赤い糸 - Akai Ito
Part 1 & 2
悠哉…
ｱﾀｼが愛してる人
でも、悠哉の瞳はｱﾀｼを見ていない。
ｱﾀｼの姿を見ても 声を聞いても。
悠哉…
あなたはｱﾀｼの中にある、姉の面影を探していますよね。ｱﾀｼの２つ上の姉、春菜の姿を。
悠哉は姉の春菜を愛してる
悠哉とｱﾀｼの出会いは、物心もついてない程に幼い頃。
悠哉も芽衣も、忘れてしまったくらいの遠い過去
4歳の春菜と2歳の芽衣を連れ、両親は購入したﾏﾝｼｮﾝに引っ越しをした。そして、そのﾏﾝｼｮﾝの隣室に悠哉とその家族が住んでいた。悠哉はその時、3歳。悠哉の両親と芽衣の両親は子供の年齢も近いからか、すぐに意気投合した。芽衣と春菜、そして悠哉も同じ幼稚園に通った。小学校、中学校も。いつも一緒だった。
小学校に入ったばかりの頃、芽衣は恋を覚えた。相手は悠哉。芽衣の初恋…悠哉に対する気持ち、
これがｽｷって事なんだ….
Yuya…
The person I love.
But, Yuya’s gaze doesn’t fall on me.
Even when he looks at me, even when he hears me.
Yuya…
You are searching for traces of my elder sister within me, aren’t you?
Haruna’s image.
My sister, who’s two years older than me.
Yuya loves my older sister Haruna.
Yuya and I met by chance when I was too young to know much.
A past so distant, that we have almost forgotten it completely.
When I was two and my sister, Haruna, was four, my parents purchased a condo and we moved. Then, Yuya and his family were living next to that condo.
Yuya was only three-years-old at the time.
Since Yuya’s parents and my parents had children of a close age, they seemed to hit it off right away.
Haruna and I, and also Yuya, went to the same kindergarten, and elementary school, and middle school. We were always together.
Just as I entered elementary school, is when I fell in love. That person was Yuya.
My first love was for Yuya.
This must be the feeling they call love.
Part 3
そして、その事に気付いた芽衣は姉の春菜に相談をした。子供ながらに何かを感じたのか、芽衣は春菜に言う事で『悠哉は芽衣の！』とｱﾋﾟｰﾙしてるようだった。
その夜、春菜は『同じｸﾗｽの男子がｽｷ』と顔を紅く染めながら芽衣に言った。その瞬間、ホッとした気持ちがしたのを覚えてる…でもその時、気付けばよかっ。悠哉の気持ちが春菜に向いてる事に、薄々感付いていたから不安だったんだってことに…
この時、引き返していたら。こんなにツライ想いをしなくてもよかった
三人の関係は、表面的には変わりなく続いていた。
忘れもしない、芽衣が中学2年の春までは…あの時のｼｮｯｸは、忘れられない。
桜が舞い散る中学の校舎の裏庭。
Then, after I noticed this love, I discussed it with my sister Haruna,
Even though I was a child, it seems as though I must have felt something, looking back on my actions I was trying to convey things to Haruna that showed Yuya was mine.
That night, Haruna said to me, blushing, “I like a boy in my class”.
At that moment, I remember feeling relieved… but at the same time, I should have been careful. I was only vaguely aware of the feelings Yuya had for Haruna.
If I could return to that time, perhaps I could avoid such painful feelings. The relationship between the three of us continued, superficially, unchanged.
I have never forgotten, until the spring of my second year of middle school, I couldn’t forget the shock I felt during that time.
In the backyard behind the middle school building, the cherry blossoms fell as if dancing.
Translation rationale -
This novel was rather difficult to translate. There were quite a few reasons for this, however, it was mainly the linguistic grammar that was difficult. For example, many of the endings in this novel were strange, such as “春菜の姿を” which had no verb after the “を” particle and instead just ends with the particle.
Another problem was dealing with this novel in a way that the feeling of the reading comes across in the English translation. Compared to Koizora, this novel has a slightly more sophisticated feel, using more kanji, using harder words and more complex grammar. As such, it was necessary to be able to convey this to the English reader, luckily much of this came naturally through the literal translation. However, it was also necessary to select words that fit these requirements. For example, the paragraph “Yuya…You are searching for traces of my elder sister within me, aren’t you? Haruna’s image. My sister, who’s two years older than me.” was difficult to translate as it was important to select words that worked well with the overall feeling. It couldn’t be too colloquial nor too formal.