'Yakusoku', written by Namie's mother - translation.

[Werewolf]

Namie’s Home Cooking

When I visit the ‘newly-wed Namie’ at her apartment, I see something that is hard to imagine when considering the ‘show business- Namie’ whom I see on television. I mean, Namie has an apron on and is standing in the kitchen! She would say to me ‘Mum, can you try the nikujyaga* that I made?’ (*Japanese dish made up of cooked beef, pork, potato, onion… take a look at this pic http://cooking.yaroze.jp/jpg/ry210.jpg )

I would try some and say: ‘Good job, good job! But maybe it needs a little more flavour?’

But to tell you the truth, she still needs a lot of work on the flavouring.
However, it’s just so much fun with her asking questions and me giving her advice like this. Ever since she entered show business, we used to have these awkward conversations, but now through cooking, we are finally able to have natural conversations again. And when I see Namie standing in the kitchen preparing meals for SAM, I earnestly think: ‘Ah… so she really wanted to marry’. Just by looking at her back when she’s standing in the kitchen, I can feel her happiness.

Taste is not that important. It was the same with me. Just like how Namie did not learn anything from me, I did not learn any cooking from my mother. After marrying, I read books on cooking, learnt from friends and relatives, and struggled in the kitchen from morning to night. Days continued where I would think about lunch and dinner right after finishing breakfast. All I was thinking about was how to make the food suit my husband’s taste, rather than just eat what I like.

There will be many mistakes. You will overcook things, things will be too sweet, too spicy…but especially in cooking, mistakes lead to success. You learn by making mistakes over and over. In terms of home cooking, rather than studying at a cooking school, what you learn from experience will be more useful. If there was something delicious that was made for you at a relative’s house, ask them how to make it, and try it out straight away. If you keep doing that, you will improve little by little.

In Namie’s case, unfortunately she doesn’t have any relatives nearby. She has cooking books to compensate for the fact that she has no one near her who can teach her directly, and that is enough. Youngsters nowadays don’t even know how to cook rice, and they say that there are girls who wash uncooked rice with detergent (obviously an over exaggeration that wants to say that young people don’t know how to cook). Namie can cook rice, and can also make miso soup* (tradtional Japanese 'soup'. Usually has tofu in it. Click here for a pic http://www.fujigrill.net/Miso-Soup-01.jpg ) Now she just needs to work on side dishes.

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If you are wondering, there are about 170 pages left in the book and I have only translated about 25 so far. I do not intend to translate the entire book, so from now on I might choose the bits that you all might be particulary interested in... but that is hard to say, so I have decided to offer a selection and get you to vote for which part you'd like translated. I'm sorry about this, but it's not only because it's hard work to translate, I also don't want to translate the entire book- it just doesn't feel right.

Anyway, university starts for me from next week so updates will not be as frequent as they are now. Maybe once a week, but I will try and post a relatively large chunk (maybe a little longer than this one) when I do decide to post.
For the meantime could you please indicate which chapter you would like to be translated from the following:

[1] About child rearing - exactly what the title implies, this chapter is about where Emiko Taira learnt to raise children, how she raised her children, how that effected the way Namie and her other daughters live and think about money etc. Also a bit about her grandchildren.

[2] My mother's divorce and about the father I have yet to see - focuses on Emiko Taira's background, in particular about her father (possible ethnicity, etc.), a little about her mother.

[3] Discrimination for being 'half' (Japanese) - about her stuggles with racial discrimination.

The one with the highest number of votes will be translated. Deadline = March 5th.

[Werewolf]

Màu đỏ là của tác giả, đọc chơi thôi nghen ^^.

About child rearing

Haruto is my 4th grandchild. My eldest daughter's marriage was early, so my first grandchild was when I was 42. I was glad but at the same time, I remember feeling a little embarrassed thinking 'What, I'm a grandmother already!' However, grandchildren are lovely. Franly speaking, I believe that they are lovely things. Certainly my own children are also lovely, but grandchildren have a different kind of cuteness, compared to children. First, there is a feeling of ease because you do not have the responsibility of being the parent. I love and spoil my grandchildren.

My eldest daughter often says to me: 'You never bought us anything we wanted and you were always strict, but you're completely different with your grandkids!'
She's exactly right. When I took my grandchild to Tokyo to visit Namie's place, there was this incident:

It was winter. Okinawan children have not experienced cold weather. I thought it would be terrible if he caught a cold, so I said 'let's go and buy a coat', and took my grandchild to Harajuku (popular spot for youngsters who want to buy clothes).
When we looked for a coat in a shop, we found a good one. In a hurry, without checking the price tag I said 'I'd like to buy this', and the shop attendant said 'That will be 45000 yen (approx $500US)'...

My grandchild was completely in love with it, so thinking it was too late to refuse to buy it, I bought it. That was the first time I'd ever bought something that expensive. But it's strange, if you think about how happy your cute grandchild becomes, it doesn't feel like you've spent too much money.

Of course I am not just spoiling my grandchildren. If they misbehave, I scold them, and I praise them for being good. I think that this is the iron rule of parenting.
When I was bringing up Namie and my other children, I didn't have time to think and simply living took out all my energy. It was the kind of lifestyle where even if there was something they wanted, I wouldn't be able to buy it for them.

I was often concerned about my child rearing abilities, thinking 'is it going to be okay like this?' The thing that was very useful to me at this time was a TV program on NHK (broadcasting agencyl) called 'TV teragoya'.

In particular, the now deceased doctor Bandou's words, which was 'Make children wait for 75 seconds. If your children are asking for selfish requests, make them wait for 75 seconds and they will give up. Don't ever listen to their requests,' made a big impression on me. Basically, there are children who will cry and throw a tantrum when they want something. If you leave them alone for 75 seconds, they will eventually give up. Even if they fall over and cry, if you think it is not a big deal, wait for 75 seconds and don't give them a hand. That way, they will stand up themselves. If you let them experience that once, they will grow well.

I engraved that advice in my mind and brought up my children. I am putting it into practice with my grandchilren, too. It doesn't matter if you have money or not- if you submit to all of their requests, no good things will happen.

My eldest daughter has 3 children right now, but all of their clothes are hand-me-downs (from Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary: a piece of clothing which someone has given to a younger relative or friend because they no longer want it).
Because Namie has been observing her elder sister's children doing this, she has said 'I'll just have the hand-me-downs from her place. All the nappies and baby clothes,'.
Actually my eldest daughter's first child is wearing things like a T-shirt that Namie used to wear, so it seems that my children do not need to have money spent on them at all.

[Werewolf]

When I look at my children, I think to myself, how nice it is when the siblings are always close together. I was an only child and only had a mother, so the thing I feel most is loneliness. When I was young, I was happy about being an only child, thinking ‘I can have everything to myself’, but when I started living by myself, I realized that I’m the only one who can look after her. I had no siblings who could help me. If my mother became ill, I would have to take full responsibility in looking after her. There was nobody who could help me or anybody I could consult.

When I think about this, the fact that my eldest daughter had 3 children would probably turn out to be a wonderful gift for them all. That’s why I’m saying to Namie: ‘If you’re going to have children, have at least 2’. Then again, even if I say something like this to Namie now, she is too busy with Haruto to be thinking about another child. ‘I’ll think about it gradually’ is the blunt reply, but Namie knows the merits of having siblings, and she has been observing her elder sister’s 3 children, so she knows although they can be annoying at times, having family is a joyous thing. I’m sure that in the near future, she will have her next child. I’m confident about this...

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Next chap. comin' soon about "The birth of Namie"(The reason why Emiko named her new born daughter 'Namie', problems in Namie's early life, Namie's unique skin colour.) ^^. Thanks for translated Federerexpress and Yes!

[zey]

áh; tên Alarm khủng bố +__+ vừa dịch xong mấy bài kia ngày hôm qua :gem39:

[zey]

dịch post #21

Namie nấu ăn

Khi tôi tới thăm 'nàng dâu mới Namie' tại nhà riêng của nó, những gì tôi thấy được thật khó tin nổi, tôi thấy được một Namie khác hẳn với ca sĩ Namie tôi thường thấy trên TV. Nó mặc áo nấu ăn và đứng trong nhà bếp! Nó hỏi tôi 'Mẹ, mẹ thử món nikujyaga* do chính tay con làm xem?' (* là món ăn Nhật nấu từ thịt bò, thịt heo, khoai lang tây, hành tây ...xem hình http://cooking.yaroze.jp/jpg/ry210.jpg )

Tôi nếm thử và gật gù: 'Được, khá lắm! Nhưng có thể nêm nếm thêm 1 tí?'

Nhưng sự thật là nó cần phải học hỏi rất nhìu về việc nêm nếm. Tuy nhiên, tôi thấy rất vui khi nó đặt câu hỏi và tôi tư vấn cho nó như thế này. Từ lúc nó tham gia vào ngành giải trí, chúng tôi không có buổi trò chuyện nào tử tế, lần này bày nó nấu ăn, mẹ con tôi cuối cùng cũng có cơ hội nói chuyện bình thường với nhau. Và khi tôi thấy Namie đứng trong nhà bếp chuẩn bị cơm nước cho SAM, tôi tự nghĩ: 'Àh ... vậy là nó đã thật sự muốn đám cưới'. Nhìn nó đứng trong nhà bếp, tôi cảm nhận được niềm hạnh phúc của nó.

Mùi vị ko phải quan trọng nhất. Cũng giống như tôi, Namie chưa từng được tôi dạy cách nấu ăn, cũng như trước đây tôi không học được gì từ mẹ tôi. Sau khi đám cưới, tôi đọc sách nấu ăn, học hỏi từ bạn bè và người thân, và tự mày mò trong bếp từ sáng cho tới tối. Ngày qua ngày suốt ngày tôi chỉ biết lo làm cơm trưa và tối ngay khi vừa lo xong bữa sáng. Lúc đó tôi chỉ nghĩ tới phải làm thế nào để món ăn vừa miệng chồng tôi hơn là nấu những gì tôi thích.

Sẽ có rất nhìu rắc rối. Bạn sẽ nấu quá chín, hay nêm nếm quá ngọt, quá cay ...tuy nhiên trong nấu ăn, những thất bại sẽ giúp bạn thành công. Bạn sẽ học hỏi được kinh nghiệm từ những thất bại. Để làm một người nội trợ tốt, thay vì tới trường học nấu ăn, tự bạn học lấy sẽ tốt hơn nhìu. Nếu bạn ăn được món gì ngon ở nhà người thân, hãy hỏi họ cách nấu món đó, và tự bạn nấu thử. Nếu bạn làm như vậy, bạn sẽ dần dần nâng cao tay nghề 'nấu nướng' của bạn.

Trong trường hợp của Namie thì lại khác vì nó không có người thân nào sống gần cả. Nó hoàn toàn phải tự học từ sách nấu ăn vì nó chằng có ai ở gần để dạy cho nó. Giới trẻ ngày nay cả nấu cơm cũng ko biết, và chúng tôi có rất nhìu cô gái ngay cả cách vo gạo cũng ko biết. Namie biết nấu cơm và làm canh miso* (canh truyền thống Nhật Bản, thường có đậu phụ, xem hình http://www.fujigrill.net/Miso-Soup-01.jpg ). Bây giờ nó chỉ cần học thêm cách làm thức ăn.

[Werewolf]

Dễ thương quá ><! Yes chuẩn bị tinh thần "chiến đấu" nha, hơi lười á, em chỉ post bài thui (còn dịch thì... ^^)

[zey]

dịch post #22

Nuôi dạy con cái

Haruto là đứa cháu thứ 4 của tôi. Đứa con gái đầu của tôi kết hôn sớm, vì vậy tôi có cháu từ lúc 42. Tôi rất vui nhưng cũng cảm thấy hơi ngại 'Cái gì, tôi đã trở thành bà rồi ưh!' Tuy nhiên, những đứa cháu của tôi rất đáng yêu. Thành thật mà nói, chúng là những món quà đáng yêu. Đương nhiên là những đứa con của tôi cũng rất đáng yêu, nhưng những đứa cháu cũng có sự đáng yêu riêng của nó. Trên hết, bạn sẽ thấy nhàn nhạ vè không phải có trách nhiệm như một bố mẹ. Tôi yêu và rất chiều cháu của tôi.

Đứa con gái lớn của tôi thường nói với tôi: 'Mẹ chẳng bao giờ mua cho chúng con những thứ chúng con muốn có và mẹ lúc nào cũng rất nghiêm khắc, nhưng mẹ lại hoàn toàn khác với cháu của mẹ!'.

Nó nói rất đúng. Khi tôi dẫn một đứa cháu của tôi lên Tokyo thăm Namie, đã xảy ra 1 chuyện như vầy:

Lúc đó là mùa đông. Trẻ em Okinawan chưa từng phải chịu khí hậu lạnh. Tôi nghĩ thật tệ hại nếu cháu tôi bị cảm, vì vậy tôi nói với nó 'chúng ta đi mua áo ấm', và tôi dẫn nó tới Harajuku (nơi bán hàng hiệu cho giới trẻ). Khi chúng tôi lựa áo trong tiệm, chúng tôi tìm được một cái rất ưng ý. Vì đang vội, tôi không coi giá tìm và nói với người bán hàng 'tôi mua cái này', và người bán hàng trả lời '45,000 yen' (gần $500 USD)...

Đứa cháu của tôi rất thích cái áo đó, với lại giờ cũng quá trễ để từ chối không mua, nên tôi đã mua cái áo đó. Đó là lần đầu tiên trong đời tôi mua một thứ mắc đến như vậy. Nhưng mà thật kỳ lạ, nếu bạn thấy được sự vui vẻ ngây thơ của cháu bạn, bạn sẽ ko cảm thấy là bạn đã tiêu quá nhìu tiền.

Đương nhiên không phải lúc nào tôi cũng chiều cháu của tôi. Nếu chúng cư xử không tốt, tôi sẽ la chúng, và nếu chúng ngoan ngoãn tôi sẽ khen ngợi chúng. Tôi nghĩ đó là luật sắc của những ông cha pà mẹ.

Khi tôi nuôi lớn Namie và những đứa con khác. Tôi không có thời gian để suy nghĩ chúng nó muốn gì vì đơn giản là lo cho cuộc sống thôi đã lấy hết sức lực của tôi. Cuộc sống lúc đó, dù tôi biết chúng muốn gì, tôi cũng không có khả năng để mua cho chúng.

Tôi thường lo lắng về khả năng nuôi dạy con của tôi, tôi cứ nghĩ 'như vầy liệu có ổn không?'. Thứ rất hữu ích cho tôi lúc đó là một chương trình TV trên NHK với tên gọi 'TV teragoya'.

Những lời của cố bác sĩ Bandou 'Bắt trẻ em phải đợi 75 giây, nếu chúng đòi một thứ không tốt. Bắt chúng đợi 75 giây và chúng sẽ tự từ bỏ. Đừng bao giờ nghe những đòi hỏi của chúng' làm tôi rất ấn tượng. Trên cơ bản, trẻ em sẽ khóc và nổi nóng khi chúng muốn một thứ gì đó. Nếu bạn mặc kệ chúng 75 giầy, chúng sẽ tự động từ bỏ. Dù chúng có lăn ra khóc, nếu bạn thấy đó là chuyện thường, đợi 75 giây và đừng ngó ngàng tới chúng. Như vậy, chúng sẽ tự đứng lên. Nếu bạn để chúng 'kinh nghiệm' 1 lần, chúng sẽ sống tốt hơn.

Tôi đã khắc sâu lời khuyên đó vào đầu và nuôi lớn con cái của tôi. Tôi cũng đang làm như vậy với cháu của tôi. Không phải vấn đề là bạn có tiền hay không, nếu bạn đáp ứng tất cả những đòi hỏi của chúng, thì chuyện tốt sẽ chẳng bao giờ xảy ra (chúng ko thể trở thành nhưng đứa trẻ ngoan).

Đứa con gái lớn của tôi hiện có 3 đứa rồi, nhưng tất cả chúng đều mặc quần áo cũ (từ họ hàng & bạn bè --- cái này Yes ko rõ, nhưng hình như vn mình cũng có tục lệ này, lấy đồ cũ cho đứa bé mặc để nó sau này ko đòi hỏi hay là gì gì đó, pà con tự hỏi má nha).

Vì Namie đã thấy những đứa con của chị nó ăn mặc như thể, nó nói 'Con sẽ lấy những đồ cũ từ chỗ của chị ấy. Tất cả tả và quần áo trẻ con'.

Thật ra, đứa con đầu tiên của đứa con gái lơn của tôi, mặc những đồ như cái áo sơ mi mà Namie từng mặc, vì vậy dường như mấy đứa con của tôi không cần nhìu tiền lo sắm những thứ này.

[zey]

dịch post #23

Khi tôi nhìn lại những đứa con của tôi, tôi tự nghĩ, thật là tốt khi chúng sống rất gần gũi ới nhau. Tôi là con một và chỉ có 1 người mẹ, vì vậy việc tôi thường cảm thấy là sự cô đơn. Khi tôi còn nhỏ, tôi rất vui vì là con một, tôi nghĩ 'Tôi có thể có tất cảm mọi thứ', nhưng khi tôi bắt đầu sống tự lập, tôi nhận ra tôi chỉ có một mình, tự mình lo cho mình, Tôi ko có anh chị em để nhờ vã. Nếu mẹ tôi bị bệnh, tôi phải một mình chăm sóc cho pà. Chẳng có ai giúp tôi và cũng chẳng có ai để tôi nhờ cậy.

Khi tôi nghĩ về chuyện này, chuyện con gái lớn của tôi có 3 đứa con là một món quà tuyệt vời của chúng. Vì vậy tôi nói với Namie: ' Nếu con muốn có con, có ít nhất là 2 đứa'. Tuy nhiên, dù tôi có lập lại điều này với Namie bây giờ, nó cũng quá bận rộn với Haruto không có thời gian để nghĩ tới chuyện có đứa nữa. ‘Con sẽ nghĩ lại chuyện này’ ;à câu trả lời cho-có của nó, nhưng Namie hiểu được cái tốt của chuyện có anh chị em, vì vậy dù nó biết giờ chúng sẽ 'ồn ào' nhưng có được 'gia đình' là một chuyện rất vui vẻ. Tôi tin chắc là trong thời gian tới, nó sẽ có đứa nữa. Tôi tin tưởng như vậy .....

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Chương kế tiêp sẽ về "Sự ra đời của Namie" (lý do tại sao Emiko đặt tên cho con gái của pà là "Namie", những vấn đề trong cuộc sống lúc nhỏ của Namie, Nước da đặc biệt của Namie)

[Werewolf]

The birth of Namie

Namie was born on the 20th of September, 1977. It was an easy delivery and everything went as expected. She was a big baby weighing in at 3980g. It’s often said: ‘give birth to a small child and raise her big’, but Namie was the complete opposite. Her siblings were small but Namie was different. However, she was healthy at the time so I didn’t need to worry about it at all.

I named her straight away, too. A little before her birth, in July or August, I became engrossed in a TV soap opera. I think it was a special program on NHK (an educational channel), where Reiko Ohara played the protagonist, and her character’s partner was played by Toshio Kurosawa. The story was about a heroine called ‘Namie’ who was played by Reiko Ohara, and she would be the victim of bullying and go through difficult times, yet live strong. The general plot was very similar to ‘Oshin’ (famous soap opera).

I am not really the kind of person who becomes absorbed in soap operas, but I became hooked on this one and was deeply moved. And so before the baby would be born, I had decided: ‘if it’s a girl, I will name her Namie’. I believed that if I gave her this name, she would endure any sort of hardship and suffering…

When I told Namie of how I came up with her name, she scolded me and said ‘You didn’t give it a serious thought at all, did you,’ but in the end, it might’ve been good that I gave her that name. This is because I thought once she would enter show business, they would give her a stage name, but her manager said ‘This is a good name. It’s well balanced and easy to say’, and it became her stage name just as it is.

From birth to naming, everything was going fine for Namie, but not even a month after she was born, her body was experiencing strange symptoms. She would not drink any milk at all. Even if I forced her to drink, she would throw it up. It was the same with breast milk or powder milk. She would throw it all up. And because she couldn’t drink milk, she did not grow much at all. Her weight only increased by 200g in one month.

I promptly went to consult this with the hospital. The doctor said that there might be something wrong with her stomach, and an examination using a gastrocamera ( http://web-japan.org/nipponia/nipponia10/start.html ) was taken. Can you imagine? A one-month-old baby must swallow a gastrocamera…I was outside the hospital room and I could hear Namie crying in pain, of having the camera inside her body. I just felt so sorry for her… so sorry. As a mother, there was nothing more painful than what had happened then.

However, the results of the examination showed that there were no abnormalities. They didn’t find anything wrong with her stomach, her brain, or any of her organs. Basically, the reason why she wasn’t able to drink milk was a mystery.

The doctor said ‘Seen as though there are no abnormalities, there is no reason to perform any medical treatment on her, but if you try and give her the milk that she doesn’t drink, you will just slow down her growth’, and I began letting her drink fruit juice as advised. She somehow gradually started to grow, and from then on she grew up without any serious illnesses.

Separating as if we were fleeing at night.

Divorce is the spouses' problem. However, for a child, losing the father is a big deal, and they have to worry about their life from then on. When I made up my decision to divorce, there was still a worry in the back of my mind. Namie was only 4 so that was okay, but my eldest daughter and son were old enough to understand what ‘divorce’ meant. I kept confirming with them:

‘If I separate with dad, you won’t be able to enjoy the luxurious life you’re having at the moment, and I won’t be able to ask you what you want me to buy, or what you want to eat. Is that all right?'

If either of my siblings objected against it, I may not have been able to divorce. However, my eldest son replied with conviction: ‘That’s fine. Let’s just get out of here’. It seemed like my eldest daughter had the same opinion. Since that was the case, the earlier we acted, the better. It wasn’t a divorce after negotiation- we left home as if we were fleeing. On Saturday afternoon, I waited for my kids to come home from school and then got on a taxi and left home, without taking any household belongings, except our own clothes. However, thinking it would be problematic for the children not to have a study desk, we carried out just 2 small desks. I also rented a room in advance. I thought it would be unfair for the children to change schools just because of moving houses, so I rented a basement from a photographer whom I knew, which was in the same school area. It was about a 10-minute drive by car, and the rate was 5000 yen (approx $50US). It was a windowless 6 jyou (unit of measurement for size of rooms in Japan... I am told that one jyou is approximately 3 by 6 feet or 90cm by 180cm) room that was like a cellar. Even if it was this horrible, leaving home and separating was the first thing we had to do.

It was May. In Okinawa, it was already hot as if it were summer. Since we left home without being able to take all the things we wanted, the thing that gave us the most problems was not having a fridge. In order to store things that melt or rot like butter and milk, a bowl with ice that I bought acted as a fridge. For baths we could go to public baths (public bath??!! yes, this is a traditional Japanese thing), and the laundry could be done by hand, but as for a television, even though I didn’t need it, I thought that the children would want to watch some programs, so a friend of mine talked to a electrical dealer in the neighbourhood for me, and rather than buying, we rented a black and white television for 2000 yen a month.

My eldest son and daughter would go to school from our emergency house, Namie would go to the day care centre, and I had to search for a night job. There was a snack bar opening near the place where we were living, and they were recruiting hostesses, and it was good fortune that they employed me immediately.

[Werewolf]

(phần này là tiếp theo phần đầu của đoạn trên, Namie's birth thì phải)

By the way... Namie's dark skin is kind of like a trademark, but actually, her brother and sister have fair skin. I also have the charasteristics of being 'half (European)' and have white skin. Namie is the only one who had dark skin.

When she was young, Namie was worried about the darkness of her skin and questioned at times: "why do I have different colour skin to (my) brother and sister?" Then, my eldest son would tease her and say things like: "'You're a black person's kid"...

The moment Namie was born, I thought she looked like my mother; that is, her grandmother, but as she grew I started to think: "she doesn't look like any of us". At our place we all call Namie a 'mutation'.

At any rate, she was dark skinned, and when she was directly exposed to sunlight, she would become tanned straight away. When I get sunburnt, I don't get a tan but become red, and it goes away in no time, but Namie becomes tanned in no time and it doesn't go away for a long time. In Okinawa, direct sunlight is strong all year round, so Namie's skin just becomes darker and darker.

The dark skin that she was worried about so much when she was a child is actually now in fashion, so it's a really strange feeling.

However, the strangest thing is probably how the little baby who couldn't even drink milk, has become a fine mother of a child. Even now, it feels a little unbelievable.