Summer trips and a SF short story

（続き）

「バーサーカー　赤方偏移の仮面」フレッド・セイバーヘーゲン
浅倉久志・岡部宏之訳
昭和五十五年四月三十日発行早川書房

The music used for the slides was

LostDrone
[Classical] Distant Skyland (Free download)
SoundCloud

Old Hayakawa SF library.
I bought this at a small bookshop on a trip I took with my wife.
When we arrived at the inn and turned on the TV, there were one or two channels other than NHK. I went for a walk before dinner with my wife, who lamented that there was something she wanted to watch.
A small shopping street in a strange city. We found a bookshop and went in, which sold stationery and small toys in addition to books. Still, there were several Hayakawa SF paperbacks, and I bought one from a series I had never read. Partly because I was attracted to the cover art, but also because I imagined that the title story was clearly based on Edgar Allan Poe's The Masque of the Red Death, and was a reimagining of it.
My wife saw the paperback I bought,
'You read science fiction novels in translation too. That's great." She said. She may have read 'Brother Berserker', which had come out earlier.
Neither my wife nor I were science fiction fanatics, but we both liked interesting novels, although the 'jargon' peculiar to science fiction was beyond our comprehension, whether I read it in English or Japanese. My wife bought a weekly magazine and a plastic model of a mini-bike. She said she would try to assemble it at the inn. Of course, it was the first time for her to buy and build a plastic model. Was it a Honda Monkey or a Gorilla? When she opened the box, the red and silver parts were impressive.
I must have finished reading the title story beside her as she was assembling it, but I have no memory of the story. I couldn't take my eyes off the little bike that was gradually taking shape.
She must have taken the finished bike home, but I don't remember what happened to it afterwards.

On the way home, we got off once at Kyoto station, had a meal and my eye was caught by a beautiful thin blue-grey thing on display in a shop as we passed by. My wife had given it to me as a present, but before I knew it, it was gone too.
I keep remembering all the things I have lost.

古いハヤカワSF文庫。
これを買ったのは妻と行った旅先の小さな書店。
宿に着いてテレビを点けると、NHK以外のチャンネルは一つか二つ。見たいものがあったのにと嘆く妻と一緒に夕食前の散歩に出た。
見知らぬ街の小さな商店街。本屋を見つけて入ると、書籍以外に文房具、ちょっとした玩具も売っていた。それでもハヤカワSF文庫が幾つかあり、読んだことのないシリーズの一作を購入した。カバーアートに惹かれたという所為もあるが、表題作が明らかにエドガー・アラン・ポーの赤死病の仮面を下敷きにして、換骨奪胎していると想像されたからだ。
妻は私の買った文庫本を見て、
「翻訳のSF小説も読むんだ。エライね。」と言った。先に出ていた「皆殺し軍団」を彼女は読んでいたのかもしれない。
私も妻も、SFのマニアではなかったが、面白い小説は好きだった。SF特有の「専門用語」は英語で読んでも、日本語で読んでも理解の外ではあったのだが。妻は、週刊誌とミニバイクのプラモデルを買った。宿で組み立ててみると言う。もちろんプラモデルを買って作るのは初めてとのことだった。ホンダモンキーだったかゴリラだったか。箱を開けて目にした赤と銀のパーツが印象的だった。
彼女が組み立てている横で私は表題作を読み終えたはずだが、物語の記憶が無い。次第に形になっていく小さなバイクから目が離せなかった。
完成したバイクは家に持ち帰ったのだろうが、その後どうなったのか、覚えていない。