【98ページ】そして、無一文だった。恩給と、わずかな貯えを失った父親は、そのとき60歳を越えていた。多分、現実的な煩悶を重ねたろう。----で、母親がまず動きだし、私を連れて野菜や果物や穀類を田舎へ行って背負ってきて、街頭で売ることをはじめた。
----すると父親が、無言で、その一枚一枚の皺を伸ばして重ね、丁寧に算（かぞ）えた。そうして翌日の元手をわけて母親の前においた。残りは小机の上の古い葉巻の箱の中。それが私たちの所持金のすべてだった。
［ken］ 私が子どもだった頃、空き箱や空き缶、菓子折りの包装紙は捨てずに再利用したものです。わが家では葉巻とは縁がなく、箱さえありませんでしたが、大人になってから葉巻の箱を見たり、触れたりしましたが、それは桐の箱だったり、硬い上質な厚紙の箱だったと記憶しています。本書の「古い葉巻の箱」も大事な物を入れておく箱として、長く使われていたのですね。（つづく）
[page 98]
And he was penniless. Having lost his benefits and what little savings he had, his father was then over 60 years old. He probably went through a lot of practical agony. At ----, my mother started to move first, taking me with her to the countryside to carry vegetables, fruits, and grains on her back and sell them on the streets.
---- Then my father would silently stretch out the wrinkles of each piece, pile them up, and carefully count them. Then he divided the next day's principal and placed it in front of his mother. The rest was in an old cigar box on the desk. That was all the money we had.
［KEN] When I was a child, we reused empty boxes, cans, and wrappers from pastries instead of throwing them away. We never had cigars in our house, not even a box, but as an adult I have seen and touched cigar boxes, and I remember that they were either paulownia boxes or boxes made of hard, high-quality cardboard. The "old cigar boxes" in this book were also used for a long time as boxes for storing important things, weren't they? (To be continued)
おすすめブログ
@goo_blog
