第21回  
August 25, 1983

Summary (締め切り 03年6月30日)

Written By Jorge Luis Borges (P92〜P97)Borgesについての日本語解説のHP
提出順、敬称略
August 25, 1983
Megumi
This is a mysterious story.
Jorge Luis Borges went to the hotel in Adrogue.
In the hotel room there was a man who's mirrored by him though the man looked older than him.
The man said he was 84-year-old-Borges in the future, August 25, 1983.
(Borges was 61 years old at the time.)
And the elder Borges said he was just dreaming of the other before he was dying; the other wondered if he was also dreaming.
The elder started to tell the other about his future events to demonstrate he was the real Borges in the future.
The main part of his story was like this.
--- Borges writes a book and realizes it has failed.
--- But at last he publishes it under another name and it is described as a vulgar imitator's work.
He also said it led him to this very night.
The younger said "I won't write that book."
The elder said "yes, you will."
The younger said he hated the other.
The other said he also hated himself so that he had decided to kill himself; he made up his mind after giving a conference on the 6th book of the Aeneid.
He also told Borges that he would have forgotten this dialogue though Borges said he would never forget it.
Then the elder Borges died.
The other Borges went out of the room; there was no courtyard, no marble staircase, no large silent hotel...
There were other dreams waiting for him.

なんかまとめながら頭がこんがらがってきた。。。
夢の中で未来の自分にあったのか、未来の自分が本当に目の前に現れたのか。。。
このまま彼はあらゆる夢を彷徨い続けるのか。。。
今月は読解が曖昧な部分多々ありますが時間ないんで出しちゃおう(反省)

Who is dreaming who?
ごえべえ
I decided to commit suicied in the Hotel Las Delicias in Adrogue. When I arrived there, strange enough, I had already checked in the hotel. I rushed into the room where I had intended to stay, and I found myself lying on a bed.
He told me that he is myself but he was being in August 25, 1983, while I was in 1960.
He said he was surely dying in the house used to be my mother's. He seemed not to be surprised at my existence and he just said it was a dream.
I claimed I was a dreamer. But he didn't think it mattered. His voice was like a voice from recorded thing and his way of talking which was exactly like me, bothered me a lot.
He told me about what would be waiting in my life that was nothing but a series of despair; my writings would be severely criticized and I would also admit by myself. He said he had nothing left. He died in front of me. And so did I in a certain sense.
I got out of the room. Outside was a different place and other dreams were waiting for me.

初めて、自分の言葉に置き換えてSummaryを書きました。本来そうあるべきなんですけど、自分なりに書くといっぱい文法的ミスがありそうで、恐ろしいです。

August 25, 1983
Middle-angle

Dream... It's another world of your life.

The author of this story became blind later in life and was forced to live in the darkness. His saying, found in this story, "Blindness isn't darkness - it's a form of loneliness," is very meaningful.

It was late at night, August 25 when Jorge Luis Borges reached the hotel.

Strangely enough he found another himself, a lot like him but much older, lying on the iron bed in the room nineteen. The other was about to die. The empty bottle on the night table indicated it. It is very strange but Borges and the other were exactly the same person. Only difference we can tell is the time they were living in. Borges (61) was living in 1960 and the other (84) in 1983, 23 years ahead.

The other told Borges what would be waiting for him in the future (in the past to the other ), including the fate of his beloved wife. As to his literary work, nothing good he could expect.

The other told Borges that he realized 2 lives of them had to be united and that's why he chose to cease his life by himself. His talking stopped then and Borges knew he was dead. In a sense Borges died with him there, too.

When Borges came out of the room, there was no one, not even the hotel building. What waiting for him outside were other dreams.

August 25, 1983
ぱんぷきん

My name is Jorge Luis Borges.
The station clock showed around eleven o'clock. I entered the hotel to resister my name but the hotel keeper looked curiously at me. He said I'd already checked in.
I went upstairs the room nineteen. The other person who looked like me was lying on the iron bed. He was older than me, looked bloodless. In the dream there is nothing strange but is this a dream? or a reality? The old guy told me that he could die any day. In the course of conversation, I was annoyed by the know-it-all attitude of this old guy. In addition, I hated the other's voice, face, the way of talking because they were so alike mine
The last moment, he took my hands. He told me what he thought in his life so far, his fate and his prophetic words. I knew he was dead. I felt I died with him in some sense.
I went out from the room. There was nothing I saw before.
Blindness isn't darkness. It's kind of lonely but it continues dreaming of dreams.


Lindaさんの感想

遅くなりました。それに感想だけでごめんなさい。不思議な悲しい話で、ごえべえさんが何度も読み返したという気持ちが、よくわかります。

私はなんとなく、3人のBorgesの存在を感じました。今だ夢の中にいる若いBorges、彼はこれからも夢が果てなく続く過去にいる。夢からさめようとしている年老いたBorges、死によって夢からのがれようとしている。そして、実際、小説を書いているBorges。小説の中で彼は、84才の誕生日の翌日に自分を死なせることによって、夢から逃れようとしているように感じました。3人のBorgesのそれぞれが、夢を辛く感じているのが伝わってきます。3つの方向からの悲しみが、話全体にあふれているように感じました。
Borgesにとって、小説のなかは現実なのかもしれないですね。視力が弱かったり無かったりしたのであれば、なおさら、自分の作品のなかの方が、鮮明で奥行きがあると感じていたのだろうと思います。

今回の作品は著者自身が主人公。しかも主人公は20年後の自分自身に出会うというお話。状況がややこしくって、わかりにくいところもありましたが、面白い作品でした。
著者は年を経るごとに視力を徐々に失っていったらしいです。そして、現実は見えないものの、ずっと夢を見ているように映像を頭の中で見ていたらしいです。
作品の中で、60代のBorgesと80代のBorges、どちらも自殺しようとしています。 彼にとって人生は失望の連続だったようです。
しかし、Borgesはたくさんの作品を残し、それは今でも読み継がれています。日本でも文庫本などたくさんの本が出版されています。
奇妙な世界に生きていた(ように思える)Borgesの文学に触れてみたいなと思いました。

Borgesの作品
 
夢の本  

August 25, 1983の単語/Summary 提出後のMLでの討論/
10月課題へ/11月の課題へ/12月の課題へ/1月の課題へ/2月の課題へ/3月課題へ/4月課題へ/5月課題へ/6月課題へ/7月課題へ/8月の課題へ/9月の課題へ/10月の課題へ/11月課題/12月課題へ/
第一回復習テスト/英検一級語彙練習問題1/第二回復習テスト(Part1/Part2)/
掲示板/ML登録/勉強会HOME/おすすめ洋書/アメリカでの洋書のベストセラー

自由テキスト
お勧め辞書
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English /American Heritage College dictionary/Colins COBUILDCD-ROM/小学館ランダムハウス英和辞典CD-ROM/世界最大!100万語収録CD-ROM英和和英辞書『英辞郎』 /おすすめ電子辞書
お勧め辞書サイト
Bartleby com/インフォシーク英和辞典/RNN時事英語辞典/Dictionary com/LYCOS:ディクショナリィPowered By バビロン