「The taste of Brahma water」

 「The taste of Brahma water」

　先日、僕が早稲田大学4年生の時にインドブラマプトラ川川下り報告書「神の河　ブラマプトラの激流を下る」に書いた報告のような感想のような文章「ブラマの水の味」を自動翻訳してみました。

　以下のような英文になりました。英文にしてもなかなか面白い文章だと思うのでブログに載せたいと思います。

　英文タイトルは「The taste of Brahma water」というタイトルになりました。

　The taste of Brahma water

　That day was a day that had given me a bad feeling from the very morning. One of our members, Sekiguchi, suddenly announced in the morning that he couldn't go on the boat due to stomach pain. Sekiguchi and I were on one of the two rowboats as members of the Japanese team. As he was the general secretary of the Waseda University Frontier Boat Club, he knew more about river rafting than I did, even though he was a year older than me, and was therefore a reliable man who could make accurate decisions. However, he had been heading out into the grass several times that morning to hunt for pheasants, and he seemed to be acting strangely. In the end, it seemed his stomachache was getting worse, and he decided not to go on the boat.

　Thinking about it, I realized that the cause of Sekiguchi's stomachache was the fatty pork he ate yesterday during his stay in a town called Tuting. In this region known as Arunachal Pradesh, the locals look similar to Japanese people, and although I can't say for sure if this is the reason, their personalities also seem similar, and they are extremely hospitable when guests visit. However, perhaps the proverb "too much is as bad as too little" is true, and the extravagant hospitality can sometimes be a bit overwhelming. Perhaps because food is not particularly abundant in this region, which began with the Chang, hospitality in this region does not cause you to feel overwhelmed by overeating. What is most frustrating is when you are offered unfamiliar food and told it is a delicacy.

　That was the case with us. During our stay in Tuting, Sekiguchi and I visited a community (as the locals call it) with a Tibetan Buddhist (Lamaist) gompa. We were then invited to the home of a person we met there. We were delighted by their kindness and gratefully accepted their hospitality. We began with chang, followed by mandarin oranges, and then a drink called apong, similar to sake. As we slowly sipped our drinks in preparation for the evening (a dance with young village women was scheduled), we noticed an animal skin hanging on the wall next to a picture of the Dalai Lama. As Sekiguchi and I wondered what it was, the couple showed it to us and asked, "Would you like to eat this?" We wanted to try it, so we replied, "Yes, we'll eat it." They cut it up with a knife and offered it to us. It was pork fat, with the skin still attached. It smelled a little fishy, ​​but considering they'd offered it to us, we chewed it a little and swallowed it.

　That was careless of me. They must have found it delicious and ate it all up in no time, because they offered me another piece of fatty meat about twice the size of the previous one. I was hesitant to eat it because of the fishy smell, but Sekiguchi ate it with determination. I think it was probably this pork fat (which I think was quite raw) that caused Sekiguchi's stomachache.

　For these reasons, Sekiguchi did not board the boat, and a reserve member from the Indian side took his place. The sky was overcast that day, and I had a bit of diarrhea, so I had been feeling unwell since the morning. The rafting guide said to me, "Kazu (my nickname), you seem to be in a bad mood today," but I couldn't be bothered and replied casually, "Calmness is the Japanese spirit." The river was not particularly rapid, and we were moving along at a leisurely pace. Just after noon, we spotted some rapids, so we pulled the boat to the shore to check them out. From the shore, the rapids looked to be about grade 4.

　Without listening to the detailed explanation of the rafting guide about course selection, I thought we could go down at this rate. Chamoli, the leader of the expedition, wanted to take some photos, so I left him on the shore and set out on the boat.

　We all shouted a cheer to inspire us before we set off down the rapids, and as always, under the guidance of our guide, we started rowing down the slow-moving section in front of the rapids. When we went down this rapids, my boat went first (on this trip, we went down in two rows to ensure safety in case of capsizing).

　The waves were bigger than I expected from the entrance to the rapids. From this point on, I was so focused on paddling that I didn't think about anything else. The waves just kept getting bigger. I was positioned on the left front, and a wall of water appeared and disappeared in front of me. As we entered the rapids, the paddle became useless. The guide shouted, "Over front!" I moved to the front of the boat. I was being controlled by the waves and it was impossible to control the boat.

　Next, the guide shouted, "Overright!" I moved to the right edge of the boat. When about the fourth big wave approached, the guide shouted, "Drop" (to sink into the boat to avoid being thrown into the river). I moved from the right side to my position to the left front and dropped down. As the boat, leaning to the right, plunged headfirst into the wave, the boat tilted sharply to the left. Next thing I knew, I had been thrown out of the boat and was being swallowed up by the wave.

　　Somehow, I realized that the boat hadn't capsized and was in front of me, so I shook myself and paddled, and grabbed onto the boat. Looking around, I saw that all seven of us had been thrown into the river. First, I rescued two of them from the trough, and told the remaining person to swim to the right bank and land, and we docked the boat on the left bank and waited for the next group.

　Three members of the later team were also thrown into the river. Two of them were Japanese team members Yashima and Nakatani. Yashima is a Himalayan mountaineer, but this was his first time participating in a river rafting trip. I was worried when Yashima was thrown into the river, but he didn't look particularly shocked and was swept away to our boat. I was impressed that people who have experienced hell in the mountains could remain unfazed by something so minor. Yashima was swept away, but the other member, Nakatani, was not.

　He's a fellow student in the same club as me, and has a lot of stamina. I thought Nakatani would be okay, but he wasn't floating away. He was stuck in a swirling current and couldn't get out. What's more, he seemed unable to move, as he had hit his injured heel on a rock when he was thrown into the river. The Indian team members climbed over the rocks to the spot in the swirling current where Nakatani was stuck and rescued him. Nakatani seemed to have drunk a lot of water, and for a while he didn't speak and looked unwell. However, as the Indian team members' wry smiles grew into louder laughter, Nakatani began to cheer up as he responded with a wry smile.

　Nakaya drank a fair amount of the water from the Brahmaputra, and I also drank a fair amount when I fell into the river. The water of this river, which originates at the foot of Mount Kailash in Tibet, may be sacred. However, to those without faith, it is just water. When I saw myself like that, I suddenly became frightened of the river rafting I was doing.

　この英文を読んでみると、最後の

The water of this river, which originates at the foot of Mount Kailash in Tibet, may be sacred. However, to those without faith, it is just water. When I saw myself like that, I suddenly became frightened of the river rafting I was doing.

という部分が問題になるとだと思いました。

　The taste of Brahma waterがjust waterだと問題になるとだと思っています。

　without faith（信仰が無い者）にとってはjust wateと書いています。

　sacred　waterかholly waterと書かないといけなかったようです。

　まだ、早稲田大学4年生で23歳の頃に書いた文章なので、僕もかなり左がかって（左翼傾向）いてThe taste of Brahma waterがjust wateと書いてしまっています。

　僕は今では信心深い人間になっていて、お寺で手を合わせてお祈りをしています。

　自分の若い頃に書いた文章を読み直すと僕にも多くの問題があったと分かります。

　先日は、僕が早稲田大学4年生の時にインドブラマプトラ川川下り報告書に書いた報告のような感想のような文章「ブラマの水の味」を自動翻訳してみたのでブログに載せます。

　以上、「The taste of Brahma water」

　ブログに載せます。