 とあるので、廉価版か何かじゃないかと思われます。（中身は特に違いはないんじゃないかな・・・？ "Penguin Readers" のような手直しは入ってないと思います。多分）
これが一番お安いんですが、私が買ったあとに売れ切れていました。
作者は "Kazuo Ishiguro"で、一見、日本の作品の翻訳版かと思ってしまいますが、日本生まれ・イギリス育ちで、現在はイギリス国籍も取得し、ブッカー賞というイギリスで最も有名な文学賞も受賞された方のようです。
とりあえず少しばかり読んでみての感想は・・・・、『そうか。これが綺麗な文章なのかぁ♪』 って感じ。 ~(=^‥^A
それと、最初の５～６ページは、ほとんど意味不明なまま進みました。
難しい単語は全く出てこないし、ちゃんと読めているはずなのに、意味不明というか筋が通ってないような感じがして、何度も読み返したり、分かっているはずの単語も辞書で調べてみたりして。
その後は、まず問題なく読めます。 が！ やっぱり何かおかしい・・・。
このもどかしさ、主人公のKathy自身も感じているらしく、次のように述べてます。
And Tommy's account of his talk with Miss Lucy had reminded me of something, perhaps a whole series of things, little incidents from the past to do with Miss Lucy that had puzzled me at the time.
あと、
Now I know my being a carer so long isn't necessarily because they think I'm fantastic at what I do.
...And I can think of one carer at least who went on for all of fourteen years despite being a complete waste of space.
のような文章が結構目に付きます。
分詞構文でいいのかしら？ また違う文法なのかな？
私も 『会話では滅多に使わない文法だろうな～』 と思いながら、よく分からずに使っていますが、それは他にどう書けばいいか分からないからで、彼の文章は（プロだから当たり前だけど）初心者の私が読んでも洗練されている感じがします。
日本語すらまともに操れない私にとっては羨ましいかぎり。
あっちこっちの 『お薦めの洋書』 のようなコーナーで絶賛されているこの本、 『わたしを離さないで』 という題で日本語にも訳されていて、これもまた高く評価されているようです。
それにしても、"despite being a complete waste of space" ってキツイなぁ～。 ~(=^‥^A
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