Ольга Морисовна

今夜、「オリガ・モリソヴナの反語法」（米原万里）を読了した。どこまでが真実に基づいているのか、もちろん不明だが、チェコスロバキアやロシアでの実体験なしに書ける話ではなく、万里さんにとってプラハのソビエト学校での経験がどれほど強烈だったのかをあらためて感じさせた。また、「Sophie’s Choice」を思い出したりもした。以下は本題に大きく関係しないが、「あっ」と思った個所。

「…今は少女時代に親しんだロシア語を生かして翻訳者をしている。翻訳家ではない。文芸書を訳すような文才はないし、研究書を訳すほどの学識素養もない。それに、どちらも収入には結びつかないどころか持ち出しになる。…商社がロシア向けに売り込む機械の説明書や、契約書の翻訳が主な仕事だ」（48ページ）

プロレス技とレスラー名、それから来日したアメリカの野球チームと選手の名前以外に少年時代に外国語に親しんだ覚えはないが、翻訳家ではなく翻訳者というのも仕事の内容も、日頃考えていることとピッタリではないか。

「亜紀バレエ団で、藻刈富代が凡庸な才能とバレエには全く不向きな股関節の持ち主であるにも拘わらずプリンシパルの座を射止めたのは、藻刈の父親が団長の亜紀雅美に都内一等地のリハーサルスタジオをプレゼントした見返りだというのは、すでに日本バレエ界の常識になっていた」（147-148ページ）

誰のこと？あまりに実在する団体と人名に近い。

「…とにかく、台帳がないものだから、パスポート（日本のように外国へ渡航する際だけでなく常時身分証明書として携帯している）を持って行きさえすれば、台帳を新たに作ってもらえた」（468ページ）

数年前に見たロシア映画（Прогулка）でも国内を移動するのにパスポートを携帯していることを確認する場面があった。

From Leo Tolstoy to Yonehara Mari

This late afternoon at the Coffee Bean outlet of T.B. Plaza, I finished reading The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Other Stories. I can’t say I was able to understand the works on soldiers’ life well enough as probably happens with many Japanese people of the post-war generation and started 「オリガ・モリソヴナの反語法」 by Yonehara Mari  right there.  I should thank an engineer with whom I have worked with for six weeks for rekindling my interest in things Russian though he himself is not Russian but from Belarus.

Though for so long my Russian has been stuck on the level of “спасибо,” “пожалуйста,” and “хорошо,” it was “очень хорошо” to work with him, who also enjoyed his initiation to Japanese chicken “шашлык.” He even tried and liked raw chicken liver!

Comfort Taxi Drivers Make Me Feel Terribly Uncomfortable

Some work at MBS today. I decided to go to the Promenade MRT station by taxi to go home by MRT from there as it should be convenient.

The first “Comfort” driver didn’t know where the station is and couldn’t pronounce “promenade.” “Near where?” said he, passing his road map to ask me to find the station. I refused to take the map.  I asked if he is Singaporean, and he said, “From Malaysia. I’m new.” I don’t care. After a few meters, I got out of the taxi, saying, “I’ll report you to your company.” Shaking my head, I returned to the taxi stand.

Because there was a long line of taxies, I had no problem finding another one. My second one, “Comfort” again, had no idea about “Promenade MRT” either. He also couldn’t pronounce the word. I told him to go to the nearest MRT station.” He suggested City Hall, which I believe is not the nearest. He insisted on making City Hall my destination and then I said, “You are not the one who decides. I decide.” I really didn’t understand what this Singaporean guy was saying in English (was it English?) to explain why he didn’t know the place.  When I found an MRT station sign, I asked him to stop. He said it was not possible and drove on. After about half a minute, I had to ask, “Where are you going?” He only mumbled and perhaps after another half a minute he stopped at an MRT station, which without his knowledge was Promenade. As I was getting out, I said to him, "I'll report you to your company."

*

I finished a second reading of The Painted Veil I don’t remember when and I got and started Collected Short Stories Volume 3 of Maugham right away. This also done, I’m now reading The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Other Stories by Leo Tolstoy.

*

Newt Gingrich: "Remember there was no Palestine as a state. It was part of the Ottoman empire… I think that we've had an invented Palestinian people who are in fact Arabs and who were historically part of the Arab community. And they had a chance to go many places, and for a variety of political reasons we have sustained this war against Israel now since the 1940s, and it's tragic… Somebody ought to have the courage to tell the truth. These people are terrorists."

Information Manipulation? and Hotel Europe + Hotel Van Dyke

I received e-mails from Japan today that said, “I saw you on TV.” It seems it is only today that the events were reported there. There might be an embargo till today. But I found an article or two that reported the events were held only on 15th. Information manipulation?

*

I finished Maugham’s Collected Short Storied Volume 4 last Sunday though feeling quite sick with continuous sneezing. I got curious about the hotels named “Europe” and “Van Dyke” which he mentions in some of his stories. The Grand Hotel de l'Europe used to be standing where the old Supreme Court building is while Hotel Van Dyke was located in the area which we now call Raffles City and CHIJMES, formerly the Convent of the Holy Infant Jesus. With no new book, I picked The Painted Veil for my next round of reading.

11-11-11

On Friday, I arrived at Fullerton Hotel a few minutes past 13:00 and, after calling my contact person, went down to the ballroom floor. Then with her and a few others, I went up again to the ground floor and went into the restaurant to say “hello” to the actor who was having his lunch with his staff. In a T-shirt and sandals, he seemed a nice young chap. Then I reviewed some papers handed to me, and at 2:00 the press conference started. In half an hour, the conference was over and interviews by individual local media companies began. Nine interviews altogether… I with the Japanese TV crew was driven to another location, “nex” in the Upper Serangoon area, where an event with fans would be held. We waited quite a long time for his arrival. As a red carpet and premier event was scheduled to start at 20:30 at Cathay, people were worried if they might have to cancel his appearance at the meet-the-fans event. He and his own crew arrived just in time for a short interview with the MC and a prize presentation ceremony on the stage. The van that was carrying the Japanese TV crew and I arrived at Cathay before the one of his. After, say, 20 minutes, he appeared and walked down the red carpet at the end of which I joined him on the stage. After a short talk with another MC, we went to the VIP room for some rest and hurried to more short talks at four cinema halls. Then my work was over. Probably a success. Because I finished the day’s work at Cathay, I decided to have drink at CC. I walked to there. Soon after I started drinking, someone I know came in and I had small talk with him and a woman whom he claimed he had met for the first time in 18 years. After a few glasses, I found two young women, who used to be working at CC, drinking together. I joined them. Around 1:00 am, I received a call from the guy of the agency to which the actor belongs, who asked me about nightlife in this country. My interpretation work should have been a success.

Past Week

On 28th October, I finished a 3-week interpretation job the content with which by now I am familiar. Around a week before, I had an inquiry from someone I knew for another interpretation job for a media event, where an actor would appear, scheduled on 11th November. I answered I would be available. After exchanging a few messages with the film distribution company which was organizing the event and needed an interpreter, it was set that I would visit its office on Tuesday. During the meeting, they started to play a DVD of a movie I had never watched and the story of which I only had vague idea only through Wikipedia. I was asked to translate parts of it on the spot. A trial, sort of. Actors when they are acting do not talk as they would when they are who they are. Often they are overly histrionic, which is their job after all, making the whole thing unsuitable for interpretation. I said, “I have to say this is not how interpreters work.” They blushed. But I should have said “how I work” instead of “how interpreters work” as I have no idea as to how other interpreters work or how their minds are activated when they work. For my preparation, they lent me three movie DVDs in which this particular actor appeared previously. Over these years, I have learned that it is crucially important for me to put myself on the speaker’s shoes. In a sense, I must act his character. Looking at a screen and not knowing much about the speaker, in this case an actor, I was very much detached from his character. I was not him. Whatever they thought about me, I secured this assignment. Also on Tuesday, I received another inquiry from my former employer though the person who called me should have no idea that I was working some years ago at the very office where she was working now. The inquiry was about whether I could attend a meeting as interpreter to be held on Friday. I asked her to pass my contact number and e-mail address to the inquirer who needed an interpreter for the meeting. I submitted a quote to him and the job was secured. The meeting went smoothly as I believe, and my job was done. This afternoon, feeling pressed with time before the media event this coming Friday, I watched two of the three movies. They are the sequels of a series. I thought Part 2 went too far, diluting the impact of Part 1. Or I feel this way because I got just tired by the time when Part 2 was over. I have another DVD I am supposed to watch before an internal premier (pre-premier) of the latest film which is the sequel of this third DVD and I would attend.

She Seems to be Getting Lost + "Seis"

Around 5:00 pm today, I received a call from mother again who then started the same “I saw it wrong” story. What’s really happening to her? Who’s taking care of her condition? In The Book-bag by Maugham, I found the word “seis” of which meaning I am not sure.

Collected Short Stories Volume 4

Yesterday afternoon, I bought Maugham’s Collected Short Stories Volume 4 (20% off). I don’t remember if I have read this collection of stories, some of which are set in British Malaya but it is very likely that I have read it at least once. After I finished the volume 1 at Coffee Beans of T.B. Plaza, I started it at home.

Yakuza Story Concluded

Dewali holiday today. Last Monday (17th), when I was having beer before dinner with my client, mother called me and started repeating the yakuza story as if she had not remembered telling me the identical story. Impatient, I cut it short. And tonight, she called me again to tell me that he visited her today and she found it was all her imagination as I thought it was. On 20th, I attended a seafood dinner party at East Coast Park. There were 14 of us, six Koreans, two Sri Lankans, two Japanese, a Belarusian, a German, a Malaysian and a Singaporean. I didn’t touch chilli crab, fearing a sweat flood from the crown, and bamboo clams, fearing they are half-cooked. On 21st, my client, the Belarusian and I tried a Russian restaurant on Duxton Hill. It was a little too fine to our taste. I had my borrowed DSLR camera with me and found there was no memory card inside. Nothing was recorded.

Maugham's Short Stories Volume 1

Collected Short Stories Volume 1 (W. Somerset Maugham) followed The Razor’s Edge. Mostly I read it on train or in bed. This is my third, or fourth, time reading the book. Now I’m reading Gigolo and Gigolette, thus half way through. This Volume 1 is the first book in English I have read. It should be more than 25 years ago.

SHAME ON THEM

Last night with my client, currently visiting here, I had dinner that perhaps should be described super. Salute to the chef. After the dinner we walked around the area which used to be known for its seediness. It seemed cleaned up though the budget hotels that remain reminds one of its recent past. We decided to hop into one of the lounges for no obvious reason. Inside I found that the untidiness was something that I would see in Chinatown pubs years ago. And it seemed that nobody spoke much English and many of them none. A few poured beer for themselves from the jug we had ordered. I tried to communicate with one of the girls working there in Chinese not very successfully as she told us she was from Chongqin. We only had a jug of beer but it was a waste of time and money anyway. Then, we could, or should, have gone back to our abodes, in his case a hotel room. But we moved on to the by now familiar "Y." Time flowed nicely and we had already settled the bill and been ready to leave when one of the few customers present whom I had not met before stood up and said, "I am going to marry Miss so and so. I want to celebrate this occasion with all of you." Lovely. He offered Chivas Regal in shooter glasses to all of us and we obliged to accept. And after the celebratory toast, he was incoherent totally. So incoherent that no meaningful, or even civil, conversation was possible as he couldn't even give his name. He was behaving very badly going around the place to bother and annoy those who congratulated him in a polite and friendly manner. He then started leaning his body to my client and covering him and even touched his groin. And he did the same to me. He was saying, "I'm not gonna let you go tonight." By this point, my patience was thin enough. I gave a clear warning to him to behave himself as the way he was behaving was not anything I expected of anyone who asked us to stay on for his own reason. Not even words from him for appreciation. After all, we had no obligation to celebrate him and Miss so and so and we were ready to leave. Noticing I was objecting his behaviour severely, Miss so and so started abusing me. She said, "I will report you to the police. You are not a gentleman but a bastard. You took Chivas free from him." Be serious, Miss so and so. I did not ask for the glass. I only accepted it out of politeness and courtesy. She also mentioned the nationality he and I share. Sorry, I see a person as an individual. His nationality does not matter. Miss so and so, furious and unable to win verbally, seems to have decided to use physical force. She attacked me with violence. She tried to punch me and failed. Then she pulled my hair at which point the staff rushed to subdue her, or it seems so. There was another man, who had been drinking with this drunken husband and Miss so and so, and he did nothing to stop his disgraceful behaviour and her verbal and physical abuse. On the contrary, this man joined the fray and also tried to use force against me. Shame on them. I am absolutely sure that I did what any decent person would do in such a situation, especially when he is with his important client.

Who/What Killed Sophie?

I finished The Razor's Edge this afternoon, which I started reading for my second, or probably third, time after A Doctor in the House and「劇画暮らし」. Was Sophie killed by zubrovka or by Isabel, or her own wantonness? "Do you know who did it?" "No, but I do. I think you killed her." "... You only lack only one thing to make you completely enchanting." She smiled and waited. "Tenderness."

More of "He Became Yakuza" Story

She also told me that he was in bed with a fever for two days last week. And she claims the fever was because of the tattoo work he had gone through. I said, "Anybody can be in bed with a fever for two days." "No! He's never been in bed for as many as two days. It must be because of the tattoo!" I don't deny some people will become feverish after needle works. But it is most unlikely for him, a devotee to music, to allow himself to get connected with disagreeable, almost criminal, people. And she says when she talked to him on the phone, she heard that his current woman, apparently being behind him, was saying, "Put her into a nursing home." I'm far more worried about her capacity of thinking. It does seem to me that she is now living in the world of imagination. I have received "He went missing" calls a few times before and about three years ago, she called me to talk about "your (my) visit of the other day." By "the other day" she meant some recent day. The fact is that I had not met her for about a year then. She couldn't believe it at first but I eventually convinced her that she was wrong. Even when the capacity of reason deteriorates, one's core, tightly held belief may remain intact. If this belief itself is represented with negatives, that is "against something or someone," or a victim mentality, as seems to be my mother's case, the situation will be complicated, of course adversely.

Huge Emotional Disruption by "He Became Yakuza" Story

Today, her story was "He (my elder brother) became a yakuza. Last Monday, he brought some food he had cooked for me with his whole back tattooed." And she insisted it was not her imagination because "I did see it." My side of the story based on my recollection: At first she said, "He came with no shirt at all." When I pressed, she changed it to "He came in a white open collar shirt, unbuttoned. Wind blew the shirt off to reveal his back." He passed the food to the welfare worker who was at her place and left there quickly without a word to her. Did the welfare worker see the tattoo? "No, because he (or she?) was facing him." "We used to sit down and have dinner together, but these days he doesn't say even a word to me. This time, he hesitated to talk because if he had, he would have been asked about his tattoo." Does a yakuza cook any food for his mother? "He is still concerned of me." Worried, she contacted an office of the local government and even the local police. The police told her that they could not look into the matter (what matter in the first place?) when there was no allegation of law breaking on my brother's part. (It is possible she was throwing this part into the story from another episode.) Why do you think he has anything to do with any yakuza organization? "Some time ago, he was saying he was going out for drink every night. There is a drinking place near his apartment. As he is not really working, he should not be able to pay his bills. A yakuza group then started threatening him and tattooed him (against his will). It is totally unthinkable he would willingly tattoo himself." How can you be so sure he is still going out for drink every night? "Because he said he was going every night..." Some people do have tattoos because they wanted to. "I don't know about foreign countries, but it doesn't happen in Japanese society. Here, only criminals do." While we were talking, I checked the web to see where he lived. I found she was referring to the wrong area. When I tried to correct her, she insisted that she was right and she knew the area he lived in. "Terrible things such as this (yakuza and tattoo) happen because he is not working properly." How can you say so when you don't know anything about the way he works and the nature of his work? "He abandoned his piano, which HIS FATHER GOT AFTER MUCH EFFORT (surprisingly positive remark about my father)." Why do you think he need his piano for his composition? "... He is only making final copies for and arranging others' works." "He is not composing his own." How do you know? "I know because he told me so some time ago. The mistake is he is not working properly." "His woman (of whom mother has no clear idea at all, and I know no better than she) is contacting people." Who is she contacting? "..." (In our last conversation (about a month ago?), she mentioned that she was connection with "such people and he was being threatened by them." I ended the conversation by saying that "You story is so incoherent that I don't understand what you were saying.") "Why do I have to worry like this at this old age. I got you two (my brother and me) enough education. I brought up you two to lead a decent life." "I didn't force either of you to choose any particular kind of life." "And you wanted to go abroad, didn't you?" You don't understand a bit of my life here. And I didn't get any assistance from you for my going overseas. I must wonder what kind of decent childhood you gave me? "I PROTECTED YOU FROM YOUR FATHER (her familiar refrain)." Though familiar, this saying of hers almost exploded me. You really love to stress how much you suffered, but do you know I too suffered so much growing up in such a family? You even pushed me to visit father (because you didn't like to do so yourself)."I also suffered when I was young. Every child does. Then children can grow into adulthood. You don't understand what I have done FOR you. I never expected you to talk to me in such a harsh way (to disregard my effort and suffering)." Unspeakably unbearable, after about an hour and a half, I selected "End active call" of my mobile phone. Sorry, mother, but you are, and have been and most likely will be, impossible. My emotion is disrupted in a huge way. The only way to calm down even only a little is bang the keyboard. Isabel: "... A mother only does her children harm if she makes them the only concern of her life." (6, Chapter IV, The Razor's Edge)

Those Days in Kalamazoo + Lakeshore Limited

I am kinda emotional, remembering those days I spent in Kalamazoo, MI. And also my lone trip through the Lakeshore Limited of Amtrak to Boston via Tanglewood, Lenox, MA. Definitely, the documentary, "Ozawa," is bringing about this feeling. I was so young then... and full of hope.