ilyaさんの おぼえた日記 - 2012年7月27日(金)

｢一昨日は兎、昨日は鹿、今日はあなた (たんぽぽ娘, Robert F. Young)」
「Day before yesterday I saw a rabbit, and yesterday a deer, and today, you. (The Dandelion Girl, Robert F. Young)」

44 歳の妻子ある男 Mark は、未来からやってきたという若い娘 (the eyes blue as the sky と the vibrant light brown hair の) に出会い恋をする。（そういう役を演じることを楽しんでいるんだと考えて、M. は調子をあわせている。)
何回か、とりとめのない会話を交わした後、彼女は time machine が壊れかけていて、後一回時間旅行ができるかどうかだ、でもやってみる、と告げて姿を消す。

原文はこちら: http://www.lexal.net/scifi/scifiction/classics/classics_archive/young2/young21.html。
多読のお供にどうぞ (5700 words)。
で以下、ネタばれ。


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ずっと昔、彼女がおづおづと職を求めて彼の事務所に脚を踏み入れたとき、どれほど怯えていただろう。たった一人で全く違う時代へやってきて、自分に恋をした 40 代の男が、20 代でも同じ感情を抱くかどうか確信をもてないままに。彼女は約束通り帰ってきたのだ。... この 20 年ずっと、妻は知っていたのだ。私がこの 9 月、あの丘に登って陽射しのなかにたつ若く美しい彼女を見て、もう一度彼女と恋に落ちると。私の未来に起きることであり、彼女の過去に起きたことなのだから。... Anne (妻の名) のように、Julie (たんぽぽ娘の名) のように、年齢を知らぬ美しさをもつものが、どうして齢をとることを恐れるのだろう。小さな事務所の机の前に彼女が立ち、彼が目をあげ、その場で恋に落ちたその瞬間以来、彼の目に彼女が歳老いることなどなかったこと、いつも変わらぬ若い娘であり続けていることを知らないのだろうか。だから、丘にたつあの娘が妻だと分からなかったのだと。

Was that her full name? Probably. People invariably retained part of their original names when adopting aliases; and having completely altered her last name, she had probably thought it safe to take liberties with her first. She must have done other things, too, in addition to changing her name, to elude the time police. No wonder she had never wanted her picture taken! And how terrified she must have been on that long-ago day when she had stepped timidly into his office to apply for a job! All alone in a strange generation, not knowing for sure whether her father's concept of time was valid, not knowing for sure whether the man who would love her in his forties would feel the same way toward her in his twenties. She had come back all right, just as she had said she would.
Twenty years, he thought wonderingly, and all the while she must have known that one day I'd climb a September hill and see her standing, young and lovely, in the sun, and fall in love with her all over again. She had to know because the moment was as much a part of her past as it was a part of my future. But why didn't she tell me? Why doesn't she tell me now?
Suddenly he understood.
He found it hard to breathe, and he went into the hall and donned his raincoat and stepped out into the rain. He walked down the walk in the rain, and the rain pelted his face and ran in drops down his cheeks, and some of the drops were raindrops, and some of them were tears. How could anyone as agelessly beautiful as Anne—as Julie—was, be afraid of growing old? Didn't she realize that in his eyes she couldn't grow old—that to him she hadn't aged a day since the moment he had looked up from his desk and seen her standing there in the tiny office and simultaneously fallen in love with her? Couldn't she understand that that was why the girl on the hill had seemed a stranger to him?
...