Elizabeth Costello : I believe in what does not bother to believe in me.──J. M. Coetzee

2016/08/07

オランダ語版 De schooldagen van Jesus/The Schooldays of Jesus


いつものようにクッツェーの新作はまず、アムステルダムのコッセ出版社から、オランダ語版が出版された。表紙は、なんと、羊さんである。

 De schooldagen van Jezus

英語版もいま見ると、予定より早く出るようだ。ブッカー賞のロングリストに入ると、扱いが違うなあ。イギリスの密林サイトでは、思ったより廉価で手に入ることがわかった。
 以下にコッセ出版社の書籍説明(Google翻訳)を貼り付けておこう。かなり突っ込んだ内容説明である。そういうことか、やっぱりなあ、と妙に納得。

JM Coetzee - The Schooldays of Jesus

Simón has arranged his life around his role as foster father of the wayward boy Davíd. Still, more is needed to understand the child, to love. He will have to open up to a world that was unknown to him; the rationale and thinking letting go and join a reality of intuition, feelings, music and dance.

They left in a hurry, fleeing the authorities. Simón and Inés find a home in Estrella, a quiet town that stands out with the special training. Since their six foster son Davíd not learn math or grammar, but - to the surprise of his parents - about the relationship between stars and dancing.

The pragmatic Simón understands nothing of the school, and less and less of Davíd. The boy constantly stresses Simón his real father is, and Simon's life lessons not penetrate to the child; feel Simón not understand something fundamental is growing by the day. But despite the unorthodox lessons, where school trips to a nudist beach to hear, Simón sees revive the boy. Only Dmitri, the caretaker of the museum located next to the school, worries him. Why he hangs all the time with the boy around with his clippings from dirty magazines, and his obsession with Ana Magdalena, the stunning dance teacher? Why he pops up everywhere, in the most unexpected places and moments, like a devil from a box?

The schooldays of Jesus shows us a father carrying his world view based on logic and facts, which relies more on his mind than his body, and a son who looks at all the opposite. But then something happens in the school that the whole city upside down. Simón slowly realizes that there might be another side of human existence: something besides thinking and reason. The body, the feeling, the dance; something still was elusive for him, but where Davíd living proof of that is. Simón does everything to love his son and finally understand.

The book of The Schooldays of Jesus by JM Coetzee is currently in stock in our warehouse. 

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Economistに掲載されたこの版画、クッツェーさんはいまではPCで原稿を書くんだけれどナ。五線譜と星と踊る少年ね。
"Life and Afterlife" というのは、意味深です。