第31回　 
Facing the Light
Summary （締め切り　04年4月30日）



Written Talat Abbasi(P166〜P171)
提出順、敬称略
Marriage is fragile like fabric
ごえべえ

Summer is just around the corner in Karachi. She is sorting her precious, expensive and beautiful clothing such as a sari with embroidery and sequins, in her bedroom. She tells the maidservant which are for washing or dry cleaning, for mending or just for throwing away. Her bedroom is like a sea of soft colorful fabric.
Her husband happens to enter her bedroom just after she has found her favorite sari was ruined; its silver sequins were tarnished despite of her own cautious care for the sari.
She knows what he wants. He is leaving for a woman. They have been married for 23 years. She doesn’t want the maidservant to hear their conversation, so she orders her to leave here and tells that tea time is half hour later.
He behaves gentle and nice to her. He promises house, car, and servants for her. However, she doesn’t want him to tell such things. She doesn’t answer him. Although she thought they needed at least hour an hour for their talk, he just says “Car, house, servant!’ And he thumps his cane on the floor.
Everything is changing. No matter how you treat anything carefully, or no matter how many times you polish anything, you cannot stop it to change.


タイトルの「Facing the Light」というのが今一、掴めていません。最後、どうして、彼女はサリ−をたたみだしたのかも、よくわかりませんでした。
でも、非常に文学的な作品だと思います
Facing the Light
Middle-angle
　 Summer was almost here in Karachi. When he came home, she was changing her wardrobe for the season . "He never made for dinner before, then why he is here even before tea ?" It was wholly unexpected for her. She sensed something serious on his face.
"I wish to be fair to you," he said. Then she realized what he meant. She ordered the maidservant to leave the room as she wanted to be private with him. The servant left and the door was closed. Now just two of them and the room was a sea of gorgeous saris.
His determination was firm. He wanted to leave her. Their 23 years of marriage life was about to end. He offered car, house, servant so that her life would be assured as before.
He knew that blaming her is nothing but giving him a bloody nose. He didn't want to waste of his time and thumped the ground with his cane three times. It just sounded like "Final, final, final."
Now she is absentmindedly looking at the sari on the bed. It used to be very gorgeous - a thousand, twelve hundred rupees for the embroidery alone and hundreds of real silver sequins on it - but despite of her own fully care silver was tarnished and the sari itself turned to be a shabby rug.
Sun is shining through the window, and under the light everything looked different for her. Even the ruined sari seemed to have a last chance to sparkle. What about their relationship ? But at the same time she sees darkness and dullness everywhere in the room.
Everything is vulnerable. Nothing lasts forever. Fabric, minds, and relations...
No matter how precious they are, no matter how well you try to care.

注；giving him a bloody nose は「誇りを傷つける」という意味です
Facing the light
ぱんぷきん
　Summer is almost here in Karachi. This woman is changing the clothes for the season. She ordered a servant that this sari should go to cleaning or mending. She has a large wardrobe and she could design one of her sari for embroidery, with hundreds of silver sequins which was real silver, each one of them. But now she just gives it away to the servant. The room is completely messy of a pile of clothes. Last summer end, she packed all her saris by herself, she wrapped them like a mummy and put them in the trunk tightly. That's why the silver turned black and tarnished.
Just this minute, her husband came back at her bedroom's door. She pretends working on the sewing machine. He had never come back home before dinner, even for the tea. She told the servant to leave the room because she doesn't want her to listen to their conversation. He wants to leave her and this is the end of their 23 years' marriage, her regrets are too late. His requested car, house, servants. She couldn't say even a word.
When she looked at the window, the sun was shining on the sari over the bed. But now everything looks different for her. The brass of the bed is black. Silver loses its brightness and gold winks out. Just like the devil of the city goes through under the paint and polish of the house, it took the sparkle, the luster and the light. She will have them after all, but there are something you cannot bring them back no matter how precious they are.

読んでも読んでも細かいところが分からないところがありました。でもこういう作品もよかったです。この本はいろんな国の著者が集まっていてその国その国の背景が浮かんできて（想像ですが）いいですね。

今回の作品はとても文学的で、隠喩が使われていて、難しかったです。でも美しいサリーの描写や妻の元を去ろうとしている夫に対する妻の心情など、しんみりと伝わってきて、いい作品でした。
インドの作品は「停電の夜に」という短編集でアメリカに住んでいるインド人の小説は読んだことがありますが、ほとんど読んだことがなく、感情を抑えた情景描写によって心情を描く手法が気に入りました。

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