日本語を話す人が４人いるとしよう。そのうち２人が会話し、あとの２人のうち１人が残った１人に会話の内容を同時進行で伝えると設定。内容伝達役は話される内容を事前にまったく知らされていない。どれだけ正確に伝えられるか実験してみたい。会話はすべて日本語で。２人の会話を聞きながら、もう１人に口頭で伝えるという、伝達役にとっては３対１の圧倒的に不利な状況だ。
ま、「“ちょっと”通訳して」などと言われて借り出されると、まず間違いなくこういう状況なのが実情で、当然にして言語は２つ。どれだけの集中力が必要か！会話の当事者がボーッとしている時も、注意をそらすことができない。通訳という役柄を理解していない人が多すぎる！「ちょっと」でいいなら、「ちょっと」の仕事しかするべきではないということか。
「野球帽の子」と呼んでいた「ＳＭ」は先週末、香港で結婚した。
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Winter War, Kira Murdered and Hitler's Next Move
対フィンランド「冬戦争」、副国防相夫人誘拐と殺害
[Kira Kulik, the wife of Deputy Defence Commissar] was trebly tainted, for she was an aristocrat with links to Tsarist intelligence and the ex-wife of an arrested Jewish merchant….
When she was alone by the piano with Stalin (at her husband’s birthday party), she asked him to free her brother, a former Tsarist officer, from the camps. Stalin listened affably…. … Kira’s approach, presuming on her familiarity and prettiness, set a mantrap in his suspicious mind. (pp. 290-291)
Days later, Kulik ordered the artillery barrage that commenced the Soviet invasion of Finland,… which like the Baltic States had been part of the Russian Empire until 1918 and which now threatened Leningrad.
On 12 October, a Finnish delegation met Stalin and Molotov in the Kremlin to hear the Soviet demands for the cession of a naval base at Hango. The Finns refused the Soviet demands, much to Stalin’s surprise….
During dinner with Beria and Khrushchev at his flat, Stalin sent Finland his ultimatum….
On 30 November, five Soviet armies attacked along the 800-mile long border. Their frontal assaults on the Mannerheim Line was foiled by the ingenious Finns, who, dressed like ghosts in white suits, were slaughtering the Russians…. By mid-December, Stalin lost about 25,000 men. He amateurishly planned the Winter War like a local exercise, ignoring the Chief of Staff Shaposhnikov’s professional plan…. After 9 December, the Ninth Army was decimated around the destroyed village of Suomussalmi.
… Stalin’s first solution was to dispatch the ‘gloomy demon’ Mekhlis, now at the height of his power, to the front.
… On the 26th, Stalin finally appointed Timoshenko to command the North-Western Front and restore order to his frayed forces who were now dying of hunger….
Mekhlis arrived in Suomussalmi to find chaotic scenes which he made worse. He confirmed the losses and shot the whole command….
On 1 February… Timoshenko probed Finnish defences, launching his great offensive on the 11th…. The Finns sued for peace. On 12 March, Zhdanov signed a treaty in which Finland ceded Hango, the Karelian Isthmus, and the north-eastern shore of Ladoga, 22,000 square miles, to insulate Leningrad….
… Mekhlis revealed that the Finns often attacked during the Red Army’s afternoon nap. ‘Afternoon nap?!’ spat Stalin. (pp. 291-294)
In May, Stalin ordered the kidnapping of Kulik’s wife, Kira…. On 5 May, Kobulov, the prince-assassin Tsereteli and a favoured torturer Vladzimirsky trailed Kira on her way to the dentist, then bundled the beauty into a car and took her way to the Lubianka….
[On 7 May, Kulik] called Beria, who invited him to the Lubianka. While Kulik sipped tea in his office, Beria called Stalin:
‘Marshal Kulik’s sitting in front of me. No, he doesn’t know any details. She left and that’s all. Certainly, Comrade Stalin, we’ll announce an all-Union search and do everything possible to find her.’ They both knew that Kira was in the cells beneath Beria’s office. A month later. Countess Simonich-Kulik, mother of an eight-year-old daughter, was moved to Beria’s special prison, the Sukhanovka, where Blokhin murdered her in cold blood with a shot to the head. Kobulov complained that Blokhin killed her before he arrived…. (pp. 295-296)
カチンの森
[To handle the Polish officers arrested or captured in September 1939,] Blokhin traveled down to the Ostachkov camp where her and two other Chekists outfitted a hut with padded, soundproofed walls and decided on a Stakhanovite quota of 250 shooting a night…. [H]e began one of the most prolific acts of mass murder by one individual, killing 7,000 in precisely twenty-eight nights, using a German Walther pistol to prevent future exposure. The bodies were buried in various places – but the 4,500 in the Kozelsk camp were interred in Katyn Forest. (pp. 296-297)
ヒトラーの対ソ心理戦
That June, the Führer unleashed his Blitzkrieg against the Lower Countries and France….
Stalin had seized a buffer zone from the Baltic to the Black Sea but he now started to receive intelligence of Hitler’s intention to attack the USSR. He redoubled his attention to the Germans….
… However insistent the facts of the German military build-up, the Soviet spymasters were under pressure to provide the information that Stalin wanted: ‘We never went out looking for information at random,’ recalled one spy. ‘Orders to look for specific things would come from above.’
Stalin reacted to this uneasiness by aggressively pushing the traditional Russian interests in the Balkans which itself alarmed Hitler, who was weighing up whether to attack his ally. He decided to invite Molotov to Berlin to sidetrack the Soviets into a push for the Indian Ocean…. In his handwritten directive, Stalin instructed Molotov to insist on explanations for the presence of German troops in Romania and Finland, discover Hitler’s real interests and assert Russian interests in the Balkans and Dardanelles…. (pp. 297-298)
もう読んでしまった部分だが、“Stalin” にはあとでソビエトのスパイ、ゾルゲが少しだけ登場する。ドイツのソ連空爆開始情報を本国に見事に伝えている。ゾルゲと尾崎秀実、少しぐらいは読まないと。
[Kira Kulik, the wife of Deputy Defence Commissar] was trebly tainted, for she was an aristocrat with links to Tsarist intelligence and the ex-wife of an arrested Jewish merchant….
When she was alone by the piano with Stalin (at her husband’s birthday party), she asked him to free her brother, a former Tsarist officer, from the camps. Stalin listened affably…. … Kira’s approach, presuming on her familiarity and prettiness, set a mantrap in his suspicious mind. (pp. 290-291)
Days later, Kulik ordered the artillery barrage that commenced the Soviet invasion of Finland,… which like the Baltic States had been part of the Russian Empire until 1918 and which now threatened Leningrad.
On 12 October, a Finnish delegation met Stalin and Molotov in the Kremlin to hear the Soviet demands for the cession of a naval base at Hango. The Finns refused the Soviet demands, much to Stalin’s surprise….
During dinner with Beria and Khrushchev at his flat, Stalin sent Finland his ultimatum….
On 30 November, five Soviet armies attacked along the 800-mile long border. Their frontal assaults on the Mannerheim Line was foiled by the ingenious Finns, who, dressed like ghosts in white suits, were slaughtering the Russians…. By mid-December, Stalin lost about 25,000 men. He amateurishly planned the Winter War like a local exercise, ignoring the Chief of Staff Shaposhnikov’s professional plan…. After 9 December, the Ninth Army was decimated around the destroyed village of Suomussalmi.
… Stalin’s first solution was to dispatch the ‘gloomy demon’ Mekhlis, now at the height of his power, to the front.
… On the 26th, Stalin finally appointed Timoshenko to command the North-Western Front and restore order to his frayed forces who were now dying of hunger….
Mekhlis arrived in Suomussalmi to find chaotic scenes which he made worse. He confirmed the losses and shot the whole command….
On 1 February… Timoshenko probed Finnish defences, launching his great offensive on the 11th…. The Finns sued for peace. On 12 March, Zhdanov signed a treaty in which Finland ceded Hango, the Karelian Isthmus, and the north-eastern shore of Ladoga, 22,000 square miles, to insulate Leningrad….
… Mekhlis revealed that the Finns often attacked during the Red Army’s afternoon nap. ‘Afternoon nap?!’ spat Stalin. (pp. 291-294)
In May, Stalin ordered the kidnapping of Kulik’s wife, Kira…. On 5 May, Kobulov, the prince-assassin Tsereteli and a favoured torturer Vladzimirsky trailed Kira on her way to the dentist, then bundled the beauty into a car and took her way to the Lubianka….
[On 7 May, Kulik] called Beria, who invited him to the Lubianka. While Kulik sipped tea in his office, Beria called Stalin:
‘Marshal Kulik’s sitting in front of me. No, he doesn’t know any details. She left and that’s all. Certainly, Comrade Stalin, we’ll announce an all-Union search and do everything possible to find her.’ They both knew that Kira was in the cells beneath Beria’s office. A month later. Countess Simonich-Kulik, mother of an eight-year-old daughter, was moved to Beria’s special prison, the Sukhanovka, where Blokhin murdered her in cold blood with a shot to the head. Kobulov complained that Blokhin killed her before he arrived…. (pp. 295-296)
カチンの森
[To handle the Polish officers arrested or captured in September 1939,] Blokhin traveled down to the Ostachkov camp where her and two other Chekists outfitted a hut with padded, soundproofed walls and decided on a Stakhanovite quota of 250 shooting a night…. [H]e began one of the most prolific acts of mass murder by one individual, killing 7,000 in precisely twenty-eight nights, using a German Walther pistol to prevent future exposure. The bodies were buried in various places – but the 4,500 in the Kozelsk camp were interred in Katyn Forest. (pp. 296-297)
ヒトラーの対ソ心理戦
That June, the Führer unleashed his Blitzkrieg against the Lower Countries and France….
Stalin had seized a buffer zone from the Baltic to the Black Sea but he now started to receive intelligence of Hitler’s intention to attack the USSR. He redoubled his attention to the Germans….
… However insistent the facts of the German military build-up, the Soviet spymasters were under pressure to provide the information that Stalin wanted: ‘We never went out looking for information at random,’ recalled one spy. ‘Orders to look for specific things would come from above.’
Stalin reacted to this uneasiness by aggressively pushing the traditional Russian interests in the Balkans which itself alarmed Hitler, who was weighing up whether to attack his ally. He decided to invite Molotov to Berlin to sidetrack the Soviets into a push for the Indian Ocean…. In his handwritten directive, Stalin instructed Molotov to insist on explanations for the presence of German troops in Romania and Finland, discover Hitler’s real interests and assert Russian interests in the Balkans and Dardanelles…. (pp. 297-298)
もう読んでしまった部分だが、“Stalin” にはあとでソビエトのスパイ、ゾルゲが少しだけ登場する。ドイツのソ連空爆開始情報を本国に見事に伝えている。ゾルゲと尾崎秀実、少しぐらいは読まないと。
Terror Continues
最高会議幹部会議長夫人、外相夫人も疑惑の対象に
As the world watched Stalin and Hitler carve up the East, the Vozhd was probing the submissions of his comrades by investigating and sometimes killing their wives. His fragile trust in women was irreparably undermined by Nadya’s suicide but this had been exacerbated by his own destruction of the wives of Enemies. As Khrushchev said, he became interested in other men’s wives for the unusual reason that they were possible spies rather than mistresses. (p. 281)
Polina Moltova, the First Lady, was in danger. She was now Commissar of Fishing, a CC candidate member and mistress of her perfume empire. Yet Beria now started investigating her, discovering ‘vandals’ and ‘saboteurs’ secreted in her staff. She had ‘unknowingly facilitated their espionage’. Stalin may have been sending another anti-Semitic signal to Hitler.
On 10 August, when Stalin and Molotov were plotting their diplomatic somersaults, the Politburo indicted Polina…. On 24 October, she was relieved of her Commissariat, reprimanded for ‘levity and hastiness’ but declared innocent of ‘calumnies’…. Stalin and Beria considered kidnapping and murdering her. She was lucky to be alive.
On 25 October 1938, Beria arrested President Kalinin’s wife (Ekaterina Ivanovna). In a land where the Head of State’s wife was in prison, no one was safe from the Party…. [She and her friend] were bugged grumbling about Stalin’s blood lust. The lady friend was executed, Kalinina sent into exile, like Budyonny’s wife before her…. Not everyone was as lucky as Molotova and Kalinina.
In April 1937, Dr Bronka Poskrebysheva, twenty-seven, pretty wife of the chef de cabinet,… came to [see Stalin] to ask for the release of her arrested brother Metalikov, the Kremlin doctor, indirectly related through his wife to Trotsky…. Stalin hated women pleading for relatives though one of the tragedies of Soviet life at this time was that women did beg potentates for the lives of their loved ones, offering anything they could, even their bodies. Bronka’s mission failed. She was terrified of being tarred with the Trotskyite brush.
… But Bronka did not give up. On 27 April 1939, she called Beria and asked if she could come to discuss her brother. She was never seen again.
… [Stalin, Beria and Poskrebyshev] met, possibly around midnight on 3 May…. Beria produced a confession implicating Bronka…. Poskrebyshev begged Stalin to release her….
‘Don’t worry, we’ll find you another wife,’ Stalin supposedly replied…. After two years, Bronka was shot aged just thirty-one as the Germans approached Moscow. (pp. 283-284)
「パイオニア・マヤ」
Before he turned to wantonly kill another of his friend’s wives, Stalin capriciously saved two old friends from death…. [Sergo] Kavtaradze consistently joined the oppositions yet Stalin always forgave him. Arrested in the late twenties, Stalin brought him back and ordered Kaganovich to help him. He was arrested again in late 1936, appearing on Yezhov’s death-lists. His wife (Princess Sofia Vachnadze, whose godmother had been Empress Maria Fyodorovna, Nicholas II’s mother) was also arrested. His daughter Maya, then eleven, thought both parents were already dead but she courageously wrote to Stalin to beg for their lives, signing her letters: ‘Pioneer Maya Kavtaradze’. Both Kavtaradzes were tortured but… their lives were spared. Now, in late 1939, ‘Pioneer Kavtaradze’s letters reminded Stalin to ask Beria if his old friend was still alive.
Delivered to the Hotel Lux, [Kavtaradze] found his wife was there, a frail shadow of her former self – but alive. Their daughter arrived from Tiflis. Soon afterwards, Kavtaradze was called: ‘Comrade Stalin is waiting for you….’….
A few weeks later, the [Kavtaradze] family received a bizarre and revealing visitation (by Stalin and Beria).
‘Ah, it’s you – “Pioneer Kavtaradze.”’
Maya was charmed: ‘He was so kind, so gentle – he kissed me on the cheek and I looked into his honey-coloured, hazel, gleaming eyes,’ she recalls, ‘but I was so anxious.’ (pp. 284-285)
Stalin appointed Kavtaradze to publishing job that involved another prisoner, Shalva Nutsibidze, a celebrated Georgian philosopher…. While in jail, Nutsibidze started translating the Georgian epic poem by Rustaveli, The Knight in the Panther Skin, into Russian. Every day, his work was taken from him and returned marked with the pen of anonymous editor.
… Nutsibidze was released and, on 20 October 1940, Kavtaradze picked him up in a limousine and the two ‘lucky stiffs’ drove to the Little Corner to report to Poskrebyshev on the Rustaveli translation. When they were shown into the office, Stalin was smiling at them:
‘You’re Professor Nutsibidze?’ he said. ‘You’ve been offended a bit but let’s not rake up the past,’…. ‘… I take great pleasure in being your editor.’ He then invited the two to dinner…. (p. 286)
イェゾフの処刑
On 16 January 1940, Stalin signed 346 death sentences, a list of the tragic flotsam of the outstanding talents of the arts, such as Babel, theatre director Meyerhold, and Yezhov’s lover, the journalist Koltsov (on whom Karpov in Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls is based), as well as Yezhov himself with his innocent brother, nephews and socialite mistress, Glikina, and the fallen magnate Eikhe.
… At 1.30 a.m. on 27 January 1940, Babel was shot and cremated.
When Beria had convinced himself he could not get a confession [from Eikhe]… he ordered… to lead him away to be shot.’
It was now Yezhov’s turn. On 1 February, Beria called his predecessor to his office at Sukhanovka to propose that if he confessed at his trial, Stalin would spare him. To his meager credit, Yezhov refused: ‘It’s better to leave this earth as an honourable man.’
On 2 February, Ulrikh tried him in Beria’s office…. He denied all charges of spying for what he called ‘Polish landowners… English lords and Japanese samurai’ but ‘… my fate is obvious,’….
When Ulrikh pronounced the sentence, Yezhov toppled over but was caught by his guards, loaded into a Black Crow in the early hours of 3 February and driven to his special execution yard…. (pp. 287-288)
… [b]ut after the war, Stalin admitted: ‘One can’t believe a lot of evidence from 1937. Yezhov couldn’t run NKVD properly and anti-Soviet elements penetrated it. They destroyed some honest people, our best cadres.’
Looking back, he also questioned Beria’s Terror: ‘Beria runs too many cases and everyone confesses.’ But Stalin was always aware that the NKVD invented evidence…. [N]o ruler has supervised his secret police as intimately as he.
…. Stalin’s brother-in-law Stanislas Redens (implicated by Yezhov) was shot on 12 February, 1940. (pp. 288-289)
日本語の「罪と罰」関連サイトを見ると……、あれ、カタカナでは、“Raskolnikov” を「ラスコールニコフ」ではなく、「ラスコーリニコフ」としているようだ。キリル文字の発音すらできんし、ロシア語も読めんので、理由は不明。この作品は何度も映画化されているので、ひとつぐらい見てもいいかな。
As the world watched Stalin and Hitler carve up the East, the Vozhd was probing the submissions of his comrades by investigating and sometimes killing their wives. His fragile trust in women was irreparably undermined by Nadya’s suicide but this had been exacerbated by his own destruction of the wives of Enemies. As Khrushchev said, he became interested in other men’s wives for the unusual reason that they were possible spies rather than mistresses. (p. 281)
Polina Moltova, the First Lady, was in danger. She was now Commissar of Fishing, a CC candidate member and mistress of her perfume empire. Yet Beria now started investigating her, discovering ‘vandals’ and ‘saboteurs’ secreted in her staff. She had ‘unknowingly facilitated their espionage’. Stalin may have been sending another anti-Semitic signal to Hitler.
On 10 August, when Stalin and Molotov were plotting their diplomatic somersaults, the Politburo indicted Polina…. On 24 October, she was relieved of her Commissariat, reprimanded for ‘levity and hastiness’ but declared innocent of ‘calumnies’…. Stalin and Beria considered kidnapping and murdering her. She was lucky to be alive.
On 25 October 1938, Beria arrested President Kalinin’s wife (Ekaterina Ivanovna). In a land where the Head of State’s wife was in prison, no one was safe from the Party…. [She and her friend] were bugged grumbling about Stalin’s blood lust. The lady friend was executed, Kalinina sent into exile, like Budyonny’s wife before her…. Not everyone was as lucky as Molotova and Kalinina.
In April 1937, Dr Bronka Poskrebysheva, twenty-seven, pretty wife of the chef de cabinet,… came to [see Stalin] to ask for the release of her arrested brother Metalikov, the Kremlin doctor, indirectly related through his wife to Trotsky…. Stalin hated women pleading for relatives though one of the tragedies of Soviet life at this time was that women did beg potentates for the lives of their loved ones, offering anything they could, even their bodies. Bronka’s mission failed. She was terrified of being tarred with the Trotskyite brush.
… But Bronka did not give up. On 27 April 1939, she called Beria and asked if she could come to discuss her brother. She was never seen again.
… [Stalin, Beria and Poskrebyshev] met, possibly around midnight on 3 May…. Beria produced a confession implicating Bronka…. Poskrebyshev begged Stalin to release her….
‘Don’t worry, we’ll find you another wife,’ Stalin supposedly replied…. After two years, Bronka was shot aged just thirty-one as the Germans approached Moscow. (pp. 283-284)
「パイオニア・マヤ」
Before he turned to wantonly kill another of his friend’s wives, Stalin capriciously saved two old friends from death…. [Sergo] Kavtaradze consistently joined the oppositions yet Stalin always forgave him. Arrested in the late twenties, Stalin brought him back and ordered Kaganovich to help him. He was arrested again in late 1936, appearing on Yezhov’s death-lists. His wife (Princess Sofia Vachnadze, whose godmother had been Empress Maria Fyodorovna, Nicholas II’s mother) was also arrested. His daughter Maya, then eleven, thought both parents were already dead but she courageously wrote to Stalin to beg for their lives, signing her letters: ‘Pioneer Maya Kavtaradze’. Both Kavtaradzes were tortured but… their lives were spared. Now, in late 1939, ‘Pioneer Kavtaradze’s letters reminded Stalin to ask Beria if his old friend was still alive.
Delivered to the Hotel Lux, [Kavtaradze] found his wife was there, a frail shadow of her former self – but alive. Their daughter arrived from Tiflis. Soon afterwards, Kavtaradze was called: ‘Comrade Stalin is waiting for you….’….
A few weeks later, the [Kavtaradze] family received a bizarre and revealing visitation (by Stalin and Beria).
‘Ah, it’s you – “Pioneer Kavtaradze.”’
Maya was charmed: ‘He was so kind, so gentle – he kissed me on the cheek and I looked into his honey-coloured, hazel, gleaming eyes,’ she recalls, ‘but I was so anxious.’ (pp. 284-285)
Stalin appointed Kavtaradze to publishing job that involved another prisoner, Shalva Nutsibidze, a celebrated Georgian philosopher…. While in jail, Nutsibidze started translating the Georgian epic poem by Rustaveli, The Knight in the Panther Skin, into Russian. Every day, his work was taken from him and returned marked with the pen of anonymous editor.
… Nutsibidze was released and, on 20 October 1940, Kavtaradze picked him up in a limousine and the two ‘lucky stiffs’ drove to the Little Corner to report to Poskrebyshev on the Rustaveli translation. When they were shown into the office, Stalin was smiling at them:
‘You’re Professor Nutsibidze?’ he said. ‘You’ve been offended a bit but let’s not rake up the past,’…. ‘… I take great pleasure in being your editor.’ He then invited the two to dinner…. (p. 286)
イェゾフの処刑
On 16 January 1940, Stalin signed 346 death sentences, a list of the tragic flotsam of the outstanding talents of the arts, such as Babel, theatre director Meyerhold, and Yezhov’s lover, the journalist Koltsov (on whom Karpov in Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls is based), as well as Yezhov himself with his innocent brother, nephews and socialite mistress, Glikina, and the fallen magnate Eikhe.
… At 1.30 a.m. on 27 January 1940, Babel was shot and cremated.
When Beria had convinced himself he could not get a confession [from Eikhe]… he ordered… to lead him away to be shot.’
It was now Yezhov’s turn. On 1 February, Beria called his predecessor to his office at Sukhanovka to propose that if he confessed at his trial, Stalin would spare him. To his meager credit, Yezhov refused: ‘It’s better to leave this earth as an honourable man.’
On 2 February, Ulrikh tried him in Beria’s office…. He denied all charges of spying for what he called ‘Polish landowners… English lords and Japanese samurai’ but ‘… my fate is obvious,’….
When Ulrikh pronounced the sentence, Yezhov toppled over but was caught by his guards, loaded into a Black Crow in the early hours of 3 February and driven to his special execution yard…. (pp. 287-288)
… [b]ut after the war, Stalin admitted: ‘One can’t believe a lot of evidence from 1937. Yezhov couldn’t run NKVD properly and anti-Soviet elements penetrated it. They destroyed some honest people, our best cadres.’
Looking back, he also questioned Beria’s Terror: ‘Beria runs too many cases and everyone confesses.’ But Stalin was always aware that the NKVD invented evidence…. [N]o ruler has supervised his secret police as intimately as he.
…. Stalin’s brother-in-law Stanislas Redens (implicated by Yezhov) was shot on 12 February, 1940. (pp. 288-289)
日本語の「罪と罰」関連サイトを見ると……、あれ、カタカナでは、“Raskolnikov” を「ラスコールニコフ」ではなく、「ラスコーリニコフ」としているようだ。キリル文字の発音すらできんし、ロシア語も読めんので、理由は不明。この作品は何度も映画化されているので、ひとつぐらい見てもいいかな。
Feels Like All Nerves are Running Wild
教わった５つの「Recognitions」を呪文のように順に心でつぶやく。入り込もうとする邪念や「無関係な絵」は振り払う。何とか落ち着こうとするんだけど、状況によってはまったくこれが容易ではない。「対人恐怖」というか、「パニック」なのか。顔面が紅潮する（hot flash）異常な緊張度。これがさらにひどくなると、気絶する。当たり前にできるはずのことができなくなるという恐怖と罪悪感と羞恥。病気だからと言って「大目に」見てくれない社会……。それがまた気分を悪化させる。
Tomlinson のアパートにいた頃だから、４年ほど以前のことだと思う。夜中に「自分のことを理解してくれるには日記を読んでほしい」と友人にＳＭＳしたことがある。その友人は遺書が届いたと思って、すぐに返信してくれた。その時、どこまで「本気」だったのか自分でもわからないが、「叫び」であったことを否定できない。
Tomlinson のアパートにいた頃だから、４年ほど以前のことだと思う。夜中に「自分のことを理解してくれるには日記を読んでほしい」と友人にＳＭＳしたことがある。その友人は遺書が届いたと思って、すぐに返信してくれた。その時、どこまで「本気」だったのか自分でもわからないが、「叫び」であったことを否定できない。
Manhattan Dream and Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact
深夜２時間ほど、「リラックス」していた。眠ってはいなかった。昨日は、朝かと思って目を開けたら午後３時半だった。何それ？
団体でニューヨークに行った夢だった。公園で野球。ピッチャーとキャッチャーの間に大きな木が１本あって、「何でこんな場所、選んだの」と不思議がる。硬球だと思ったらゴムボールで、このボールが飛び跳ねて走り回った。グループには、昔の同僚で日系三世のＧや（確か）アーカンソー州出身のＭがいた。Ｍはバイクで来ていた。
１階が小さな雑貨屋になっているホテルの５階に泊っていた。ロビーには雑貨屋の前の細い通路を抜けたところにあるエレベーターで行く。商談のための訪問で、母親と兄も同行していた。
ホテルの窓からは大きな建物も見えるが、大通りらしきものはなく、マンハッタンにしては田舎の景色。夕食には地元に住む日本人の若者数人も参加した。和食レストランだったが、アルコール飲料の値段が高くてほとんど注文できなかった。
たいしたことのない町のメーンストリートは坂道で、上りきった先には森が見えた。「あの森を越えるとKalamazoo だ」とあり得ないことをＧに話していた。彼は「仕事が終われば、行ってみればいいじゃないか」と応じた。自分は「いやいや、Kalamazoo な訳がない」と思い直す。「そうか、間にマサチューセッツがあるからな（本当はもっとあるのに）。じゃ、Albany に行けばいい」。「うん、ここから３時間ほどだから」。
ヘンな夢だったが、悪夢ではなかった。みんないい人だったし。
“Stalin”
Yet nationality always mattered in Soviet politics, however internationalist the Party claimed to be…. In 1937, 5.7 per cent of the Party was Jewish yet they formed a majority of the Government. Lenin himself (who was partly Jewish by ancestry) said that if the Commissar was Jewish, the deputy should be Russian: Stalin followed the rule. (p. 270)
Stalin realized that, while he had to be seen to oppose anti-Semitism, his Jews were one obstacle to rapprochement with Hitler, particularly Litvinov (Wallach). Many Jewish Bolsheviks used Russian pseudonyms….
The removal of the Jews was a signal to Hitler – but Stalin always sent double messages: Molotov appointed Solomon Lozovsky, a Jew, as one of his deputies.
英仏の怠慢。独ソ不可侵条約の締結
… Ironically the Polish [border] guarantee [by Britain and France of 31 March 1939] increased Stalin’s doubt about the depth of this British commitment: if Hitler invaded Poland, what was to stop ‘perfidious Albion’ from using the guarantee as a mere bargaining chip to negotiate another Munich-style deal, leaving Hitler on his borders?
Britain and France had dispatched a hapless and ludicrously low-level delegation to Moscow by slow steamship to offer an alliance but no guarantee of Soviet frontiers and no freedom of action in the Baltics…. [The delegation] arrived in Leningrad on the night of 9-10 August, the German-Russian flirtation was getting serious…. (pp. 271-272)
…. Hitler decided to invade Poland on 26 August: suddenly, the agreement with Stalin was desperately necessary. The meeting with the Western powers only got started on 12 August but the gap between what the West was willing to offer and the price Stalin demanded, was unbridgeable. That day, the Russians signaled to the Germans that they were ready to start negotiations, even on the dismemberment of Poland. On the 14th, Hitler decided to send Ribbentrop, his Foreign Minister, to Moscow…. On the 17th, Voroshilov proposed a treaty of mutual military assistance to the British and French but added that there was no point to continuing the discussion until they had persuaded the Poles and Romanians to allow the passage of Soviet troops in the event of a German attack….
‘Enough of these games!’ Stalin told Molotov. On the afternoon of Saturday the 19th, Molotov hurriedly summoned [the German Ambassador, Count Friedrich Werner] Schulenburg, handing him a draft non-aggression pact…. Having signed the trade treaty that Stalin had specified was necessary before the real business could begin, the Germans, whose deadline was fast approaching, waited with a gambler’s anticipation. Hitler shrewdly decided to cut the Gordian knot of mutual trust and prestige by personally addressing Stalin in a telegram dated 20 August: ‘Dear Mr. Stalin.'…
Far to the east, that Sunday the 20th, Georgi Zhukov, commander of the Soviet army on the Khalokin-Gol River, launched a formidable cannonade against the Japanese, then attacked across the front. By the 23rd, the Japanese were defeated with losses as high as 61,000 men, a bloody nose that was enough to dissuade them from attacking Russia again. （ノモンハン事件）
At 3 p.m. on Monday the 21st, Molotov received Schulenburg who passed on Hitler’s request for a meeting on 23rd. Two hours later, he an Stalin agreed to the historic visit of Ribbentrop…. At 7 p.m. next day, Voroshilov dismissed the British and French: ‘Let’s wait until everything has been cleared up…’
Stalin’s reply reached Hitler at eight-thirty that evening: ‘Marvelous! I congratulate you’ declaimed Hitler, adding with the flashiness of the entertainer: ‘I have the world in my pocket.’
When they sat down at the table, the Russians, with their interpreter V.N. Pavlov, on one side, and the Germans on the other, Ribbentrop declared: ‘Germany demands nothing from Russia – only peace and trade.’…
[On Tuesday, 22 August, t]hey swiftly agreed to the terms of their pact which was designed to divide Poland, Latvia, Estonia, Finland and Bessarabia in Romania, though Hitler kept Lithuania….
By 2 a.m. on 24 August, the treaty was ready….
…. At 3 a.m., as the excited leaders parted, Stalin told Ribbentrop: ‘I can guarantee on my word of honour that the Soviet Union will not betray its partner.’ (pp. 273-276)
ポーランド侵攻とバルト併合
At 2 a.m. on 1 September, [Alexander] Poskrebyshev handed Stalin a telegram from Berlin informing him that early that evening ‘Polish’ troops (in fact German security forces in disguise) had attacked the German radio station in Gleiwitz…. Germany had invaded Poland…. Stalin planned the Soviet invasion of Poland with Voroshilov, [Marshal B.M.] Shaposhnikov and [Grigory] Kulik, who was to command the front along with Mekhlis, but waited until he had secured an end to the war with Japan first. At 2 a.m. on 17 September, Stalin… told Schulenburg: ‘At 6 a.m., four hours from now, the Red Army will cross into Poland.’
… [Soviet invasion of Poland] unleashed depredations on the Polish population every bit as cruel and tragic as those of the Nazis. [Ukrainian First Secretary] Khrushchev ruthlessly suppressed any sections of the population who might oppose Soviet power: priests, officers, noblemen, intellectuals were kidnapped, murdered and deported to eliminate the very existence of Poland. By November 1940, one tenth of the population or 1.17 million innocents had been deported. Thirty per cent of them were dead by 1941; 60,000 were arrested and 50,000 shot…. (pp. 277-278)
At 5 p.m. on Wednesday 27 September, Ribbentrop flew back to negotiate the notorious protocols, so secret that Molotov was still denying their existence thirty years later. By 10 p.m., he was at the Kremlin in talks with Stalin and Molotov…. Stalin wanted Lithuania. Ribbentrop telegraphed Hitler for his permission so the talks were delayed until 3 p.m. the next day. But Hitler’s message had not arrived by the time Ribbentrop returned to negotiate the cartological details. (p. 278)
[At the gala dinner of the evening, Stalin] toasted Kaganovich, ‘our People’s Commissar of Railways’. Stalin could have toasted the Jewish magnate across the table but he deliberately rose and circled the table to clink the glasses so that Ribbentrop had to follow suit and drink to a Jew, and irony that amused Stalin…. (p. 279)
… At the end of the dinner, Stalin and Molotov excused themselves as the Germans were dispatched off to the Bolshoi to watch Swan Lake. As he left, Stalin whispered to Kaganovich, ‘We must win time.’ They then walked upstairs where the Estonian Foreign Minister miserably waited for Stalin to emasculate his little Baltic nation. Molotov demanded a Soviet garrison of 35,000 troops, more than the entire Estonian army.
‘Come on, Molotov, you’re rather harsh on our friends,’ said Stalin, suggesting 25,000 but the effect was much the same. Having swallowed a country during the first act of Swan Lake, Stalin returned to the Germans at midnight for a final session during which Hitler telephoned his agreement to the Lithuanian concession.
By 3 October, all three Baltic States had agreed to Soviet garrisons. Stalin and Molotov turned their guns and threats on the fourth Baltic country in their sphere of influence, Finland, which they expected to buckle like the others. (pp. 279-280)
団体でニューヨークに行った夢だった。公園で野球。ピッチャーとキャッチャーの間に大きな木が１本あって、「何でこんな場所、選んだの」と不思議がる。硬球だと思ったらゴムボールで、このボールが飛び跳ねて走り回った。グループには、昔の同僚で日系三世のＧや（確か）アーカンソー州出身のＭがいた。Ｍはバイクで来ていた。
１階が小さな雑貨屋になっているホテルの５階に泊っていた。ロビーには雑貨屋の前の細い通路を抜けたところにあるエレベーターで行く。商談のための訪問で、母親と兄も同行していた。
ホテルの窓からは大きな建物も見えるが、大通りらしきものはなく、マンハッタンにしては田舎の景色。夕食には地元に住む日本人の若者数人も参加した。和食レストランだったが、アルコール飲料の値段が高くてほとんど注文できなかった。
たいしたことのない町のメーンストリートは坂道で、上りきった先には森が見えた。「あの森を越えるとKalamazoo だ」とあり得ないことをＧに話していた。彼は「仕事が終われば、行ってみればいいじゃないか」と応じた。自分は「いやいや、Kalamazoo な訳がない」と思い直す。「そうか、間にマサチューセッツがあるからな（本当はもっとあるのに）。じゃ、Albany に行けばいい」。「うん、ここから３時間ほどだから」。
ヘンな夢だったが、悪夢ではなかった。みんないい人だったし。
“Stalin”
Yet nationality always mattered in Soviet politics, however internationalist the Party claimed to be…. In 1937, 5.7 per cent of the Party was Jewish yet they formed a majority of the Government. Lenin himself (who was partly Jewish by ancestry) said that if the Commissar was Jewish, the deputy should be Russian: Stalin followed the rule. (p. 270)
Stalin realized that, while he had to be seen to oppose anti-Semitism, his Jews were one obstacle to rapprochement with Hitler, particularly Litvinov (Wallach). Many Jewish Bolsheviks used Russian pseudonyms….
The removal of the Jews was a signal to Hitler – but Stalin always sent double messages: Molotov appointed Solomon Lozovsky, a Jew, as one of his deputies.
英仏の怠慢。独ソ不可侵条約の締結
… Ironically the Polish [border] guarantee [by Britain and France of 31 March 1939] increased Stalin’s doubt about the depth of this British commitment: if Hitler invaded Poland, what was to stop ‘perfidious Albion’ from using the guarantee as a mere bargaining chip to negotiate another Munich-style deal, leaving Hitler on his borders?
Britain and France had dispatched a hapless and ludicrously low-level delegation to Moscow by slow steamship to offer an alliance but no guarantee of Soviet frontiers and no freedom of action in the Baltics…. [The delegation] arrived in Leningrad on the night of 9-10 August, the German-Russian flirtation was getting serious…. (pp. 271-272)
…. Hitler decided to invade Poland on 26 August: suddenly, the agreement with Stalin was desperately necessary. The meeting with the Western powers only got started on 12 August but the gap between what the West was willing to offer and the price Stalin demanded, was unbridgeable. That day, the Russians signaled to the Germans that they were ready to start negotiations, even on the dismemberment of Poland. On the 14th, Hitler decided to send Ribbentrop, his Foreign Minister, to Moscow…. On the 17th, Voroshilov proposed a treaty of mutual military assistance to the British and French but added that there was no point to continuing the discussion until they had persuaded the Poles and Romanians to allow the passage of Soviet troops in the event of a German attack….
‘Enough of these games!’ Stalin told Molotov. On the afternoon of Saturday the 19th, Molotov hurriedly summoned [the German Ambassador, Count Friedrich Werner] Schulenburg, handing him a draft non-aggression pact…. Having signed the trade treaty that Stalin had specified was necessary before the real business could begin, the Germans, whose deadline was fast approaching, waited with a gambler’s anticipation. Hitler shrewdly decided to cut the Gordian knot of mutual trust and prestige by personally addressing Stalin in a telegram dated 20 August: ‘Dear Mr. Stalin.'…
Far to the east, that Sunday the 20th, Georgi Zhukov, commander of the Soviet army on the Khalokin-Gol River, launched a formidable cannonade against the Japanese, then attacked across the front. By the 23rd, the Japanese were defeated with losses as high as 61,000 men, a bloody nose that was enough to dissuade them from attacking Russia again. （ノモンハン事件）
At 3 p.m. on Monday the 21st, Molotov received Schulenburg who passed on Hitler’s request for a meeting on 23rd. Two hours later, he an Stalin agreed to the historic visit of Ribbentrop…. At 7 p.m. next day, Voroshilov dismissed the British and French: ‘Let’s wait until everything has been cleared up…’
Stalin’s reply reached Hitler at eight-thirty that evening: ‘Marvelous! I congratulate you’ declaimed Hitler, adding with the flashiness of the entertainer: ‘I have the world in my pocket.’
When they sat down at the table, the Russians, with their interpreter V.N. Pavlov, on one side, and the Germans on the other, Ribbentrop declared: ‘Germany demands nothing from Russia – only peace and trade.’…
[On Tuesday, 22 August, t]hey swiftly agreed to the terms of their pact which was designed to divide Poland, Latvia, Estonia, Finland and Bessarabia in Romania, though Hitler kept Lithuania….
By 2 a.m. on 24 August, the treaty was ready….
…. At 3 a.m., as the excited leaders parted, Stalin told Ribbentrop: ‘I can guarantee on my word of honour that the Soviet Union will not betray its partner.’ (pp. 273-276)
ポーランド侵攻とバルト併合
At 2 a.m. on 1 September, [Alexander] Poskrebyshev handed Stalin a telegram from Berlin informing him that early that evening ‘Polish’ troops (in fact German security forces in disguise) had attacked the German radio station in Gleiwitz…. Germany had invaded Poland…. Stalin planned the Soviet invasion of Poland with Voroshilov, [Marshal B.M.] Shaposhnikov and [Grigory] Kulik, who was to command the front along with Mekhlis, but waited until he had secured an end to the war with Japan first. At 2 a.m. on 17 September, Stalin… told Schulenburg: ‘At 6 a.m., four hours from now, the Red Army will cross into Poland.’
… [Soviet invasion of Poland] unleashed depredations on the Polish population every bit as cruel and tragic as those of the Nazis. [Ukrainian First Secretary] Khrushchev ruthlessly suppressed any sections of the population who might oppose Soviet power: priests, officers, noblemen, intellectuals were kidnapped, murdered and deported to eliminate the very existence of Poland. By November 1940, one tenth of the population or 1.17 million innocents had been deported. Thirty per cent of them were dead by 1941; 60,000 were arrested and 50,000 shot…. (pp. 277-278)
At 5 p.m. on Wednesday 27 September, Ribbentrop flew back to negotiate the notorious protocols, so secret that Molotov was still denying their existence thirty years later. By 10 p.m., he was at the Kremlin in talks with Stalin and Molotov…. Stalin wanted Lithuania. Ribbentrop telegraphed Hitler for his permission so the talks were delayed until 3 p.m. the next day. But Hitler’s message had not arrived by the time Ribbentrop returned to negotiate the cartological details. (p. 278)
[At the gala dinner of the evening, Stalin] toasted Kaganovich, ‘our People’s Commissar of Railways’. Stalin could have toasted the Jewish magnate across the table but he deliberately rose and circled the table to clink the glasses so that Ribbentrop had to follow suit and drink to a Jew, and irony that amused Stalin…. (p. 279)
… At the end of the dinner, Stalin and Molotov excused themselves as the Germans were dispatched off to the Bolshoi to watch Swan Lake. As he left, Stalin whispered to Kaganovich, ‘We must win time.’ They then walked upstairs where the Estonian Foreign Minister miserably waited for Stalin to emasculate his little Baltic nation. Molotov demanded a Soviet garrison of 35,000 troops, more than the entire Estonian army.
‘Come on, Molotov, you’re rather harsh on our friends,’ said Stalin, suggesting 25,000 but the effect was much the same. Having swallowed a country during the first act of Swan Lake, Stalin returned to the Germans at midnight for a final session during which Hitler telephoned his agreement to the Lithuanian concession.
By 3 October, all three Baltic States had agreed to Soviet garrisons. Stalin and Molotov turned their guns and threats on the fourth Baltic country in their sphere of influence, Finland, which they expected to buckle like the others. (pp. 279-280)
Monday, January 29, 2007
Palestinians!!!
PALESTINIANS! YOU HAVE NO TIME TO WASTE BY INFIGHTING. THINK ABOUT YOUR HOMELAND!! OTHERWISE THE WORLD WOULD THINK YOU DO NOT WANT YOUR OWN STATE.
Sunday, January 28, 2007
Taboos Broken: No Nightmare
前回の催眠セッションでずいぶん「吐き出して」から、悪夢はなし。気分も悪くない。吐き出した内容は忘れ去っていたことではなく、その場面を幾度となくフラッシュバックとして経験したものばかり。こういうことは実際には、長い時間をかけてでも、疑わうことが絶対的に不可能な人に少しずつ吐露するのがいいのだと思う。その恩恵がない人たちは、催眠療法などの方法に頼らざるを得ない。シンガポールで自分のことを知っている人は２人しかいない。つい最近までは１人だった。
リラックスできる文章を読もうと思って選んだのが「罪と罰」というのもどうかと思うけど……。ロシア文学をこの歳になって始めて体験した。どの登場人物にも必ずガクガク震える場面がある。ソーニャは常に震えていた。リラックスにはまったく役立たないが、集中・没頭させてもらった。
リラックスできる文章を読もうと思って選んだのが「罪と罰」というのもどうかと思うけど……。ロシア文学をこの歳になって始めて体験した。どの登場人物にも必ずガクガク震える場面がある。ソーニャは常に震えていた。リラックスにはまったく役立たないが、集中・没頭させてもらった。
Raskolnikov Tuned Himself in... and to Siberia
カネはあるが道徳心に欠けるスヴィドリガイロフは、カテリーナの子供たちの孤児院費用を負担し、「将来、必要になるはずだ」とソーニャにも援助する。ロマノーヴァに求愛するが嫌悪され、ピストルで撃たれる。弾ははずれたが、その後、自ら頭を撃ち抜いて自殺する。自首を決心したラスコールニコフは母を宿泊先をたずね、別れを告げる。川に飛び込んで自殺することが頭をよぎるが、アパートに戻る。訪れた妹にも別れを言う。ソーニャからは約束通りに十字架を受け取る。
警察に出向いたラスコールニコフだったが、いったんは建物を出ようとする。そこでソーニャの姿を見つけて思い直し、自首する。
判決はシベリアで８年。結婚したラズミーヒンとロマノーヴァは、母から真実を隠す。しかし、何か恐ろしいことが息子の身に起こっていることを感じ、ラスコールニコフのことを案じながら心身ともに疲れ果て命を閉じる。ソーニャはラスコールニコフを追って、シベリアでの生活を始める。
ひとりのセリフが数ページにも渡り、ロシア人は何と饒舌なのかと思った。話を始めると止まらないロシア人と言えば、ゴルバチョフ元ソビエト大統領だが、登場する男性の全員が彼のような感じ。またドストエフスキーの心理描写はたいへん微細だ。人間の心情を文章で表現するとこのようになるのだろうか。人はもっといい加減なようにも思うが、それは自分の未熟さが原因なのだろう。脇役だが、ナスターシャ（Nastasya）の雰囲気がいい。荒っぽいが人の心のわかる人だ。腐敗した首都を背景に、話には社会主義の理想も見え隠れし、またドイツ人、ユダヤ人への偏見も見て取れる。
警察に出向いたラスコールニコフだったが、いったんは建物を出ようとする。そこでソーニャの姿を見つけて思い直し、自首する。
判決はシベリアで８年。結婚したラズミーヒンとロマノーヴァは、母から真実を隠す。しかし、何か恐ろしいことが息子の身に起こっていることを感じ、ラスコールニコフのことを案じながら心身ともに疲れ果て命を閉じる。ソーニャはラスコールニコフを追って、シベリアでの生活を始める。
ひとりのセリフが数ページにも渡り、ロシア人は何と饒舌なのかと思った。話を始めると止まらないロシア人と言えば、ゴルバチョフ元ソビエト大統領だが、登場する男性の全員が彼のような感じ。またドストエフスキーの心理描写はたいへん微細だ。人間の心情を文章で表現するとこのようになるのだろうか。人はもっといい加減なようにも思うが、それは自分の未熟さが原因なのだろう。脇役だが、ナスターシャ（Nastasya）の雰囲気がいい。荒っぽいが人の心のわかる人だ。腐敗した首都を背景に、話には社会主義の理想も見え隠れし、またドイツ人、ユダヤ人への偏見も見て取れる。
Martha!
Found a 1983 live recording of Beethoven’s 1st piano concerto on “YouTube” (Argerich, Ozawa and Symphoniecrchester des Bayerischen).
It was in Geneva in 1957 that Martha Argerich played Prokofiev for the first time. She lived with a room-mate in a small studio in the city’s red light district. While she was half asleep in the morning, her room-mate Cucucha was learning Prokofiev’s Third. Argerich somehow learned the piece in the state of half-consciousness that precedes awakening. According to Charles Dutoit, who met her at the time, Martha would get up in the early afternoon, drink three or four espressos, smoke five cigarettes, then sit at the piano and play the concerto by ear. “I even learned Cucucha’s sight-reading mistakes”, remembers Argerich. (Julian Haylock)
彼女の生活はまだこのようだろうか？だったらちょっとスゴイ。
It was in Geneva in 1957 that Martha Argerich played Prokofiev for the first time. She lived with a room-mate in a small studio in the city’s red light district. While she was half asleep in the morning, her room-mate Cucucha was learning Prokofiev’s Third. Argerich somehow learned the piece in the state of half-consciousness that precedes awakening. According to Charles Dutoit, who met her at the time, Martha would get up in the early afternoon, drink three or four espressos, smoke five cigarettes, then sit at the piano and play the concerto by ear. “I even learned Cucucha’s sight-reading mistakes”, remembers Argerich. (Julian Haylock)
彼女の生活はまだこのようだろうか？だったらちょっとスゴイ。
Stalin's Poker Game Begins
スターリンのポーカー・ゲームとユダヤ人問題。
… Stalin emerged from the Terror more paranoid and more confident, a state of mind that made him, if anything, less equipped to analyse the dangerous international situation…. (p. 267)
Stalin and Molotov developed into an international double act of increasing subtlety, masters of the old ‘good cop, bad cop’ routine. Stalin was always more radical and reckless, Molotov the stolid analyst of the possible, but neither saw any contradiction between imperial expansionism and their Marxist crusade: on the contrary, the former was the best way to empower the latter.
Europe in early 1939 was, in Stalin’s own words, a ‘poker game’ with three players, in which each hoped to persuade the other two to destroy one another and leave the third to take the winnings. The three players were the Fascists of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany, the Capitalists of Neville Chamberlain’s Britain allied with Daladier’s France – and the Bolsheviks. Though the Georgian admired the flamboyant brutality of the Austrian, he appreciated the danger of a resurgent Germany militarily, and the hostility of Fascism.
Stalin regarded the Western democracies as at least as dangerous as Germany…. He instinctively felt he could work with Hitler. As soon as the ‘Austrian corporal’ took power, Stalin began probing gently, advised by Karl Radek, his German expert, and using as personal emissaries, Abel Yenukidze and David Kandelaki. The sensitivity of these discussions was absolute since Stalin was simultaneously shooting thousands as German agents, with the country in a frenzy of Prussophobic war preparations. The legates were shot.
…. [After the Munich agreement] Stalin was sure that [Western democracies] were willing to destroy Soviet Russia…. Stalin warned the West that the Soviet Union would not be left to ‘pick their chestnut out of the fire’. The way forward was a division of the world into ‘spheres’. This was an oblique signal to Germany that he would deal with whoever would deal with him. Berlin noticed the change…. (p. 268)
Meanwhile, Molotov and Beria were terrorizing a meeting of their worldly diplomats, many of Jewish Bolsheviks at home in the great capitals of Europe….
The press officer of the Foreign Commissariat, Yevgeni Gnedin, himself a piece of revolutionary history as the son of Parvus, Lenin’s financier and middle man with Kaiserine Germany, was arrested by [Molotov’s deputy, Vladimir] Dekanozov and taken to Beria’s office where he was ordered to confess to spying. When he refused, Beria ordered him to lie on the floor while the Caucasian ‘giant’ Kobulov beat him on the skull with blackjacks…. In July, Beria ordered Prince Tsereteli to kill the Soviet Ambassador to China, Bovkun-Luganets, and his wife, in cold blood in a faked car accident (the method of killing those too eminent to just disappear). (p. 269)
Stalin’s diplomatic Terror was designed to appeal to Hitler: ‘Purge the ministry of Jews,’ he said. ‘Clean out the “synagogue.”’ ‘Thank God for these words,’ Molotov (married to a Jewess) explained. ‘Jews formed an absolute majority and many ambassadors…”
Stalin was an anti-Semite by most definition but until after the war, it was more a Russian mannerism than a dangerous obsession…. But after the war, the creation of Israel, the increased self-consciousness among Soviet Jews and the Cold War with America combined with his old prejudice to turn Stalin into a murderous anti-Semite.
…. [u]ntil the forties, Stalin was as Polonophobic as he was anti-Semitic.
He was always suspicious because the Jews lacked a homeland which made them ‘mystical, intangible, otherworldly’. Yet Kaganovich (a Jew) insisted that Stalin’s view was formed by the Jewishness of his enemies – Trotsky, Zinoviev and Kamenev. On the other hand, most of the women around him and many of his closest collaborators, from Yagoda to Mekhlis, were Jewish. The difference is obvious: he hated the intellectual Trotsky but had no problem with the cobbler Kaganovich.
Stalin was aware that his regime had to stand against anti-Semitism and we find in his own notes a reminder to give a speech about it: he called it ‘cannibalism’, made it a criminal offence, and regularly criticized anti-Semites. Stalin founded a Jewish homeland, Birobizhan, on the inhospitable Chinese border but boasted, ‘The Tsar gave the Jews no land, but we will.’ (pp. 269-270)
… Stalin emerged from the Terror more paranoid and more confident, a state of mind that made him, if anything, less equipped to analyse the dangerous international situation…. (p. 267)
Stalin and Molotov developed into an international double act of increasing subtlety, masters of the old ‘good cop, bad cop’ routine. Stalin was always more radical and reckless, Molotov the stolid analyst of the possible, but neither saw any contradiction between imperial expansionism and their Marxist crusade: on the contrary, the former was the best way to empower the latter.
Europe in early 1939 was, in Stalin’s own words, a ‘poker game’ with three players, in which each hoped to persuade the other two to destroy one another and leave the third to take the winnings. The three players were the Fascists of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany, the Capitalists of Neville Chamberlain’s Britain allied with Daladier’s France – and the Bolsheviks. Though the Georgian admired the flamboyant brutality of the Austrian, he appreciated the danger of a resurgent Germany militarily, and the hostility of Fascism.
Stalin regarded the Western democracies as at least as dangerous as Germany…. He instinctively felt he could work with Hitler. As soon as the ‘Austrian corporal’ took power, Stalin began probing gently, advised by Karl Radek, his German expert, and using as personal emissaries, Abel Yenukidze and David Kandelaki. The sensitivity of these discussions was absolute since Stalin was simultaneously shooting thousands as German agents, with the country in a frenzy of Prussophobic war preparations. The legates were shot.
…. [After the Munich agreement] Stalin was sure that [Western democracies] were willing to destroy Soviet Russia…. Stalin warned the West that the Soviet Union would not be left to ‘pick their chestnut out of the fire’. The way forward was a division of the world into ‘spheres’. This was an oblique signal to Germany that he would deal with whoever would deal with him. Berlin noticed the change…. (p. 268)
Meanwhile, Molotov and Beria were terrorizing a meeting of their worldly diplomats, many of Jewish Bolsheviks at home in the great capitals of Europe….
The press officer of the Foreign Commissariat, Yevgeni Gnedin, himself a piece of revolutionary history as the son of Parvus, Lenin’s financier and middle man with Kaiserine Germany, was arrested by [Molotov’s deputy, Vladimir] Dekanozov and taken to Beria’s office where he was ordered to confess to spying. When he refused, Beria ordered him to lie on the floor while the Caucasian ‘giant’ Kobulov beat him on the skull with blackjacks…. In July, Beria ordered Prince Tsereteli to kill the Soviet Ambassador to China, Bovkun-Luganets, and his wife, in cold blood in a faked car accident (the method of killing those too eminent to just disappear). (p. 269)
Stalin’s diplomatic Terror was designed to appeal to Hitler: ‘Purge the ministry of Jews,’ he said. ‘Clean out the “synagogue.”’ ‘Thank God for these words,’ Molotov (married to a Jewess) explained. ‘Jews formed an absolute majority and many ambassadors…”
Stalin was an anti-Semite by most definition but until after the war, it was more a Russian mannerism than a dangerous obsession…. But after the war, the creation of Israel, the increased self-consciousness among Soviet Jews and the Cold War with America combined with his old prejudice to turn Stalin into a murderous anti-Semite.
…. [u]ntil the forties, Stalin was as Polonophobic as he was anti-Semitic.
He was always suspicious because the Jews lacked a homeland which made them ‘mystical, intangible, otherworldly’. Yet Kaganovich (a Jew) insisted that Stalin’s view was formed by the Jewishness of his enemies – Trotsky, Zinoviev and Kamenev. On the other hand, most of the women around him and many of his closest collaborators, from Yagoda to Mekhlis, were Jewish. The difference is obvious: he hated the intellectual Trotsky but had no problem with the cobbler Kaganovich.
Stalin was aware that his regime had to stand against anti-Semitism and we find in his own notes a reminder to give a speech about it: he called it ‘cannibalism’, made it a criminal offence, and regularly criticized anti-Semites. Stalin founded a Jewish homeland, Birobizhan, on the inhospitable Chinese border but boasted, ‘The Tsar gave the Jews no land, but we will.’ (pp. 269-270)
Saturday, January 27, 2007
Dialogue between Porfiry and Raskolnikov... A Climax
刑事ポルフィーリが「近くを通りかかった」と、ラスコールニコフの部屋を訪れる。「たばこ１本」の時間だけと言いながら、「友人として」事件について語り始める。ペンキ職人のニコライは、誰かのためではなく、苦しむこと自体を崇高とする人間で、犯人ではないと断言する。そして、静かに「殺したのは君だ」。罪を認めて、そして生きることを説く。すでにラスコールニコフが犯人であることを事実とするように話が進むが、彼は自首を拒み、「何かを告白していると思わないでくれ。ただ、好奇心から話を聞いているだけだ」と言う。
Friday, January 26, 2007
XP Reinstalled... Katerina Dies
昨日の午後、ＰＣがいかれた。何かに感染したに違いない。数秒で終わるはずのアクションに30 分以上かかるありさま。Malicious Software Removal Tool （Extended Scan）でも異常が見つからない。このスキャンには５時間以上かかった。いろいろ試したがダメで今日、ⅩＰを再インストールした。全部やり直し。
ソーニャのアパートに出向いたラスコールニコフは、殺害してしまった質屋の妹リザヴェータ（Lizaveta）がソーニャの友人だったことを知る。自分が犯人であることをほのめかし、ソーニャにラザロ復活の部分を新訳聖書から読ませる。翌日、警察でポルフィーリに会うことを決めていたラスコールニコフ。もう一度会えたら、誰が質屋姉妹を殺害したのか話すと言う。彼らが気づいていなかったのは、この話を同じ建物に宿泊していたスヴィドリガイロフにこっそり聞かれてしまったことだ。
警察でポルフィーリは、ラスコールニコフを友人として迎える。事件のことには直接触れない。捜査手法について長々と話すポルフィーリに対してイライラが頂点に達したラスコールニコフは「逮捕するなら、今やれ」と開き直る。ポルフィーリが「秘密を教えよう」と言ったその時、部屋のドアが突然開き、ペンキ職人のニコライ（Nicolai）が「やったのは自分だ」と転げ込んでくる。騒動の中でラスコールニコフが自室に戻ると、「人殺し」と呼んだ例の男がやって来る。ポルフィーリが言った「秘密」とは彼のことで、部屋のしきりの裏側にずっと隠れていたが、ニコライが現れたことで、姿を見せる機会を逸したのだった。
結婚の計画が壊れたルージンは、ペテルグルクで同居しているレベジャートニコフの部屋にソーニャを呼び出し、葬儀費用にしてくれと10 ルーブルを渡す。
マルメラードフの葬儀後の宴席で、高貴な過去をもつという妻カテリーナが、家主のドイツ人女性らに罵声を浴びせる。カテリーナのアパートに現れたルージンは、机に置いていた１万ルーブルがなくなったと、ソーニャに嫌疑をかける。彼女のポケットからは８つ折りにした１万ルーブル札が出てくる。しかし、ルージンの後を追うように部屋にきたレベジャートニコフは、ルージンが１万ルーブル札をこっそりソーニャのポケットに入れたのを目撃したと、彼を激しく糾弾する。部屋を出るソーニャをラスコールニコフが追う。
ソーニャとラスコールニコフ。家族を支えてきた純真な娼婦と誇り高い元学生。ともに貧しいが、心を通じ合わせる。
貧困に脅えるカテリーナは、発狂したように幼い子供３人を外に連れ出し、歌と踊りの大道芸を始める。
「ペトルーシュカを踊れって言ってるんじゃないのよ！」
駆けつけたソーニャとラスコールニコフが彼女を連れ戻そうとするが、肺を病むカテリーナは喀血、そして落命する。
ソーニャのアパートに出向いたラスコールニコフは、殺害してしまった質屋の妹リザヴェータ（Lizaveta）がソーニャの友人だったことを知る。自分が犯人であることをほのめかし、ソーニャにラザロ復活の部分を新訳聖書から読ませる。翌日、警察でポルフィーリに会うことを決めていたラスコールニコフ。もう一度会えたら、誰が質屋姉妹を殺害したのか話すと言う。彼らが気づいていなかったのは、この話を同じ建物に宿泊していたスヴィドリガイロフにこっそり聞かれてしまったことだ。
警察でポルフィーリは、ラスコールニコフを友人として迎える。事件のことには直接触れない。捜査手法について長々と話すポルフィーリに対してイライラが頂点に達したラスコールニコフは「逮捕するなら、今やれ」と開き直る。ポルフィーリが「秘密を教えよう」と言ったその時、部屋のドアが突然開き、ペンキ職人のニコライ（Nicolai）が「やったのは自分だ」と転げ込んでくる。騒動の中でラスコールニコフが自室に戻ると、「人殺し」と呼んだ例の男がやって来る。ポルフィーリが言った「秘密」とは彼のことで、部屋のしきりの裏側にずっと隠れていたが、ニコライが現れたことで、姿を見せる機会を逸したのだった。
結婚の計画が壊れたルージンは、ペテルグルクで同居しているレベジャートニコフの部屋にソーニャを呼び出し、葬儀費用にしてくれと10 ルーブルを渡す。
マルメラードフの葬儀後の宴席で、高貴な過去をもつという妻カテリーナが、家主のドイツ人女性らに罵声を浴びせる。カテリーナのアパートに現れたルージンは、机に置いていた１万ルーブルがなくなったと、ソーニャに嫌疑をかける。彼女のポケットからは８つ折りにした１万ルーブル札が出てくる。しかし、ルージンの後を追うように部屋にきたレベジャートニコフは、ルージンが１万ルーブル札をこっそりソーニャのポケットに入れたのを目撃したと、彼を激しく糾弾する。部屋を出るソーニャをラスコールニコフが追う。
ソーニャとラスコールニコフ。家族を支えてきた純真な娼婦と誇り高い元学生。ともに貧しいが、心を通じ合わせる。
貧困に脅えるカテリーナは、発狂したように幼い子供３人を外に連れ出し、歌と踊りの大道芸を始める。
「ペトルーシュカを踊れって言ってるんじゃないのよ！」
駆けつけたソーニャとラスコールニコフが彼女を連れ戻そうとするが、肺を病むカテリーナは喀血、そして落命する。
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Silent Agitation
また、眠れなかった。昨日も眠ったのは夜が明けてからだった。Epilim（200ミリグラム）２錠にXanax（0.25ミリグラム）が１錠。落ち着こうとしても心がザワザワする。ここに書き残すべき事柄が浮かんだりするが、ベッドから起き上がるともう忘れていたりする。
I Like Myself When...
I’m reading;
I’m writing;
I’m looking at nice handwriting;
I’m looking at nice typeset;
I’m drawing;
I’m deep in “nice” talk;
I was said “Thank you” to;
I’m thinking about something bigger than money;
I’m feeling human warmth;
I can think about nice things about myself
I’m writing;
I’m looking at nice handwriting;
I’m looking at nice typeset;
I’m drawing;
I’m deep in “nice” talk;
I was said “Thank you” to;
I’m thinking about something bigger than money;
I’m feeling human warmth;
I can think about nice things about myself
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
I was a Poor Elevator Operator
昨日、夕食にラーメンを食べに出掛けた夢を見た。何やら複雑なメニューで、「ラーメンとギョーザ」というようにはいかない。どう注文していいのかわからない。隣で食べているおじさんと同じものでもよかったが、それがメニューのどこにあるのかもわからない。何とか注文したようだが、出てきたものはラーメンではなく、半透明の極細麺でスープもない。仕方なくこのまずい麺を食べ始めると、店に元エレベーターボーイで博学だったＤ大学のＭさんが入ってきた。そんな人に限って留年するんだけど。自分が米誌を読むようになったのは、実は彼から得た偶然の影響が大きい。夢で何の話をしていたのか思い出せない。
けさは「河原町阪急」でエレベーターボーイに戻った夢だった。「世界一楽な仕事」と呼んでいたあのアルバイト。前日の夢が残っていたかな。自分のシフト時間に間に合うよう必死で控室に行って、制服に着替えている。出勤シフトノートも昔のものとよく似ていた。四条河原町でＡＴＭも探していた。残高が知りたかったようだ。数百万円の残高かと思ったが、数十万円。それにしても十分な金額だった。カネにおびえているらしい。ＡＴＭの前には知らない男がいて、使い方がわからずに騒いでいた。彼は自分のことを知っている様子。上階から女子行員が降りてきて対応する。「彼のことは知らない」と行員に言うと、彼女には「私を覚えてますか」とたずねられた。以前見た母親が通院している病院の夢に出てきた女性だった（ようだ）。
何年か前だが、河原町阪急をのぞいてみると、もうボーイもガールもいなかった。
けさは「河原町阪急」でエレベーターボーイに戻った夢だった。「世界一楽な仕事」と呼んでいたあのアルバイト。前日の夢が残っていたかな。自分のシフト時間に間に合うよう必死で控室に行って、制服に着替えている。出勤シフトノートも昔のものとよく似ていた。四条河原町でＡＴＭも探していた。残高が知りたかったようだ。数百万円の残高かと思ったが、数十万円。それにしても十分な金額だった。カネにおびえているらしい。ＡＴＭの前には知らない男がいて、使い方がわからずに騒いでいた。彼は自分のことを知っている様子。上階から女子行員が降りてきて対応する。「彼のことは知らない」と行員に言うと、彼女には「私を覚えてますか」とたずねられた。以前見た母親が通院している病院の夢に出てきた女性だった（ようだ）。
何年か前だが、河原町阪急をのぞいてみると、もうボーイもガールもいなかった。
No Hope for Yezhov
皮肉なことに粛清を忠実に実行「しすぎた」Yezhov と彼の周辺に危険が及ぶ。
The darkness began to descend on Yezhov’s family where his silly, sensual wife (Yevgenia) was unwittingly to play the terrible role of black widow spider: most of her lovers were to die….
Yezhov learned that Beria was going to use Yevgenia, an ‘English spy’ from her time in London, against him so he asked for a divorce in September. The divorce was sensible: in other cases, it actually saved the life of the divorcee…. It seems that Yezhov was trying to protect his wife from arrest….
Their world was shrinking daily: Yezhov had managed to have her ex-husband Gladun shot before Beria took control of the NKVD, but another ex-lover, the publisher Uritsky, was being interrogated. He revealed her affair with [Isaac] Babel (a writer). Yezhov’s secretary and friends were arrested too…. (p. 250)
[Yevgenia] signed off [to her letter to Stalin]: ‘I feel like a living corpse. What am I to do? Forgive my letter written in bed.’ Stalin did not reply.
When [Zinaida] Glikina’s arrest made her own inevitable, Yevgenia sent a note bidding Yezhov good bye. On 19 November (1938), she took the Luminal (that Yezhov had given her).
At 11 p.m., as she sank into unconsciousness, Yezhov arrived at the Little Corner, where he found the Politburo with Beria and Malenkov, who attacked hem for five hours. Yevgenia died two days later. Yezhov himself reflected that he had been ‘compelled to sacrifice her to save himself’. (pp. 250-251)
Beria, whom Stalin nicknamed ‘the Prosecutor’, was triumphantly appointed Commissar on 25 November, and summoned his Georgian henchmen to Moscow. Having destroyed the entourages of the Old Bolshevik ‘princes’, Stalin now had to import Beria’s whole gang to destroy Yezhov’s. (p. 252)
… Beria expanded the Terror to include anyone connected to Yezhov, who had not only appointed Stalin’s brother-in-law, Stanislas Redens, to run the NKVD in Kazakhstan but had even requested him as his deputy: this was the kiss of death…. (pp. 255-256)
At Kuntsevo, [Stalin’s son] Vasily heard Beria demand that Stalin let him arrest Redens. ‘But I trust Redens,’ replied Stalin ‘very decisively.’ To Vasily’s surprise, Malenkov supported Beria. This was the beginning of the alliance between the two who would not have pressed the arrest without knowing Stalin’s instincts…. Beria is always blamed for turning Stalin against his other brother-in-law but there was more to it than that. Stalin had removed Redens from the Ukraine in 1932. He was close to Yezhov. And he was a Pole. Stalin listened to Beria and Malenkov and then said: ‘In that case, sort it out at the Central Committee.’ As Svetlana put it, ‘My father would not protect him.’ On the 22nd, Redens was arrested on his way to work and was never seen again. (p. 257)
Svetlana lost another part of her support system: Carolina Til, the dependable housekeeper, that cosy link to her mother, was sacked in the purge of Germans. Beria found her replacement in a niece of his wife Nina from Georgia….
スターリンはNadya の兄の妻で、かつて愛人だったZhenya とよりを戻そうとするが、危険を感じた彼女はさっさと再婚する。
Zhenya Alliluyeva was a widow but she was convinced her husband had been murdered by Beria. Was she guilty about her relationship with Stalin? There is no evidence of this. Her husband had surely known (or chosen not to know) what was going on, but the relationship with Stalin, such as it was, had already cooled in 1938. But now Stalin missed her and made a strange, indirect proposal to her. Beria came to see Zhenya and said: ‘You’re such a nice person, and you’re so fine looking, do you want to move in and be housekeeper at Stalin’s house?’ Usually this is interpreted as a mysterious threat from Beria but it is surely unlikely that he would have made such a proposal without Stalin’s permission, especially since she could have phoned him to discuss it. In Stalin’s mind, a ‘housekeeper’ was his ideal baba, the khozyaika. This was surely a semi-marriage proposal, an awkward attempt to salvage the warmth of the old days from the destruction that he himself had unleashed. It was unforgivably clumsy to send Beria, whom Zhenya loathed, on this sensitive mission but that was typical of Stalin. If one has any doubt about this analysis, Stalin’s reaction to Zhenya’s next move may confirm it.
Zhenya was alarmed, fearing that Beria would frame her for trying to poison Stalin. She swiftly married an old friend, named N.V. Molochnikov, a Jewish engineer whom she had met in Germany, perhaps the lover who had almost broken up her marriage. Stalin was appalled, claiming that it was indecent so soon after Pavel’s death…. (p. 258)
Between 24 February and 16 March 1939, Beria presided over the executions of 413 important prisoners, including Marshal Yegorov and ex-Politburo members, Kosior, Postyshev and Chubar…. Now he suggested to Stalin that they call a halt, or there would be no one left to arrest…. (p. 261)
On 10 March 1939, the 1,900 delegates of the Eighteenth Congress gathered to declare the end of the slaughter that had been a success, if slightly marred by Yezhov’s manic excesses….
Yezhov was on ice yet he still attended the Politburo, sat next to Stalin at the Bolshoi and turned up for work at Water Transport, where he sat through meetings throwing paper darts….
‘Well what do you think of yourself? Are you capable of being a member of the Central Committee?’ Yezhov protested his devotion to the Party and Stalin – he could not imagine what he had done wrong. Since all the other members were being promoted, the dwarf’s bafflement is understandable.
‘Is that so?’ Stalin started mentioning Enemies close to Yezhov.
Yezhov was determined to spread the guilt and avenge his betrayal by destroying Malenkov, whom he now denounced. On 10 April, Stalin ordered Yezhov to attend a meeting to hear these accusations…. Beria and his Georgian prince-executioner, Tsereteli, opened the door and arrested Blackberry, conveying ‘Patient Number One’ to the infirmary inside Sukhanov prison. (pp. 262-263)
そして欧州は戦争へと向かう。
Europe was on the verge of war and Stalin turned his attention to the tightrope walk between Nazi Germany and the Western democracies…. (p. 264)
The darkness began to descend on Yezhov’s family where his silly, sensual wife (Yevgenia) was unwittingly to play the terrible role of black widow spider: most of her lovers were to die….
Yezhov learned that Beria was going to use Yevgenia, an ‘English spy’ from her time in London, against him so he asked for a divorce in September. The divorce was sensible: in other cases, it actually saved the life of the divorcee…. It seems that Yezhov was trying to protect his wife from arrest….
Their world was shrinking daily: Yezhov had managed to have her ex-husband Gladun shot before Beria took control of the NKVD, but another ex-lover, the publisher Uritsky, was being interrogated. He revealed her affair with [Isaac] Babel (a writer). Yezhov’s secretary and friends were arrested too…. (p. 250)
[Yevgenia] signed off [to her letter to Stalin]: ‘I feel like a living corpse. What am I to do? Forgive my letter written in bed.’ Stalin did not reply.
When [Zinaida] Glikina’s arrest made her own inevitable, Yevgenia sent a note bidding Yezhov good bye. On 19 November (1938), she took the Luminal (that Yezhov had given her).
At 11 p.m., as she sank into unconsciousness, Yezhov arrived at the Little Corner, where he found the Politburo with Beria and Malenkov, who attacked hem for five hours. Yevgenia died two days later. Yezhov himself reflected that he had been ‘compelled to sacrifice her to save himself’. (pp. 250-251)
Beria, whom Stalin nicknamed ‘the Prosecutor’, was triumphantly appointed Commissar on 25 November, and summoned his Georgian henchmen to Moscow. Having destroyed the entourages of the Old Bolshevik ‘princes’, Stalin now had to import Beria’s whole gang to destroy Yezhov’s. (p. 252)
… Beria expanded the Terror to include anyone connected to Yezhov, who had not only appointed Stalin’s brother-in-law, Stanislas Redens, to run the NKVD in Kazakhstan but had even requested him as his deputy: this was the kiss of death…. (pp. 255-256)
At Kuntsevo, [Stalin’s son] Vasily heard Beria demand that Stalin let him arrest Redens. ‘But I trust Redens,’ replied Stalin ‘very decisively.’ To Vasily’s surprise, Malenkov supported Beria. This was the beginning of the alliance between the two who would not have pressed the arrest without knowing Stalin’s instincts…. Beria is always blamed for turning Stalin against his other brother-in-law but there was more to it than that. Stalin had removed Redens from the Ukraine in 1932. He was close to Yezhov. And he was a Pole. Stalin listened to Beria and Malenkov and then said: ‘In that case, sort it out at the Central Committee.’ As Svetlana put it, ‘My father would not protect him.’ On the 22nd, Redens was arrested on his way to work and was never seen again. (p. 257)
Svetlana lost another part of her support system: Carolina Til, the dependable housekeeper, that cosy link to her mother, was sacked in the purge of Germans. Beria found her replacement in a niece of his wife Nina from Georgia….
スターリンはNadya の兄の妻で、かつて愛人だったZhenya とよりを戻そうとするが、危険を感じた彼女はさっさと再婚する。
Zhenya Alliluyeva was a widow but she was convinced her husband had been murdered by Beria. Was she guilty about her relationship with Stalin? There is no evidence of this. Her husband had surely known (or chosen not to know) what was going on, but the relationship with Stalin, such as it was, had already cooled in 1938. But now Stalin missed her and made a strange, indirect proposal to her. Beria came to see Zhenya and said: ‘You’re such a nice person, and you’re so fine looking, do you want to move in and be housekeeper at Stalin’s house?’ Usually this is interpreted as a mysterious threat from Beria but it is surely unlikely that he would have made such a proposal without Stalin’s permission, especially since she could have phoned him to discuss it. In Stalin’s mind, a ‘housekeeper’ was his ideal baba, the khozyaika. This was surely a semi-marriage proposal, an awkward attempt to salvage the warmth of the old days from the destruction that he himself had unleashed. It was unforgivably clumsy to send Beria, whom Zhenya loathed, on this sensitive mission but that was typical of Stalin. If one has any doubt about this analysis, Stalin’s reaction to Zhenya’s next move may confirm it.
Zhenya was alarmed, fearing that Beria would frame her for trying to poison Stalin. She swiftly married an old friend, named N.V. Molochnikov, a Jewish engineer whom she had met in Germany, perhaps the lover who had almost broken up her marriage. Stalin was appalled, claiming that it was indecent so soon after Pavel’s death…. (p. 258)
Between 24 February and 16 March 1939, Beria presided over the executions of 413 important prisoners, including Marshal Yegorov and ex-Politburo members, Kosior, Postyshev and Chubar…. Now he suggested to Stalin that they call a halt, or there would be no one left to arrest…. (p. 261)
On 10 March 1939, the 1,900 delegates of the Eighteenth Congress gathered to declare the end of the slaughter that had been a success, if slightly marred by Yezhov’s manic excesses….
Yezhov was on ice yet he still attended the Politburo, sat next to Stalin at the Bolshoi and turned up for work at Water Transport, where he sat through meetings throwing paper darts….
‘Well what do you think of yourself? Are you capable of being a member of the Central Committee?’ Yezhov protested his devotion to the Party and Stalin – he could not imagine what he had done wrong. Since all the other members were being promoted, the dwarf’s bafflement is understandable.
‘Is that so?’ Stalin started mentioning Enemies close to Yezhov.
Yezhov was determined to spread the guilt and avenge his betrayal by destroying Malenkov, whom he now denounced. On 10 April, Stalin ordered Yezhov to attend a meeting to hear these accusations…. Beria and his Georgian prince-executioner, Tsereteli, opened the door and arrested Blackberry, conveying ‘Patient Number One’ to the infirmary inside Sukhanov prison. (pp. 262-263)
そして欧州は戦争へと向かう。
Europe was on the verge of war and Stalin turned his attention to the tightrope walk between Nazi Germany and the Western democracies…. (p. 264)
Sonya... An Angel
ロマーノヴァが働いていた家の主人で疑惑の男、スヴィドリガイロフ（Svidrigailov）が突然ラスコールニコフのアパートに現れる。不思議な死を遂げた妻がロマノーヴァに１万ルーブルを残したという。
一方、ルージン（Luzhin） との結婚を決めていたロマーノヴァは、母、兄ラスコールニコフ、ラズミーヒンがいる中、「自分か弟か」の選択を迫られ、彼の傲慢さに破談を決める。ラスコールニコフは「母と妹はまかせた」とラズミーヒンに言い残し、ひとりでその場を離れ、ソーニャに会いに行く……。
一方、ルージン（Luzhin） との結婚を決めていたロマーノヴァは、母、兄ラスコールニコフ、ラズミーヒンがいる中、「自分か弟か」の選択を迫られ、彼の傲慢さに破談を決める。ラスコールニコフは「母と妹はまかせた」とラズミーヒンに言い残し、ひとりでその場を離れ、ソーニャに会いに行く……。
Monday, January 22, 2007
Another Gone for Depression
E の先週号が届かなかった。紀伊國屋には、古い号が置いてあるので、急いで行ってみた。最新号と先々週号があったが、なぜか先週号はなかった……。Borders にも行ったがなし。仕方ない。ウェブサイトで読むしかない。
友人ラズミーヒンとともにラスコールニコフが刑事ポルフィーリ（Porfiry）に亡父のかたみ銀時計と妹ロマーノヴァがくれた指輪を質草にしたことを話しに行く。「良心のために殺人を犯す権利をもつ人間」がいるというラスコールニコフの主張を巡って議論になる。その帰り、見知らぬ男に「人殺し」と呼ばれ、驚く。
韓国の女性歌手ユニさんが自殺
日本でもデビューした韓国の女性歌手ユニさん（２５）＝本名・ホ・ユンさん＝が、韓国・仁川市の自宅で首をつって死んでいるのが２１日、見つかった。韓国メディアは自殺と伝えている。
ユニさんは１９９６年にＫＢＳテレビのドラマ出演で芸能界にデビュー。２００３年に芸名をユニと改め、歌手として１枚目のアルバムを発表した。多彩なダンスで知られ、２２日に３枚目のアルバムが発売される予定だった。
韓国メディアは、ユニさんがインターネット上に書き込まれる悪口に悩まされていたとの知人の証言を報道。家族はユニさんが最近、うつ状態だったと話しているという。 （共同）
誰のことか知らんが、ためいき。
友人ラズミーヒンとともにラスコールニコフが刑事ポルフィーリ（Porfiry）に亡父のかたみ銀時計と妹ロマーノヴァがくれた指輪を質草にしたことを話しに行く。「良心のために殺人を犯す権利をもつ人間」がいるというラスコールニコフの主張を巡って議論になる。その帰り、見知らぬ男に「人殺し」と呼ばれ、驚く。
韓国の女性歌手ユニさんが自殺
日本でもデビューした韓国の女性歌手ユニさん（２５）＝本名・ホ・ユンさん＝が、韓国・仁川市の自宅で首をつって死んでいるのが２１日、見つかった。韓国メディアは自殺と伝えている。
ユニさんは１９９６年にＫＢＳテレビのドラマ出演で芸能界にデビュー。２００３年に芸名をユニと改め、歌手として１枚目のアルバムを発表した。多彩なダンスで知られ、２２日に３枚目のアルバムが発売される予定だった。
韓国メディアは、ユニさんがインターネット上に書き込まれる悪口に悩まされていたとの知人の証言を報道。家族はユニさんが最近、うつ状態だったと話しているという。 （共同）
誰のことか知らんが、ためいき。
Sunday, January 21, 2007
Valse des fleurs
「花のワルツ」。Peline が着信音に使ってたなぁ……。自分にはいい人だった。ほんの瞬間だけだったけど。最初に会ったときの照れくさそうな笑顔を覚えている。喫茶店で話し出すと、質問は「憲法」と「自衛隊」について。面食らったけど、うれしさは頂点だった。会社まで迎えに来てくれて、客先までブロック１周するために来てくれて。理由があって夜中にコソコソ電話。ありがとう。あれから５年も経つのか。
マルメラードフの妻、カテリーナ（Katerina）と前夫との娘でソーニャの異父妹になるポーレンカ（Polenka）とラスコールニコフが抱き合う場面は涙。
In vino veritas… ラズミーヒン（Razumikhin）とロマーノヴァ（Romanovna）の出会いはＰと自分みたいだな。結末が違うだけで。あ、まだ最後まで読んでないのに。
Fyodor Dostoyevsky は1821 年生まれで1881 年に死去。Peter Tchaikovsky は1840 年生まれで、1893 年に没。ほぼ同時期に生きた人の文章（訳文だけど）と音楽を2007 年の今、同時に目と耳にできることに幸せを感じるべきだろう。
マルメラードフの妻、カテリーナ（Katerina）と前夫との娘でソーニャの異父妹になるポーレンカ（Polenka）とラスコールニコフが抱き合う場面は涙。
In vino veritas… ラズミーヒン（Razumikhin）とロマーノヴァ（Romanovna）の出会いはＰと自分みたいだな。結末が違うだけで。あ、まだ最後まで読んでないのに。
Fyodor Dostoyevsky は1821 年生まれで1881 年に死去。Peter Tchaikovsky は1840 年生まれで、1893 年に没。ほぼ同時期に生きた人の文章（訳文だけど）と音楽を2007 年の今、同時に目と耳にできることに幸せを感じるべきだろう。
Saturday, January 20, 2007
Still Picking up Rubbish after Him??? No Way!!
昼３時ごろに起きたけど、心臓がバクバクしていた。理由は夢に「タヌキ」が出てきたから。腹立たしい。また、とんでもない段取りで自分がその後始末に走り回っていた。どっかの宿泊施設。いつも誰かがバスルームが使用していて、自分だけシャワーを使えない。おまけに使わせちゃいけないはずの「生徒」にまで使わせている。後始末のために工事中の道路を歩くと、工事機材をつなぐパイプの数カ所から油がチョロチョロと噴き出していて、おかげで油だらけ。何でイヤな夢ばっかり見るんだろう。
Yezhov in disfavor and Now Beria
“Stalin”
The specialty of this terrifying crone (Polina Nikolaenko, ‘heroic denunciatrix of Kiev’), responsible for the deaths of as many as 8,000 people, was to stand up at meetings and shriek accusations: Khrushchev saw how she ‘pointed her finger and said, “I don’t know that man over there but I can tell by the ‘look in his eyes that he’s an Enemy of the People.”’ This talk of the ‘look in the eyes’ was another sign of the Terror’s religious frenzy. The only way to rebut this was to answer quickly: ‘I don’t know this woman who’s just denounced me but I can tell from the look in her eyes, she’s a prostitute.’ Now Polina Nikolaenko appealed to Stalin. Her cover note catches her simplicity:
‘To the anteroom of Comrade Stalin. I ask you to give this declaration personally to Comrade Stalin. Comrade Stalin talked about me about the February Plenum.’ Her letter did reach Stalin, with devastating consequences for her enemies: ‘Dear Leader, Comrade Stalin,’ she wrote on 17 September 1937, cunningly exposing how the local bosses were ignoring Stalin’s orders. ‘I ask for your intervention in Kiev matters….’ ‘One connected to Enemies of the People cried, “It’s in her eyes, she’s two-faced!”’ Kosior, Ukrainian leader, and others ridiculed her ‘amidst noisy laughter’. ‘I was, am, will be devoted to the Party and the Great Leader. You helped me to find the Truth. STALIN’S TRUTH IS STRONG!.... Ten days later, Stalin swooped to her aid, telling the Ukrainian bosses:
‘Pay attention to Comrade Nikolaenko (look at her letter). Can you protect her from this audience of hooligans! According to my information, Glaz and Timofeev really are not especially trustworthy. Stalin.’ Those two men were presumably arrested while [Stanislas] Kosior survived for the moment. (p. 221)
NKVD のボス、Yezhov の冷酷さは激しさを増す一方、任務の重さから痛飲する。そしてBeria が表舞台に登場する。
Constantly drunk, Yezhov sensed Stalin was, as he later wrote to his master, ‘dissatisfied with the NKVD work which deteriorated my mood still further’. He made frantic attempts to prove his worth: he was said to have suggested renaming Moscow as ‘Stalinodar’. This was laughed off. Instead Yezhov was called upon to kill his own NKVD appointees whom he protected…. (p. 243)
‘Now I am done for!’ sobbed Yezhov in his office, as he went on executing any prisoners who ‘may turn against us’. On 29 September, he lost much of his power when Beria was appointed to run the heart of the NKVD: State Security (GUGB). He now co-signed Yezhov’s orders. Blackberry tried to strike back: he proposed to Stalin that Stanislav Redens, Beria’s enemy married to Anna Alliluyeva, become his other deputy. There was no hope of this.
Yezhov sat boozing at his dacha with his depressed cronies, warning that they would soon be destroyed, and fantasizing about killing his enemies: ‘Immediately remove all people posted in the Kremlin by Beria,’ he loudly ordered the head of Kremlin security during one such bout, ‘and replace them with reliable people.’ Soon he said, in a slurred voice, that Stalin should be killed. (pp. 247-248)
The specialty of this terrifying crone (Polina Nikolaenko, ‘heroic denunciatrix of Kiev’), responsible for the deaths of as many as 8,000 people, was to stand up at meetings and shriek accusations: Khrushchev saw how she ‘pointed her finger and said, “I don’t know that man over there but I can tell by the ‘look in his eyes that he’s an Enemy of the People.”’ This talk of the ‘look in the eyes’ was another sign of the Terror’s religious frenzy. The only way to rebut this was to answer quickly: ‘I don’t know this woman who’s just denounced me but I can tell from the look in her eyes, she’s a prostitute.’ Now Polina Nikolaenko appealed to Stalin. Her cover note catches her simplicity:
‘To the anteroom of Comrade Stalin. I ask you to give this declaration personally to Comrade Stalin. Comrade Stalin talked about me about the February Plenum.’ Her letter did reach Stalin, with devastating consequences for her enemies: ‘Dear Leader, Comrade Stalin,’ she wrote on 17 September 1937, cunningly exposing how the local bosses were ignoring Stalin’s orders. ‘I ask for your intervention in Kiev matters….’ ‘One connected to Enemies of the People cried, “It’s in her eyes, she’s two-faced!”’ Kosior, Ukrainian leader, and others ridiculed her ‘amidst noisy laughter’. ‘I was, am, will be devoted to the Party and the Great Leader. You helped me to find the Truth. STALIN’S TRUTH IS STRONG!.... Ten days later, Stalin swooped to her aid, telling the Ukrainian bosses:
‘Pay attention to Comrade Nikolaenko (look at her letter). Can you protect her from this audience of hooligans! According to my information, Glaz and Timofeev really are not especially trustworthy. Stalin.’ Those two men were presumably arrested while [Stanislas] Kosior survived for the moment. (p. 221)
NKVD のボス、Yezhov の冷酷さは激しさを増す一方、任務の重さから痛飲する。そしてBeria が表舞台に登場する。
Constantly drunk, Yezhov sensed Stalin was, as he later wrote to his master, ‘dissatisfied with the NKVD work which deteriorated my mood still further’. He made frantic attempts to prove his worth: he was said to have suggested renaming Moscow as ‘Stalinodar’. This was laughed off. Instead Yezhov was called upon to kill his own NKVD appointees whom he protected…. (p. 243)
‘Now I am done for!’ sobbed Yezhov in his office, as he went on executing any prisoners who ‘may turn against us’. On 29 September, he lost much of his power when Beria was appointed to run the heart of the NKVD: State Security (GUGB). He now co-signed Yezhov’s orders. Blackberry tried to strike back: he proposed to Stalin that Stanislav Redens, Beria’s enemy married to Anna Alliluyeva, become his other deputy. There was no hope of this.
Yezhov sat boozing at his dacha with his depressed cronies, warning that they would soon be destroyed, and fantasizing about killing his enemies: ‘Immediately remove all people posted in the Kremlin by Beria,’ he loudly ordered the head of Kremlin security during one such bout, ‘and replace them with reliable people.’ Soon he said, in a slurred voice, that Stalin should be killed. (pp. 247-248)
I'm All for Shilpa!!
カンボジアで８歳のときに行方不明になった女性が19年ぶりに発見されたらしい。密林で暮らしていて、ほとんど言葉は話せない。父親だと名乗る人が、「かがんで歩く様がサルのようで、骨と皮しかない。目はトラのように赤い」と話しているという。しかし、カメラ目線の写真では健康そうに見えるのは錯覚か。
西武ライオンズ、「茶髪・長髪に罰金100 万円」。プロ球団のやるこっちゃない。全員、剃髪したら、それもダメっていうことになるだろう。
英国で放送されているリアリティー番組「ビッグブラザー」で、ジェイド・グディー（Jade Goody, 25）がインド人女優シルパ・シェティー（Shilpa Shetty, 31）の英語発音をからかうなど、人種差別的だと受け取られている。「YouTube」で見る限り、シェティーは大人の対応。さすが。出演者の中で最も魅力的なのは彼女だ。圧倒的にだ。アジア人を出演させたければ、シンガポール女優にすればよかったのに。シングリッシュで押し通す彼女にどんな「差別的」発言が出たことやら。
西武ライオンズ、「茶髪・長髪に罰金100 万円」。プロ球団のやるこっちゃない。全員、剃髪したら、それもダメっていうことになるだろう。
英国で放送されているリアリティー番組「ビッグブラザー」で、ジェイド・グディー（Jade Goody, 25）がインド人女優シルパ・シェティー（Shilpa Shetty, 31）の英語発音をからかうなど、人種差別的だと受け取られている。「YouTube」で見る限り、シェティーは大人の対応。さすが。出演者の中で最も魅力的なのは彼女だ。圧倒的にだ。アジア人を出演させたければ、シンガポール女優にすればよかったのに。シングリッシュで押し通す彼女にどんな「差別的」発言が出たことやら。
Sonya Back to See Her Dying Father
昨日の夜、睡眠剤をまとめて飲んでみた。嘔吐するだけだった。
読んでない本を全部読むまで何とか持ちこたえたい。“Stalin” より、“Crime and Punishment” の方が進んでいる。主人公ラスコールニコフ（Raskolnikov）が以前ふらっと入った飲み屋で知り合った男、マルメラードフ（Marmeladov）が馬車にひかれて瀕死の状態でアパートに運ばれ、娘のソーニャ（Sonya）が戻ってきた場面。どっちにしてもニコニコ読める内容やないな……。
読んでない本を全部読むまで何とか持ちこたえたい。“Stalin” より、“Crime and Punishment” の方が進んでいる。主人公ラスコールニコフ（Raskolnikov）が以前ふらっと入った飲み屋で知り合った男、マルメラードフ（Marmeladov）が馬車にひかれて瀕死の状態でアパートに運ばれ、娘のソーニャ（Sonya）が戻ってきた場面。どっちにしてもニコニコ読める内容やないな……。
Thursday, January 18, 2007
Bury Him but "I'm Already Dead"
Brother was digging a hole. A rectangular one of more than two meters deep, it seemed. It was at the North-east corner of our old house. Mother instructed two of us to dig this hole? It was to bury father. A few neighbors gathered around the hole and they were looking at brother who was still in it. I was mad at father for no apparent reason. In fury, I was tearing a bed sheet into pieces. When it was hard to do so by hand, I was using a pair of scissors. Father was saying to me meekly and apologetically, “But I am already dead.” We were going to place him in a white wooden coffin and then bring it into the hole, with him in the upright position.
Flag Returned to Family and My Being on Balance
ガダルカナル島で戦死した日本兵が持っていた日章旗が家族に返された。米国留学中の学生が米国人から預かって日本に持ち帰ったという。こういった話は、過去数々あるが、当地旧フォード工場に「飾られている」日章旗と垂幕は？返還のため行動が必要だ。
実は昨日、自らを消そうと考えていた。悪夢のあとだったから余計にそんな気分になったのかもしれない。その気分はまだ残っている。
実は昨日、自らを消そうと考えていた。悪夢のあとだったから余計にそんな気分になったのかもしれない。その気分はまだ残っている。
Sunday, January 14, 2007
I Must Not be Like "Hyuma" and Depression is NOT a Choice
最近、イライラする。催眠療法にも関わらず。何が原因なのかと考えると、そのひとつは「気合」とか「根性」という言葉が生活の中に入り込みだしたことがあるからかもしれない。“Depression is a Choice” を思い出させる。「巨人の星」タイプの人生とはずっと前にはっきりと決別したのに。それから、無視されているという感覚。「こんにちは」「こんばんは」「ありがとう」「また今度」「さよなら」……何でもいいからＰから返信があるといいんだけど。Ｐ、返信して。
CORRECTION: HUGE DIFFERENCE!!
訂正：探していたのは「ダンナがうつで死んじゃった」ではなく、「ツレがうつになりまして。」（細川貂々）だった。どこで「ツレ」が「ダンナ」になってしまったのか。検索キーワードにも「ダンナ」と入力していた。おかげで、別の本の存在も知ってしまったが、紛らわしいタイトル。
Seems Making No Progress at All
昨日は、眠らないまま午前中にクリニックへ行って薬をもらい、その後、Borders、紀伊國屋と本屋をはしご。紀伊國屋で“Crime and Punishment” を買った。Paragon のＣＢで“Stalin” を読み進め、さらに散髪にまで行くという、濃い１日だった。数日前、新聞（多分、読売電子版）の書評で「ダンナがうつになっちゃった」という本を発見した。紀伊國屋の検索サービスで調べたら、「ダンナがうつで死んじゃった」（きむらひろみ）が正しかった。タイヘン、ショック。
さすがに午前０時には眠くなった。うまくそのまま眠ったようだが、午前４時に目が開いた。起きてしまおうかとも思ったけど、やっぱりまた寝た。起きたら午後６時だった。何とかしてくれ……。ただ、周囲の騒音、特にジャングル鳥のけたたましい鳴き声も、リラックスさせる音として受けいれるように考えようとしている。
1987 年にソニー・ウォークマンのテレビＣＭに出てた「瞑想するサル」が死んでしまったそうだ。あの頃、さかんにウォークマンが宣伝されていて、ソプラノのKatherine Battle も起用されていた。また、当時は「マーラー・ブーム」で、どこの企業か何の製品か忘れたが大仰な８番を使ったＣＭもあった。
さすがに午前０時には眠くなった。うまくそのまま眠ったようだが、午前４時に目が開いた。起きてしまおうかとも思ったけど、やっぱりまた寝た。起きたら午後６時だった。何とかしてくれ……。ただ、周囲の騒音、特にジャングル鳥のけたたましい鳴き声も、リラックスさせる音として受けいれるように考えようとしている。
1987 年にソニー・ウォークマンのテレビＣＭに出てた「瞑想するサル」が死んでしまったそうだ。あの頃、さかんにウォークマンが宣伝されていて、ソプラノのKatherine Battle も起用されていた。また、当時は「マーラー・ブーム」で、どこの企業か何の製品か忘れたが大仰な８番を使ったＣＭもあった。
Saturday, January 13, 2007
Already Gonxi, Gonxi...
今日の午後。紀伊國屋のイスラム教棚付近でYaacob Ibrahim を見かけた。
旧正月（春節）までまだ１カ月以上あるのに、スーパーへ行くと「恭喜你！恭喜你！」の音楽がすでに流れている。どうも「あの系統」の音楽が苦手のようだ。
旧正月（春節）までまだ１カ月以上あるのに、スーパーへ行くと「恭喜你！恭喜你！」の音楽がすでに流れている。どうも「あの系統」の音楽が苦手のようだ。
Purge, Kill, Purge, Kill!! Don't Take Care of Your Roses
The ‘Five’ (Stalin, Molotov, Voroshilov, Kaganovich and Yezhov) starts targeting generals.
… Between 19 and 21 March [1937], [Nikolai] Yezhov [NKVD chief, who in 1936 succeeded Genrikh Yagoda] summoned the surviving Chekists to the Officers’ Club. There, the diminutive Commissar-General announced that Yagoda had been a German spy since 1907 (when he joined the Party) and was also a corrupt thief. (p. 194)
Yezhov ‘discovered’ that Yagoda had tried to poison him by spraying mercury on to the curtains of his office. It later emerged that Yezhov had faked this outrage. None the less, Yagoda was arrested at his Kremlin apartment, even before the Politburo had formally given the order. (p. 195)
[Marshal Mikhail] Tukhachevsky, Stalin’s Civil War foe and probably his most talented general, was bound to be his main target….
Stalin tried to indict Tukhachevsky for treason in 1930…. But there was another row with the touchy, vindictive Voroshilov in May 1936. Voroshilov became so heated with Tukhachevsky’s justified criticism that he shouted ‘Fuck you!’ They made up but it was just at that time that the first of the Red Army generals were arrested and interrogated to implicate Tukhachevsky. More generals were mentioned in the January trial. Yagoda, [Abel] Yenukidze and the benighted generals delivered more kindling for this bonfire. (p. 197)
Random arrests and killing
On 30 July, Yezhov and his deputy Mikhail Frinovsky proposed Order No. 00447 to the Politburo: that between 5 and 15 August, the regions were to receive quotas for two categories: Category One – to be shot. Category Two – to be deported. They suggested that 72,950 to be shot and 259,450 arrested, though they missed some regions. The regions could submit further lists. The families of these people should be deported too. The Politburo confirmed this order the next day.
… The quotas were soon fulfilled by the regions who therefore asked for bigger numbers, so between 28 August and 15 December, the Politburo agreed to the shooting of another 22,500 and then another 48,000. In this, the Terror differed most from Hitler’s crimes which systematically destroyed a limited target: Jews and Gypsies. Here, on the contrary, death was sometimes random: long-forgotten comment, the flirtation with an opposition, envy of another man’s job, wife or house, vengeance or just plain coincidence brought the death and torture of entire families. This did not matter: ‘Better too far than not far enough,’ Yezhov told his men as the original arrest quota ballooned to 767,397 arrests and 386,798 executions, families destroyed, children orphaned, under Order No. 00447. (pp. 203-204)
… On 11 August, Yezhov signed Order No. 00485 to liquidate ‘Polish diversionists and espionage groups’ which was to consume most of the Polish Communist Party, most Poles within the Bolshevik leadership, anyone with social or ‘consular contacts’ – and of course their wives and children. A total of 350,000 (144,000 of them Poles) were arrested in this operation, with 247,157 shot (110,000 Poles) – a mini-genocide…. Altogether, the latest estimates, combining the quotas and national contingents, are that 1.5 million were arrested in these operations and about 700,000 shot. (p. 204)
The best way to survive was to be invisible because sometimes ghastly coincidences brought people into fatal contact with Stalin: Polish Communist Kostyrzewa was tending her roses near Kuntsevo when she found Stalin looking over her fence: ‘What beautiful roses,’ he said. She was arrested that night…. (p. 207)
Stalin often forgot – or pretended to forget – what had happened to certain comrades and years later assumed an air of disappointment when he heard they had been shot. ‘You used to have such nice people,’ [Stalin] later remarked to Polish comrades. ‘Vera Kostyrzewa for example, do you know what’s become of her?’…. (pp. 207-208)
Stalin himself specialized in reassuring his victims and then arresting them. Early in the year, the wife of one of Ordzhonikidze’s deputies at Heavy Industry was called by Stalin himself: ‘I hear you’re going about on foot. That’s no good… I’ll send you a car.’ Next morning the limousine was there. Two days later, her husband was arrested.
… Stalin’s Ambassador to Madrid, Antonov-Ovseenko, an ex-Trotskyite, entangled himself by trying to prove his loyalty; he was recalled, affably promoted by Stalin, and arrested the next day. When Stalin received the journalist Mikhail Koltsov, he teased him about his adventures in the Spanish Civil War, calling him ‘Don Miguel’, but then asked: ‘You don’t intend to shoot yourself? So long, Don Miguel.’ But Koltsov had played a deadly game in Spain, denouncing others to Stalin and Voroshilov. The ‘Don’ was arrested. (p. 208)
‘Believe me, Joseph Vissarionovich, I’d bring a son or daughter to the NKVD myself if they were against the Party…’ Stalin’s own secretary from the twenties, [Grigory] Kanner, who had been in charge of his dirty tricks against Trotsky and others, was arrested. ‘Kanner cannot be a villain,’ wrote a certain Makarova, perhaps his wife. ‘He was friends with Yagoda but who could think the Narkom of Security could be such scum? Believe, Comrade Stalin, that Kanner deserved your trust!’ Kanner was shot.
Then [Stalin] received letters from doomed leaders desperate to save themselves: ‘I am unable to work, it’s not a question of Partymindedness, but it’s impossible for me not to act on the situation around me and to clear the air and understand the reason for it… Please give me a moment of your time to receive me…’ wrote Nikolai Krylenko, the People’s Commissar of Justice no less and signer of many a death sentence. He too was shot. (p. 209)
山崎拓さん、北京で会見。一体何しに行ったん？拉致でも、核でも進展なし。最初からわかってた結果やけど。
… Between 19 and 21 March [1937], [Nikolai] Yezhov [NKVD chief, who in 1936 succeeded Genrikh Yagoda] summoned the surviving Chekists to the Officers’ Club. There, the diminutive Commissar-General announced that Yagoda had been a German spy since 1907 (when he joined the Party) and was also a corrupt thief. (p. 194)
Yezhov ‘discovered’ that Yagoda had tried to poison him by spraying mercury on to the curtains of his office. It later emerged that Yezhov had faked this outrage. None the less, Yagoda was arrested at his Kremlin apartment, even before the Politburo had formally given the order. (p. 195)
[Marshal Mikhail] Tukhachevsky, Stalin’s Civil War foe and probably his most talented general, was bound to be his main target….
Stalin tried to indict Tukhachevsky for treason in 1930…. But there was another row with the touchy, vindictive Voroshilov in May 1936. Voroshilov became so heated with Tukhachevsky’s justified criticism that he shouted ‘Fuck you!’ They made up but it was just at that time that the first of the Red Army generals were arrested and interrogated to implicate Tukhachevsky. More generals were mentioned in the January trial. Yagoda, [Abel] Yenukidze and the benighted generals delivered more kindling for this bonfire. (p. 197)
Random arrests and killing
On 30 July, Yezhov and his deputy Mikhail Frinovsky proposed Order No. 00447 to the Politburo: that between 5 and 15 August, the regions were to receive quotas for two categories: Category One – to be shot. Category Two – to be deported. They suggested that 72,950 to be shot and 259,450 arrested, though they missed some regions. The regions could submit further lists. The families of these people should be deported too. The Politburo confirmed this order the next day.
… The quotas were soon fulfilled by the regions who therefore asked for bigger numbers, so between 28 August and 15 December, the Politburo agreed to the shooting of another 22,500 and then another 48,000. In this, the Terror differed most from Hitler’s crimes which systematically destroyed a limited target: Jews and Gypsies. Here, on the contrary, death was sometimes random: long-forgotten comment, the flirtation with an opposition, envy of another man’s job, wife or house, vengeance or just plain coincidence brought the death and torture of entire families. This did not matter: ‘Better too far than not far enough,’ Yezhov told his men as the original arrest quota ballooned to 767,397 arrests and 386,798 executions, families destroyed, children orphaned, under Order No. 00447. (pp. 203-204)
… On 11 August, Yezhov signed Order No. 00485 to liquidate ‘Polish diversionists and espionage groups’ which was to consume most of the Polish Communist Party, most Poles within the Bolshevik leadership, anyone with social or ‘consular contacts’ – and of course their wives and children. A total of 350,000 (144,000 of them Poles) were arrested in this operation, with 247,157 shot (110,000 Poles) – a mini-genocide…. Altogether, the latest estimates, combining the quotas and national contingents, are that 1.5 million were arrested in these operations and about 700,000 shot. (p. 204)
The best way to survive was to be invisible because sometimes ghastly coincidences brought people into fatal contact with Stalin: Polish Communist Kostyrzewa was tending her roses near Kuntsevo when she found Stalin looking over her fence: ‘What beautiful roses,’ he said. She was arrested that night…. (p. 207)
Stalin often forgot – or pretended to forget – what had happened to certain comrades and years later assumed an air of disappointment when he heard they had been shot. ‘You used to have such nice people,’ [Stalin] later remarked to Polish comrades. ‘Vera Kostyrzewa for example, do you know what’s become of her?’…. (pp. 207-208)
Stalin himself specialized in reassuring his victims and then arresting them. Early in the year, the wife of one of Ordzhonikidze’s deputies at Heavy Industry was called by Stalin himself: ‘I hear you’re going about on foot. That’s no good… I’ll send you a car.’ Next morning the limousine was there. Two days later, her husband was arrested.
… Stalin’s Ambassador to Madrid, Antonov-Ovseenko, an ex-Trotskyite, entangled himself by trying to prove his loyalty; he was recalled, affably promoted by Stalin, and arrested the next day. When Stalin received the journalist Mikhail Koltsov, he teased him about his adventures in the Spanish Civil War, calling him ‘Don Miguel’, but then asked: ‘You don’t intend to shoot yourself? So long, Don Miguel.’ But Koltsov had played a deadly game in Spain, denouncing others to Stalin and Voroshilov. The ‘Don’ was arrested. (p. 208)
‘Believe me, Joseph Vissarionovich, I’d bring a son or daughter to the NKVD myself if they were against the Party…’ Stalin’s own secretary from the twenties, [Grigory] Kanner, who had been in charge of his dirty tricks against Trotsky and others, was arrested. ‘Kanner cannot be a villain,’ wrote a certain Makarova, perhaps his wife. ‘He was friends with Yagoda but who could think the Narkom of Security could be such scum? Believe, Comrade Stalin, that Kanner deserved your trust!’ Kanner was shot.
Then [Stalin] received letters from doomed leaders desperate to save themselves: ‘I am unable to work, it’s not a question of Partymindedness, but it’s impossible for me not to act on the situation around me and to clear the air and understand the reason for it… Please give me a moment of your time to receive me…’ wrote Nikolai Krylenko, the People’s Commissar of Justice no less and signer of many a death sentence. He too was shot. (p. 209)
山崎拓さん、北京で会見。一体何しに行ったん？拉致でも、核でも進展なし。最初からわかってた結果やけど。
Sergo Dead, Bukharin and Rykov Arrested
COULDN’T SLEEP… AHHHH…
From “Stalin” (Montefiore):
Stalin’s thoughts in 1937 reveal the broadest reason for the imminent murder of hundreds of thousands of people for little apparent reason: ‘Maybe it can be explained by the fact that you lost faith,’ Stalin addressed the Old Bolsheviks. (p. 186)
Sergo Ordzhonikidze kills himself in his room on 18 February 1937. The Plenum of the same month decides to arrest Politburo members, Nikolai Bukharin, who edited Pravda and Izvestiya, and Alexei Rykov, who succeeded Lenin as Premier.
‘Sergo, why are you upset?’ said Stalin. “This Organ can search my place at any moment too.’ Stalin summoned Sergo who rushed out so fast, he forgot his coat. His wife Zina hurried after him with the coat and fur hat but he was already in Stalin’s apartment. Zina waited outside for an hour and a half. Stalin’s provocations only confirmed Sergo’s impotence, for he ‘sprang out of Stalin’s place in a very agitated state, did not put on his coat or had, and ran home’. He started retyping his speech, then, according his wife, rushed back to Stalin who taunted him more with his sneering marginalia: ‘Ha-ha!’
Sergo told Zina that he could not cope with Koba whom he loved. The next morning, he remained in bed, refusing breakfast. ‘I feel bad,’ he said. He simply asked that no one should disturb him and worked in his room. At 5:30 p.m. Zina heard a dull sound and rushed into the bedroom.
Sergo lay bare-chested and dead on the bed. He had shot himself in the heart, his chest powder-burned. Zina kissed his hands, chest, lips fervently and called the doctor who certified he was dead. She then telephoned Stalin who was at Kuntsevo. The guards said he was taking a walk but she shouted:
‘Tell Stalin it’s Zina. Tell him to come to the phone right away. I’ll wait on the line.’
‘Why the big hurry?’ Stalin asked. Zina ordered him to come urgently: ‘Sergo’s done the same as Nadya!’ Stalin banged down the phone at this grievous insult….
‘What shall we say to people now?’ she asked.
‘This must be reported in the press,’ Stalin replied. ‘We’ll say he died of a heart attack.’ (p. 189)
… In Stalin and Nadya’s old apartment in the Poteshny Palace, Bukharin worked frantically on a letter to a future Central Committee and Posterity, asking his beautiful wife Anna, just twenty-three, to memorize it. ‘Again and again Nikolai Ivanovich read his letter in a whisper to me and I had to repeat after him,’ she wrote. ‘Then I read and reread it myself, softly repeating the phrases aloud. Ah how he gripped [me] when I made a slip.’
Just across the river, in his apartment in the House on the Embankment, Rykov would only say: ‘They’ll send me to prison!’ His wife suffered a stroke as the attacks on his husband became deadly. His devoted 21-year-old daughter, Natalya, helped him dress each day for the Plenum – as his mother had done. (p. 192)
From “Stalin” (Montefiore):
Stalin’s thoughts in 1937 reveal the broadest reason for the imminent murder of hundreds of thousands of people for little apparent reason: ‘Maybe it can be explained by the fact that you lost faith,’ Stalin addressed the Old Bolsheviks. (p. 186)
Sergo Ordzhonikidze kills himself in his room on 18 February 1937. The Plenum of the same month decides to arrest Politburo members, Nikolai Bukharin, who edited Pravda and Izvestiya, and Alexei Rykov, who succeeded Lenin as Premier.
‘Sergo, why are you upset?’ said Stalin. “This Organ can search my place at any moment too.’ Stalin summoned Sergo who rushed out so fast, he forgot his coat. His wife Zina hurried after him with the coat and fur hat but he was already in Stalin’s apartment. Zina waited outside for an hour and a half. Stalin’s provocations only confirmed Sergo’s impotence, for he ‘sprang out of Stalin’s place in a very agitated state, did not put on his coat or had, and ran home’. He started retyping his speech, then, according his wife, rushed back to Stalin who taunted him more with his sneering marginalia: ‘Ha-ha!’
Sergo told Zina that he could not cope with Koba whom he loved. The next morning, he remained in bed, refusing breakfast. ‘I feel bad,’ he said. He simply asked that no one should disturb him and worked in his room. At 5:30 p.m. Zina heard a dull sound and rushed into the bedroom.
Sergo lay bare-chested and dead on the bed. He had shot himself in the heart, his chest powder-burned. Zina kissed his hands, chest, lips fervently and called the doctor who certified he was dead. She then telephoned Stalin who was at Kuntsevo. The guards said he was taking a walk but she shouted:
‘Tell Stalin it’s Zina. Tell him to come to the phone right away. I’ll wait on the line.’
‘Why the big hurry?’ Stalin asked. Zina ordered him to come urgently: ‘Sergo’s done the same as Nadya!’ Stalin banged down the phone at this grievous insult….
‘What shall we say to people now?’ she asked.
‘This must be reported in the press,’ Stalin replied. ‘We’ll say he died of a heart attack.’ (p. 189)
… In Stalin and Nadya’s old apartment in the Poteshny Palace, Bukharin worked frantically on a letter to a future Central Committee and Posterity, asking his beautiful wife Anna, just twenty-three, to memorize it. ‘Again and again Nikolai Ivanovich read his letter in a whisper to me and I had to repeat after him,’ she wrote. ‘Then I read and reread it myself, softly repeating the phrases aloud. Ah how he gripped [me] when I made a slip.’
Just across the river, in his apartment in the House on the Embankment, Rykov would only say: ‘They’ll send me to prison!’ His wife suffered a stroke as the attacks on his husband became deadly. His devoted 21-year-old daughter, Natalya, helped him dress each day for the Plenum – as his mother had done. (p. 192)
The Secret Language of Feelings
“The Secret Language of Feelings”
The Wisdom of Feeling Frustrated
Over a period of time, the Primary Feeling* and our frustration at not being able to satisfy our needs can intensify to the point of being intolerable. When the pain we’re suffering becomes greater than our nervous systems can tolerate, the body kicks in with the Tertiary Feeling† in our model, depression. Depression says, “I need to take a break before trying again.” When we stop trying to satisfy the need, want or desire generating the pain of the Primary Feeling, our feelings of frustration will immediately begin to fade. However, our need still remains unmet. (p. 143)
*There are sight Primary Feelings: boredom, anger, guilt, sadness, loneliness, inadequacy, stress and fear
†Tertiary Feeling is depression and another feeling (Secondary) is frustration.
[For creative solutions of frustration, t]ry something outrageously different, something you wouldn’t have even considered doing before. (p. 147)
The Wisdom of Feeling Depressed
The cycle of effort leading to depression is equivalent to an automobile spinning its wheels on a slippery surface…. It’s time to take a rest, cool down and replenish ourselves. (p. 151)
We feel hopeless, and hopelessness depresses our motivation, leading to the inaction that marks depression.
Thus, depression is best understood as a message of hopelessness. Seen in this light, hope and depression are opposites. Being mutually exclusive, depression and hopefulness cannot both exist in the same place. (p. 152)
… It’s entirely possible that during your [rest and replenish] period, your subconscious has been busy figuring out a whole list of satisfying responses! This is especially true if you were giving yourself a healthy, restful break – not wearing yourself out with feeling guilty for feeling depressed. (pp. 154-155)
I MUST SAY THIS IN A VERY LOUD VOICE.
I FEEL INTOLERABLY INPATIENT WHEN SOMEONE’S RESPONSE TO MY DEPRESSION IS UNINFORMED, INADEQUATE, SIMPLY WRONG OR NOT UNDERSTANDING ENOUGH, WHICH CERTAINLY LEADS TO MORE ISOLATION OF MYSELF. IN THE FIRST PLACE, THERE ARE VERY FEW TO WHOM I EVEN CONSIDER CONFIDING. THUS, HOPE DOES NOT ARISE AT ALL OUT OF CONFIDING IN MOST CASES. MY DISAPPOINTMENT, IN NO DOUBT, BECOMES DEEPER. IT IS CERTAINLY POSSIBLE THAT I HAVE BEEN CHOOSING THE WRONG PEOPLE. THEN WHERE ARE THE RIGHT PEOPLE??
The Wisdom of Feeling Frustrated
Over a period of time, the Primary Feeling* and our frustration at not being able to satisfy our needs can intensify to the point of being intolerable. When the pain we’re suffering becomes greater than our nervous systems can tolerate, the body kicks in with the Tertiary Feeling† in our model, depression. Depression says, “I need to take a break before trying again.” When we stop trying to satisfy the need, want or desire generating the pain of the Primary Feeling, our feelings of frustration will immediately begin to fade. However, our need still remains unmet. (p. 143)
*There are sight Primary Feelings: boredom, anger, guilt, sadness, loneliness, inadequacy, stress and fear
†Tertiary Feeling is depression and another feeling (Secondary) is frustration.
[For creative solutions of frustration, t]ry something outrageously different, something you wouldn’t have even considered doing before. (p. 147)
The Wisdom of Feeling Depressed
The cycle of effort leading to depression is equivalent to an automobile spinning its wheels on a slippery surface…. It’s time to take a rest, cool down and replenish ourselves. (p. 151)
We feel hopeless, and hopelessness depresses our motivation, leading to the inaction that marks depression.
Thus, depression is best understood as a message of hopelessness. Seen in this light, hope and depression are opposites. Being mutually exclusive, depression and hopefulness cannot both exist in the same place. (p. 152)
… It’s entirely possible that during your [rest and replenish] period, your subconscious has been busy figuring out a whole list of satisfying responses! This is especially true if you were giving yourself a healthy, restful break – not wearing yourself out with feeling guilty for feeling depressed. (pp. 154-155)
I MUST SAY THIS IN A VERY LOUD VOICE.
I FEEL INTOLERABLY INPATIENT WHEN SOMEONE’S RESPONSE TO MY DEPRESSION IS UNINFORMED, INADEQUATE, SIMPLY WRONG OR NOT UNDERSTANDING ENOUGH, WHICH CERTAINLY LEADS TO MORE ISOLATION OF MYSELF. IN THE FIRST PLACE, THERE ARE VERY FEW TO WHOM I EVEN CONSIDER CONFIDING. THUS, HOPE DOES NOT ARISE AT ALL OUT OF CONFIDING IN MOST CASES. MY DISAPPOINTMENT, IN NO DOUBT, BECOMES DEEPER. IT IS CERTAINLY POSSIBLE THAT I HAVE BEEN CHOOSING THE WRONG PEOPLE. THEN WHERE ARE THE RIGHT PEOPLE??
Friday, January 12, 2007
Past Regression
1936 年８月25 日、キーロフ暗殺に関与したとの罪でジノヴィエフ（Zinoviev）とカーメネフ（Kamenev）が銃殺された。処刑はしないという約束があったにも関わらず。
４度目の催眠療法。前回がきっかけで、さらに記憶が戻ってきた。すっかり忘れ去っていたことではないが、あらためて思い出すといいことは何にも出てこない。過去をさかのぼると、３歳ぐらいまでの記憶にたどり着く。
４度目の催眠療法。前回がきっかけで、さらに記憶が戻ってきた。すっかり忘れ去っていたことではないが、あらためて思い出すといいことは何にも出てこない。過去をさかのぼると、３歳ぐらいまでの記憶にたどり着く。
Thursday, January 11, 2007
Fidgety, Fidgey, Fidgety
落ち着かない。落ち着かない。
「７th Path」療法のテキストにもなっている“The Secret Language of Feelings” （Calvin D. Banyan）には次のように書かれている。
Habitual Stress
… Still other families always seem to be in catastrophe mode, going from one unmanageable drama to the next. The message here is that no matter how hard you try, life will always somehow find a way to pull the rug out from under you. This kind of thinking leads to a life of ongoing unmanageable stress, which is inadvertently passed from parent to children and from generation to generation, over and over again.
I believe that anxiety disorders can easily be passed on from generation to generation, without any kind of genetic component. If you grew up in an environment where your parents were always a day late and a dollar short, always in a frenzy about how to handle even everyday situations, it’s likely that you picked up that kind of behavior from them. If you don’t learn to respond to stress in a different way than you may have learned as a child, you not only can pass it on to your children, it can even become a family tradition, so to speak. (p. 123)
「７th Path」療法のテキストにもなっている“The Secret Language of Feelings” （Calvin D. Banyan）には次のように書かれている。
Habitual Stress
… Still other families always seem to be in catastrophe mode, going from one unmanageable drama to the next. The message here is that no matter how hard you try, life will always somehow find a way to pull the rug out from under you. This kind of thinking leads to a life of ongoing unmanageable stress, which is inadvertently passed from parent to children and from generation to generation, over and over again.
I believe that anxiety disorders can easily be passed on from generation to generation, without any kind of genetic component. If you grew up in an environment where your parents were always a day late and a dollar short, always in a frenzy about how to handle even everyday situations, it’s likely that you picked up that kind of behavior from them. If you don’t learn to respond to stress in a different way than you may have learned as a child, you not only can pass it on to your children, it can even become a family tradition, so to speak. (p. 123)
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
Tokyo Governor, Rampaging Tigers, Strife in India, Sun or Crescent
昨夜、体罰に近い記憶がいくつかよみがえってつらかった。これも催眠療法で言う“emptying the cup” の一部だろうか？
お付き合いのまったくない東京都知事が夢に現れた……。自分から借りたい本があるらしく、「学校の研究室」に向かった。誰かといっしょに歩いていて、「自宅じゃないの？（都知事の）お母さんは自宅に住んでるらしいよ」と言われたが、「研究室に違いない」と答えて会いに行った。借りたい本が何だったのかはっきりしない。「小六法」だったようにも思う。都知事の服装は、立ち襟の白シャツに細いネクタイ。色は青系。厚手の上着はグレーでこれも襟がなかった。似合ってると思った。研究室の窓には授業に関する張り紙があり、その中には「英会話コース」のものもあった。
「この英会話の先生、１回目の授業に来たっきり、コース終了まで来なかった」と不満を伝えたり、会話は親しげだ。「この英会話の先生」の名前は、「Maupas-SANT」となっていた。「モーパッサン」？都知事には翻訳も依頼され、書類をもらった。
翌日だろうか、うちにいるときに都知事から電話をもらう。別の本も借りたいらしい。「今、（シンガポールの地名だったが、覚えていない）にいるのでしばらくして着く」。「じゃ、あと30 分ほどですね」。
彼がうちに到着したとき、驚いた。何の企画か知らんが、家の前を象とトラが猛獣使いと歩いている。トラはおとなしくしておらず、人を襲い始めている。象とトラは次々とやって来るが、都知事は「暴れて当然」と考えているのか平然としている。一方、都知事に渡す「メディア用語集」という本が見つからない。誰か（誰？）に手伝ってもらいながら本棚を探すものの、やはり見つからない。代わりにインドの紛争の歴史について書かれた本を手にとって、内容がどれだけ新しいものかチェックしていた。
学校の授業に出席していなさそうな自分のことを母親が兄に相談している。「あの子、読書感想文、どうしたんやろ。もう書いたんやろか？」という具合。学校の事情を知らないのに勝手なことを言い、それも自分にではなく、兄に相談していることに立腹する。小学校やないから「読書感想文」なんてものは宿題にない。あってもそんな名では呼ばない。それに卒業に必要な単位数をすでに満たしているので、不要な授業に出席していないことを心底イライラしながら説明する。
暴れ回るトラを撃とうとする人もいて、周辺は大きく混乱していたが、場面は南アジアのどこかになる。後でインドだとわかる。都知事はもういない。
対立する２つのグループ間の銃撃に巻き込まれる。宗教対立だと理解していたようだ。銃撃に倒れる人もあれば、撃たれて左腕を失くした少年もいた。お互いにかばい合いながら、生き延びようと必死だ。対立を仲介して収めようとする西洋人女性が木の上に設けたテントにいたが、撃ち合いは終わらない。自分も右手指数本を飛ばされていた。味方だと受け入れてもらうと、人びとは誠に親切だ。銃撃戦の最中で、食器が不足していることもあろうが、いっしょにいた彼らは皿から手で食べ物をつかんで口に運んでいた。イスラム教徒だ。とすると、対立している相手グループはおのずと明らかだが、夢ではそれははっきりしなかった。
場面から見えるかなりの標高の山。山頂は氷河となっている。インドのカシミールに違いない。ご丁寧に氷河部分には、“GLACIER” と刻まれている。まるでハリウッドのあの看板のように。山頂から巨大な岩が２つ、転げ落ちてきた。みんなが顔を上げ、その様を凝視している。何かの儀式なのか、はたまたこれで対立を終わらせようとする手段なのかわからない……。
うちの最寄駅。真冬のようだ。大阪方面行きのホームには銃撃に疲れた人が大勢いる。あの腕を失った少年とその家族の女性。彼の母親なのか祖母なのか不明。本来とは逆方向のホームに電車が入ってきた。周りの人たちが自分ら３人に「先に乗れ」と言ってくれた。女性が線路に下りて、閉じてしまったドアを叩く。再び開いたドアから乗り込んで座席を確保。多少落ち着く。大阪方面へと走り出した。どこへ向かおうとしているのだろうか。欠けてしまった自分の右手の指を見て、女性は「いずれ、三日月か太陽かわかる」と謎めいたことを言った。車窓の外に彼の母語で書かれている映画の看板を見つけて示してあげると、少年はうれしそうに歌い始めた。
お付き合いのまったくない東京都知事が夢に現れた……。自分から借りたい本があるらしく、「学校の研究室」に向かった。誰かといっしょに歩いていて、「自宅じゃないの？（都知事の）お母さんは自宅に住んでるらしいよ」と言われたが、「研究室に違いない」と答えて会いに行った。借りたい本が何だったのかはっきりしない。「小六法」だったようにも思う。都知事の服装は、立ち襟の白シャツに細いネクタイ。色は青系。厚手の上着はグレーでこれも襟がなかった。似合ってると思った。研究室の窓には授業に関する張り紙があり、その中には「英会話コース」のものもあった。
「この英会話の先生、１回目の授業に来たっきり、コース終了まで来なかった」と不満を伝えたり、会話は親しげだ。「この英会話の先生」の名前は、「Maupas-SANT」となっていた。「モーパッサン」？都知事には翻訳も依頼され、書類をもらった。
翌日だろうか、うちにいるときに都知事から電話をもらう。別の本も借りたいらしい。「今、（シンガポールの地名だったが、覚えていない）にいるのでしばらくして着く」。「じゃ、あと30 分ほどですね」。
彼がうちに到着したとき、驚いた。何の企画か知らんが、家の前を象とトラが猛獣使いと歩いている。トラはおとなしくしておらず、人を襲い始めている。象とトラは次々とやって来るが、都知事は「暴れて当然」と考えているのか平然としている。一方、都知事に渡す「メディア用語集」という本が見つからない。誰か（誰？）に手伝ってもらいながら本棚を探すものの、やはり見つからない。代わりにインドの紛争の歴史について書かれた本を手にとって、内容がどれだけ新しいものかチェックしていた。
学校の授業に出席していなさそうな自分のことを母親が兄に相談している。「あの子、読書感想文、どうしたんやろ。もう書いたんやろか？」という具合。学校の事情を知らないのに勝手なことを言い、それも自分にではなく、兄に相談していることに立腹する。小学校やないから「読書感想文」なんてものは宿題にない。あってもそんな名では呼ばない。それに卒業に必要な単位数をすでに満たしているので、不要な授業に出席していないことを心底イライラしながら説明する。
暴れ回るトラを撃とうとする人もいて、周辺は大きく混乱していたが、場面は南アジアのどこかになる。後でインドだとわかる。都知事はもういない。
対立する２つのグループ間の銃撃に巻き込まれる。宗教対立だと理解していたようだ。銃撃に倒れる人もあれば、撃たれて左腕を失くした少年もいた。お互いにかばい合いながら、生き延びようと必死だ。対立を仲介して収めようとする西洋人女性が木の上に設けたテントにいたが、撃ち合いは終わらない。自分も右手指数本を飛ばされていた。味方だと受け入れてもらうと、人びとは誠に親切だ。銃撃戦の最中で、食器が不足していることもあろうが、いっしょにいた彼らは皿から手で食べ物をつかんで口に運んでいた。イスラム教徒だ。とすると、対立している相手グループはおのずと明らかだが、夢ではそれははっきりしなかった。
場面から見えるかなりの標高の山。山頂は氷河となっている。インドのカシミールに違いない。ご丁寧に氷河部分には、“GLACIER” と刻まれている。まるでハリウッドのあの看板のように。山頂から巨大な岩が２つ、転げ落ちてきた。みんなが顔を上げ、その様を凝視している。何かの儀式なのか、はたまたこれで対立を終わらせようとする手段なのかわからない……。
うちの最寄駅。真冬のようだ。大阪方面行きのホームには銃撃に疲れた人が大勢いる。あの腕を失った少年とその家族の女性。彼の母親なのか祖母なのか不明。本来とは逆方向のホームに電車が入ってきた。周りの人たちが自分ら３人に「先に乗れ」と言ってくれた。女性が線路に下りて、閉じてしまったドアを叩く。再び開いたドアから乗り込んで座席を確保。多少落ち着く。大阪方面へと走り出した。どこへ向かおうとしているのだろうか。欠けてしまった自分の右手の指を見て、女性は「いずれ、三日月か太陽かわかる」と謎めいたことを言った。車窓の外に彼の母語で書かれている映画の看板を見つけて示してあげると、少年はうれしそうに歌い始めた。
Monday, January 08, 2007
I'm Very Tired of Guys...
ずっと昔から思うことだが、魅力ある男とはどんな人だろう？サラリーマンだったとき、（給料をもらうという狭義の）仕事以外への関心に対する影も見えない人たちが大勢いた。もちろん誤解かもしれないが、その後に会った人のなかでも「仕事、カラオケ、ゴルフ、酒、女」以外について話せる人は驚くほど少ない。仕事の疲れを他４つで発散させているのだろうか。そうだとしたら、よほどの天職に就いて仕事で頭を使っているに違いない。
Double Issue of the Economist
去年の話になってしまったが、E の合併号は読み応えがあった。アフガニスタンでプシュトゥンが守り続ける戒律の記事を読めば、国の行政が無力なことがよくわかる。観光地としかみられていないモルジブの政治と国民の貧しい暮らし。中国・内モンゴル自治区のジンギスカン（チンギスハン）・テーマパーク。孤立するベツレヘム。とんでもないロシアの空港。そして、脳の研究。どれも印象深い。
中でも、長生きして記憶容量の減少した脳は、「生存に役立たない新たな情報はため込まない」との記述が新鮮だった。
… the fact that the elderly, who already have vast experience to draw on, do not waste precious storage capacity on adding things that will not aid their survival could well be the result of evolutionary adaptation rather than an indication of waning powers.
認知症を違った角度から理解させるものだ。
中でも、長生きして記憶容量の減少した脳は、「生存に役立たない新たな情報はため込まない」との記述が新鮮だった。
… the fact that the elderly, who already have vast experience to draw on, do not waste precious storage capacity on adding things that will not aid their survival could well be the result of evolutionary adaptation rather than an indication of waning powers.
認知症を違った角度から理解させるものだ。
Very Kind Mosquito Wakes Me up
けさ６時半、蚊に襲われて起きた。あぁぁぁぁ！
仕事帰りにジムに行くつもりだったけど、やめた。最初の頃、ひどかった筋肉痛がなくなってきて、行く回数を増やそうと金曜日と日曜日に行ったら、上半身に久しぶりの痛みがやって来た。不思議なのは、初回後、まともに歩けないほどガクガクになった下半身の疲れが現れないこと。個人トレーニングの終わりに「“コンフォート・ゾーン”でやらないように」と忠告されたけど、そうなっているのかも。つらさに変わりはないんだが。
仕事帰りにジムに行くつもりだったけど、やめた。最初の頃、ひどかった筋肉痛がなくなってきて、行く回数を増やそうと金曜日と日曜日に行ったら、上半身に久しぶりの痛みがやって来た。不思議なのは、初回後、まともに歩けないほどガクガクになった下半身の疲れが現れないこと。個人トレーニングの終わりに「“コンフォート・ゾーン”でやらないように」と忠告されたけど、そうなっているのかも。つらさに変わりはないんだが。
Sunday, January 07, 2007
Israel Nukes Iran??
一方、英サンデー・タイムズ紙は、複数のイスラエル軍事筋の話として、同国が戦術核兵器でイランのウラン濃縮施設を攻撃する「秘密計画」を立案したと報じている。核兵器でウラン濃縮施設を破壊すれば、どういう状況が発生するのかわかっていないはずはない。広島と長崎を持ち出すまでもなく、チェルノブイリ原発の爆発火災事故を思い出せば十分だろう。
Palestine, Miserable
内紛の続くパレスチナ。自治政府のアッバス議長が、ハマス治安部隊を違法と宣言した。これに対して、ハマスは部隊をこれまでの２倍になる１万2000 人にまで増強するとしている。ロイター通信は、米政府は自治政府系（つまりファタハ）の治安部隊に8640 万米ドルを拠出すると伝えている。かつて、ハマスの存在はアラファトのファタハに対抗する勢力として米国やイスラエルにとって都合のいいものだったはず。サダム・フセインの例を引くまでもなく、手のひらを返すのは米国外交の得意とするところだが、カネで釣られるようになってしまったパレスチナのファタハ指導部を悲しく思う。
Saturday, January 06, 2007
Russian Getting Me
ロシア語が知りたくなってきた。もともとロシア音楽は好きだし、スターリンの愛情と憎悪が入り混じる複雑な感情が表現されたロシア語に興味がわく。おっと、スターリンはグルジア出身だった。
My Heart Already Half Broken
山崎拓さんが「政府と連携せず」に北朝鮮を訪問するらしい。正気と思えない。議員が個人として外交に関わることを許すべきではない。政府の立場と食い違いが生じ、外交が混乱するのがオチだ。
一方、内閣支持率は首相の「顔が見えない」らしく、降下中。「顔の見えすぎた」前任者をさんざん批判しておいて、今度は見えないから支持率が低い。いい加減なもんだ。
1934 年12 月１日午後。レニングラード地区を担当していた中央委員会書記で政治局メンバーだったキーロフ（Kirov）が弾丸一発で暗殺された。粛清の始まりだ。
ありゃ、また「そうか」のみなさんのお題目がうるさい。
一方、内閣支持率は首相の「顔が見えない」らしく、降下中。「顔の見えすぎた」前任者をさんざん批判しておいて、今度は見えないから支持率が低い。いい加減なもんだ。
1934 年12 月１日午後。レニングラード地区を担当していた中央委員会書記で政治局メンバーだったキーロフ（Kirov）が弾丸一発で暗殺された。粛清の始まりだ。
ありゃ、また「そうか」のみなさんのお題目がうるさい。
Thursday, January 04, 2007
Nadya is Dead and Stalin in Sorrow
‘[Stalin] was too intelligent not to know that people always commit suicide in order to punish someone…’ wrote his daughter Svetlana, so he kept asking whether it was true he had been inconsiderate, hadn’t he loved her? (p. 93)
この本が読みにくいとすれば、それは登場人物の多さが理由ではなくて、ロシア名の通称・愛称だな。
この本が読みにくいとすれば、それは登場人物の多さが理由ではなくて、ロシア名の通称・愛称だな。
I Know I'm Love Sick Now
眠りは深くなかったが、今年の初日、何とか起きて仕事に行けた。よろしい。
スターリンは１日に500 ページも本を読んでたらしい。ページあたりの情報量が少ない日本語にすればさらにページ数は増える。独裁者もつらい。と、言ってもこの時点でスターリン崇拝をあまり感じないんだけど。
スターリンは１日に500 ページも本を読んでたらしい。ページあたりの情報量が少ない日本語にすればさらにページ数は増える。独裁者もつらい。と、言ってもこの時点でスターリン崇拝をあまり感じないんだけど。
Tuesday, January 02, 2007
Human Stalin
“Stalin: The Court of the Red Terror” でのスターリン。まだ70 ページほど読んだだけ。富農（kulak）を排し、生産を集団化（コルホーズ）。農産物を輸出して工業化を進める政策だ。その結果、農村部の飢饉が深刻化する。粛清は始まっていない。しかし、この人自身はやけに人間的に感じさせる。妻や子どもへの愛情の手紙に同志の健康を気づかう手紙。
スターリンは1878 年の生まれで、1953 年没。（1879 年生まれとする説は誤りらしい。）次に読む予定の“Nehru: a Political Life” の主人公ネルーは1889 年生まれ、1964 年没。10年の開きがあるが、ほぼ同時代を生きた人。
年末年始の休みの間にジムに行こうと思ったが、行かず。
数週間前に買ったプローンペースト（prawn paste）が見つからない。台所にも冷蔵庫にも。忽然と消えている。誰の仕業がすぐわかったが、あんまりだ。自分の気に入らないものは捨ててしまう……。家主（いえぬし）さん、勘弁してよ。
スターリンは1878 年の生まれで、1953 年没。（1879 年生まれとする説は誤りらしい。）次に読む予定の“Nehru: a Political Life” の主人公ネルーは1889 年生まれ、1964 年没。10年の開きがあるが、ほぼ同時代を生きた人。
年末年始の休みの間にジムに行こうと思ったが、行かず。
数週間前に買ったプローンペースト（prawn paste）が見つからない。台所にも冷蔵庫にも。忽然と消えている。誰の仕業がすぐわかったが、あんまりだ。自分の気に入らないものは捨ててしまう……。家主（いえぬし）さん、勘弁してよ。
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