Solution for Loneliness: Get Off Train One Stop Before Destination 孤独対策 一駅歩きます！

Japanese follows English.　英語の後に日本語が続きます。

A book I've been reading recently* says that uncertainty avoidance is different from risk avoidance. It goes on to say, "Anxiety ..... has no object. Uncertainty has no probability attached to it." 
* Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind by Geert Hofstede, Gert Jan Hofstede and Michael Minkov

Today, I would like to talk about loneliness from this uncertainty-anxiety perspective because I want to reduce my loneliness. 

First, I want to attach a probability to uncertainty about my loneliness as it's easier. The chance that I will end up living by myself is statistically 100% because my husband is five year older than I am and males' life expectancy is shorter than females' one in Japan. It's almost for sure that I'll live not necessarily lonely, but alone for the last ten years of my life.    

The next step is to identify what I'm so anxious about. Eating alone? Having no walking buddy? Having no one to talk to? Having no one to kiss? Having no one I drink with? Or dying alone?  

Now I realize that I'm scared of having no one understanding or caring for me. Of course, after my husband dies, I'll still have friends who care about me, but they wouldn't understand or care about me as my husband does. At this point, I again realize that it's understandable that they wouldn't understand me as deeply as my husband does because I'm not open to them and don't spend much time with them.  

The thing is that I have no energy left for others physically or mentally after using it for myself and husband. But I also know that I will end up lonely if I don't change and that it's too late to start building or deepening friendship after my husband dies. Real friendship takes time. So, what should I do to spend more time and energy for my friends before it's too late? 

The answer is simple. I need to be physically and mentally stronger to be more active and open, and listen to and accept others and for that, I have to eat, walk and laugh more. I'm going to get off the train one stop before the destination from today!

今読んでいる本に「不確実を回避することとリスクを回避することは違う」とありました。そして「不安とは何が不安か分からないこと、不確実とはそれが起きる可能性が分からないことをいう」とありました。ナルジマ風に言いますと、不安の根源を数値化、具体化できたら、もうそれは不安ではなく不確実なことになって対処しやすくなる、と言ったような感じでしょうか。
* Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind by Geert Hofstede, Gert Jan Hofstede and Michael Minkov

ということで今日のお題は「どうしたら孤独を減らせるか」です。

まず最初に「不確実の数値化」から。うちの旦那は5歳上です。平均寿命からすると、私の晩年10年ほどはほぼ確実に一人暮らしということになります。

次は「私は何を恐れているのか」という問題です。一人の食事？ 一緒に歩く人がいないこと？ 話し相手がいないこと？一緒に飲む人がいないこと？一人で死ぬこと？

ここまで書いて分かりました。自分を分かってくれる人、構ってくれる人がいなくなるのが怖いんです。旦那が死んだって友達はいる。だけど、旦那ぐらい自分を構ってくれるような人はいないし、旦那が死んでから友達を作ろうとしたって遅すぎでしょ。そもそも私、他人にオープンではありません｡｡｡

でも、私がもっとオープンになって、時間とエネルギーを他人に向けたら解決するってことも分かりました。今すぐはちょっと無理かも。自分と旦那で精いっぱい。でもここでまた開眼。もっと強くならなければいけないんですね、私。心も体も！ というわけで、もっと食べて、歩いて、笑います。早速、今日から一駅歩きます！

Whose Work Do We Read, Author or Translator? - A Pale View of Hills by Kazuo Ishiguro and Under the Midnight Sun by Keigo Higashino カズオ＝イシグロと東野圭吾

Japanese follows English.　英語の後に日本語が続きます。

Fans of mystery books always look for good mystery books. If you are interested in not necessarily murder mystery books, but mystery books with a literary bent, I recommend A Pale View of Hills by Kazuo Ishiguro because it contains a mystery. 

I wrote a post about the mystery about a year ago, asking the reader if my understanding is correct. Basically (spoiler alert: don't read this post if you haven't read the book and plan to read it), the story was about two pairs of mother and daughter and one mother (i.e., the protagonist) looks back on her life and starts to talk about a sad story of her own. The mystery is whether these two mothers are the same person because at one point while reading this book in English, you would find the two pairs almost completely overlapping.

And the problem or reason I wrote about this book one year ago is that you wouldn't be able to see that mystery if you read this book in Japanese due to a linguistic difference between English and Japanese. Japanese speakers usually omit the subject if they think that it's self-evident and this often causes a problem in translation as follows:

'"In any case," I went on, "if you don't like it over there, we can always come back.... (underlined by the writer of this blog)"' - A Pale View of Hills by Kazuo Ishiguro

The problem is that the underlined part is translated into Japanese that "行ってみて嫌だったら、帰ってくればいいでしょ," which can be re-translated into English that:
 ".... if (no subject) don't like it over there, (no subject) can always come back."  

The Japanese sentence has no subjects, so those reading this novel in Japanese generally assume that both subjects are the same, i.e., you or we, and in any case, they would be deprived of a chance to find this subtle change in the subject from "you" to "we" and to suspect (or realize) that the two mothers are the same single person. (For more details, please read this post.) 

I have recently received a comment and found that the commenter, who is Japanese and read this book both in English and Japanese, felt the same way. She also gave me a very interesting link to another blog on which people discuss the generally the same issue, i.e., whether the two pairs of mother and daughter are the same.

Personally I believe that Etsuko is Sachiko and I wouldn't have enjoyed this novel if I had read it in Japanese because I love mysteries. But I also know that without the knowledge the novel is still enjoyable, so the most important issue here is not which interpretation is correct (i.e., whether Etsuko and Sachiko are the same person or not), but that Japanese readers are deprived of the opportunity to enjoy this mystery.

As a translator, I understand the difficulty of translation and have no intention of criticizing the Japanese translation. So, I want to talk about another interesting thing related to translation.

I've read several novels by Keigo Higashino, a Japanese very famous and popular mystery writer, but I read them all in English. It's only because the author’s work isn’t available in digital format. I bought Journey Under the Midnight Sun, Malice, Salvation of a Saint and enjoyed all of them in English. But this contradicts my belief, "Direct communication is better than indirect one." So, one day I decided to read his another book in Japanese in paper form and went to a book store.

But I bought none because I felt embarrassed when reading the beginning of his another novel in the store. I didn't or still don't know why. Then, I realized that maybe part of the joy of reading the three books came from the translation? I went home and found they were all translated by the same translator, Mr. Alexander O. Smith. Thank you Mr. Smith for your translations and for making me realize that translation is very important. I'm gonna keep working hard to be a translator like you....

イシグロカズオ氏の「遠い山並みの光」について以前書いた記事に、verde arbolさんという方からコメントをいただきました。私が思っていたこと（悦子と佐知子は同一人物）をverde arbolさんもお感じになられていたようで、問題意識を共有できてとてもうれしく感じました。ブログってこういうところに書く喜びがあるんですね。

他の記事にも書いておりますが、私は翻訳を生業としております。ただ、文芸ではなく、もっとお固い、解釈の余地が少ない分野でお仕事しています。とはいえ、日本語と英語の行き来には日々考えさせられることが多く、やりがい、そして広がりを感じます。そうです。英語が少しでもできるようになると世界が広がります。私がこのブログを英語と日本語の両方で書いているのも世界を広げたいからです。いつか、このブログが日本語と英語の両方が行きかう場になればいいなと願っています。

そこで今日は翻訳ネタをもう一つ。実は私はミステリーが好きで、そういう意味でもイシグロ氏の「遠い山並みの光」はとても楽しめたのですが、ある書評で東野圭吾氏の「白夜行」がやはり殺人トリックよりも人の心に焦点を当てた良質のミステリーであることを知り、読もうとしたのですが、なんと、氏の本は日本語電子版がない。そこで自宅ペーパーレス化を推進する私としては仕方なく翻訳電子版を買いました。いや、面白かった。最後の方なんか、一気読みでした。その後も2冊続けて東野氏の英語電子版を楽しみました。

ところが、私の信条に「コミュニケーションは間接ではなく直接の方がいい」というのもあり、「やはり、日本語で読もう！」とある日、本屋に立ち寄り、東野氏の別の本を一冊手に取り、開いて、でも戻してしまいました。冒頭の日本語が恥ずかしく感じられて、読めなくなってしまったのです。（決して東野氏を批判しているものではありません！）その時思ったんです。もしかして私は東野氏とその翻訳者の共同作品を楽しんでいたのでは、と。家に帰って確認したら、読んだ3冊は3冊ともAlexander O. Smith氏の訳でした。Smithさん、ありがとう。翻訳の大切さを改めて認識しました。私ももっと頑張ってあなたのような翻訳者になります！

Having Career Decreases Woman's Marriage Chances in Japan? 働く日本女性は結婚できない？

Japanese follows English.　英語の後に日本語が続きます。

The book I've been reading recently answered my long-term question, "Does having careers reduce women's marriage chances"? The answer is "Yes" here in Japan.

Bedridden Elderly Worth More Than Those With Dementia in Japan 認知症と寝たきり、どっちがいい？

Japanese follows English.　英語の後に日本語が続きます。

A TV program I watched a few weeks ago showed a couple, a husband and a wife in their 90s, both suffering from dementia, expelled from one facility to another every one to three months. The reason is that their level of nursing care requirements, designated by the authorities, is relatively low, i.e., Level 2 on a scale from 1 to 5, because they are physically okay. In Japan, elderly who are physically fine, but mentally not (such as the couple) are considered to need less care requirements, tend to be categorized as a lower care requirements level and as a result get less care benefits even though they actually need more help, i.e., often going missing and caregivers having to find them even if it's midnight. Care homes, mostly privately run, don't want to accept such elderly people because of less profitability. It's easy to understand why physically fine elderly with dementia, such as the couple, aren't so popular.