Dịch bởi Federerexpress
Tui để nguyên bản để tôn trọng tác giả, đọc sâu hơn về đời sống của Namie
Although I am quite confident, the accuracy is not guaranteed.
This book was written by Namie's mother, and was published in 1998. The entire book is written from her perspective. Everything in brackets is a comment made by me.
Reading this made me laugh, cry, and even become scared. It was a wonderful read and I wish to share at least part of this book with you fans.
The book is not really in chronological order... The first chapter starts off:
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Marriage, and the confession of pregnancy.
Summer, 1997. Backstage where the Tokyo Dome concert was held, Namie quitely vented to me (The phrase used here is ぽつりと漏らしました, which means to let out her feelings with just a couple of words or so) :
'I want to marry...' (What she said is 結婚したいなあ… which does not really have much impact to it. It's a soft way of saying 'I want to marry'. It's not as if she demanded that she wanted to marry, she probably kind of just murmured it dreamily. Maybe more along the lines of “I wish I could marry…’)
Of course at the time, I didn't take her seriously.
’It seems like you've come to an age where you start having desires like that...' was all I said, without paying too much attention but Namie replied quickly:
'Mum, would it be strange if I married?'
'It wouldn't be strange... but you still have lots of things to do don't you?' Shocked as I was, this was the reply I was finally able to give.
When I look back on it now, Namie probably would've wanted to directly say to me: 'I want to marry', and at the same time, check how I would react to the word 'marriage'. As proof of this, there was a phonecall from Namie only 1 month after the Tokyo Dome performance.
'It's been decided that I'm marrying SAM'
Even that was enough of a shock, but she went on:
'I'm also carrying a baby'
This was of great shock to me. Even so, I tried my hardest to stay calm and said to Namie:
'Right now I can't say "congratulations" to you whole-heartedly. Ask for your office manager’s consent first. He is like a father-figure for you in Tokyo, so you should get his consent first.'
For Namie, these words might have been cold and deserting. It seems like she was a little disappointed, saying 'nobody is congratulating me'. However, being suddenly confronted with the word 'marriage', I was not in the situation to be able to say 'good for you' openly.
I rang my eldest daughter's house immediately, but her reaction was one of unconcern: 'Namie finally told you? I think it's ok (the idea of the marriage)'.
Actually, my eldest daughter knew about it already. Elder sister and younger sister- there was an age difference of 3 years, and my eldest daughter had married when she was 18 years old, and already has 3 children. For Namie, she (the eldest daughter) understood her better than me, and they had been talking about marriage together (= discussing/gaining advice).
I felt a little upset because she had not said anything to me (= Namie had been talking about marriage with her sister, and not with her mother), but I was very happy that the two girls have a good relationship (helping eachother out). Despite the fact that they were far away from eachother, one living in Tokyo and the other in Okinawa, and despite the fact that they were both living 2 separate lives, I was able to rediscover the strong bond between the 2 girls.
By the way, my eldest son, being a man, didn't interrupt with either of the girls' businesses- he is the type of person who looks over them from a distance.
I merely reported the news of Namie's marriage to him by phone. At first he didn't seem to believe it and said 'huh?' in a comical tone, but soon after said 'She's stupid. What is she thinking'. But even so he seemed to have regained his composure and said 'It's ok. It's the partner she found herself'.
My children don't interrupt eachother's lives much. They each live life at their own pace. I think siblings should be like that. They're each walking their own path in life, but their hearts are closely bound together.
After obtaining permission from the office manager, the marriage had officially been decided to take place. She is still young, and even more, she is a celebrity who is at her prime in the show business world. If they look at celebrities as 'products' (= commodity), clearly, from the stance of the office, the marriage would have been objected. However, the manager treated Namie as a 'human' and as a 'woman', and not a 'product'. He acknowledged the marriage, as well as the need for some time off time for giving birth and child-raising. I am full of gratefulness for his decision and his understanding. And of course, Namie would probably be feeling the same thing but even moreso than me.
1 week before the announcement of the marriage, the manager called and reported: 'October 22nd is Taian (=lucky day according to a 6 day Japanese calendar), so we will enter her name in the family register then'. And I also received a call from SAM saying: 'Please allow me to marry Namie'.
I replied 'She doesn’t know anything about being a wife, and she can't do much, but よろしくお願いします (=hard to translate. something like 'thank you, and please take good care of her',)' doing nothing but lowering my head on the phone (continuously bowing to show respect, even though it's a telephone call).
He replied kindly: 'I know. Please don't worry'
In actuality, when I heard that the person she was going to marry was SAM, I was not all that surprised. At the Tokyo Dome concert I was introduced to him by the manager as Namie's dance teacher, and often saw him backstage in Namie's dressing room, so from that time, somewhere in my mind I thought maybe it's the person that Namie likes.
That reminds me- SAM was watching earnestly from the corner of the stage whilst Namie was dancing (I suppose at the actual concert).
SAM’s age is by far greater than Namie’s- rather, his age is closer to mine, and my first impressions of him was that he is very mature, speaks very little, and is a honest, hardworking person.
Since the marriage had been decided I talk a lot to my eldest daughter. Maybe it’s because when Namie was young she was very small and slender, but her ideal partner was a man who was big and strong. For instance, sumo wrestlers. Namie had been a big fan of Takanohana and Wakanohana. She was such a fan that when she entered the show-biz world, she said ‘Maybe now I can get to know them somehow!’
Whilst Namie was in Okinawa, the Okinawa Actors School was her love. She did not have a boyfriend, and when her older sister was doing things like writing love letters and giving gifts to her boyfriend, Namie would say ‘How stupid…doing things like that’.
I have not even heard anything about Namie’s first love. She was a child who had no glamour whatsoever. She was the youngest and most spoilt. Still more, she is living alone in Tokyo. She longs for company by nature, so I thought she would make a boyfriend. I saw an article in a magazine that stated she was dating a young man before SAM, and I thought ‘she finally found a partner’.
However, as for marriage, I thought vaguely ‘maybe around 30 years old’ . Okinawan people normally marry early, and in particular women typically marry by 25. Our family, myself included, married early. But Namie is in Tokyo, and is working in show business. I thought Namie’s marriage would come a little later.
I'm happy that you are all enjoying reading this. It will make you look at Namie in a different way for sure.
Also I think many of you will find what an amazing person Namie's mother was when you read through her experiences... there is still lots and lots to come. Here is the continuation.
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Rather, I thought that sharing a room with someone would come before marrying. Namie is a kind of girl who hated doing things the conventional way, so I thought she would not marry straight away, but instead first live together with the person she liked (convention in Okinawa = to marry, but she thought Namie would not stick to this convention).
This is slightly off topic, but the apartment that Namie and SAM are living in at the moment – it was originally where SAM was residing, but Namie wanted to stay as close to him as she could and rented out a different room at the same apartment. When I heard about this, I said ‘What a waste of money- why don’t you live together?’, but of course it’s only because they are now married that I can say this.
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That is the end of chapter 1.
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Trả Lời Với Trích Dẫn
... nhưng có vẻ có vài điểm khác với bản dịch này; và bản dịch này dài hơn; vì có nhắc tới cả anh trai của Namie; mà bản dịch Yes lấy ko có
Nguyên văn bởi Yes @ YAN
... nếu có thêm mấy chương sau; Alarm post lên luôn đê ...
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