Gauche the cellist [Miyazawa Kenji] Prt I Translated by SoRaJune セロ弾きのゴーシュ 宮沢賢治

Gauche the cellist　

Gauche was a cellist and working for a cinema
theater in the town. Unfortunately his
reputation as a musician was not so high,
actually he was regarded as one
of the poorest players in the band and the
orchestra master criticized him all the time.

In the afternoon, all the members were sitting
in the circle in the rehearsal room to
practice the sixth symphony for the next
concert held in the town.
The trumpets were singing vigorously.
The violins played the beautiful melody like
two string harps.
The clarinets added the deep sounds.

Gauche tightened his lips and gazed at his
score with wide opened eyes to concentrate
on the sounds of the cello with his all might.
Suddenly, the master clapped his hands. All
players stopped the music and the room
became quiet.　
The master claimed, “The cello is slow again.
Totte tete, tete-tei. Let’s start from this
part. One two three!”

Everyone started from the few lines back.
Gauche flushed and his temple was covered
with the beads of sweat. This time he could
play better and continue playing with a
little relief.

Again the master snapped his hands to break
in.
“On, no! The cello again! You hit the wrong
key. I have no time to teach you tuning.”
His co-players had pity on Gauche and looked
at their scores or tuned up their instruments.
Gauche corrected the tunes of his cello
immediately.
He was a poor player, so was his cello.
“Let’s begin from the one bar before. One,
two,three!”
All started again.
Now Gauche was curling up his lips and
strived with his music. This time it went better and sounded all right.
But again the master looked frown and snapped his
hands, which made Gauche’s heart throbbed.
This time he picked up another player
and Gauche bent his head over the
scores and pretended to contemplate the
music as others did.

“Ok, let’s continue! One, two, three!”

As soon as Gauche started playing, the master
stamped on the floor and screamed.
“No, no, no! This is terrible! This is the climax
of the piece, I cannot hear any heart of the music.
We have only ten days before the concert. We are
not the apprentices of the blacksmith or sugar
sellers but the music professionals. Shame on you!
Gauche, you are the problem. Why can’t you express
your emotions, like anger or joy? Not only you
cannot make harmony with other players but you
are as if dragging untied big shoes following
others from the behind. Have the pride. You are
the member of our Venus Orchestra. We do not want
harm our glorious reputation because of you.
Don’t you feel sorry for other members? Ok,
let’s call off by now. Have a rest and come back
at six.”
People nodded with agreement and left the room.
Some lit his cigarette.

Gauche tightly carried his humble boxlike cello and
faced the wall, tears rolled down from his eyes.
But he took out the courage and started practicing
the same tune from the beginning by himself.
Later at night, Gauche came home with a big
black carriage on his back. His home was not a
proper house, a half broken water wheel hut by
the river at the corner of the town. He was
living alone. In the morning, he picked up some
tomato branches or killed caterpillars on the
cabbages in his veggie patch and in the
afternoon left home for his work. A
into his room and opened the black case of
his old cello to be used in that afternoon. He
left it on the floor and grabbed one glass from
the shelf to drink water from the water bucket.

After settling on his chair, he shook his head like a
fierce tiger then started the same tune played in
that day. Again and again turning the scores,
he had learned all the music by his heart and practiced
it from the beginning. As passing over the midnight,
Gauche was so exhausted and looked nearly falling down on the floor.
His face and eyes turned very red.

Then, he heard knocking on the door at his back.
“Is it you, Hohsh?” Gauche has answered as if
being in his dream.
It was a big stray cat who slowly pushed the door
and came into the room. Gauche had seen him a
couple of times before. The cat carried half
ripened tomatoes from Gauche’s veggie patch
and put down in front of him saying, “These are
really heavy, I used all my might to drag here!”
“What are you doing here?” said Gauche.
“These are from me, please enjoy.” said the cat.
Gauche raised his voice to the cat, as he had such a bad day.
“Who asked you to bring the tomatoes? I don’t
take your offer. Actually these tomatoes are from my
field and still green. Is it you who bit
or kick my tomato trees? Go away!”

The cat dropped his shoulders and squinted his
eyes but wore a faint smile.
“Sir, please take it easy. Upsetting will harm
your health. May I ask you to play the Traumerei of
Schuman for me? I love to listen to it.”
“A cat is saying that to me?”
Gauche became outragous and thought how to give
a lesson to this audacious cat.
“No need to be polite, sir. Please play
the tune. I cannot sleep without listening
to your music.”
“Unbelievable, unbelievable, unbelievable!”
Gauche flushed with anger and stamped on the
floor like his music master. But changing
his mind and he decided to play the music.
“Now listen.”
Hurriedly he shut up all his windows and
locked them up, then turned off the light
while carrying his instrument. Through his
window bright moon light illuminated the half
of the room.
“What was your request?”
“Traumerei, the romantic piece by Schuman.”
said the cat plainly wiping his mouth.
“I see. Is this what you want?”

Gauche torn his handkerchief and put them
tightly in his both ears.
He started to play the tune called “Hunting
Tigers Out in Indiah” like a crazy storm.
For a while, the cat had been listening bending
his neck, then kept shivering his eyes rapidly
and jumped into the door. But the door was
closed tightly. He flicked his eyes as if he
had made the greatest error ever in his life. Now
sparks came out from his mouth, whiskers and
nose. It would be ticklish and he pulled his
face as if holding his sneeze. Then he
started running around in the room.
Gauche enjoyed looking the cat’s agony
and played more vigorously.
“Sir, that is more than enough. I will not
ask you the music from now on.”
“Shut up! We are catching the tiger now!”

That was beyond the cat’s patience and he
jumped up, ran around and pushed his body hard
towards the wall. The wall glowed in blue for
a while reflecting the cat’s shadow. Again
the cat started running around Gauche like a
quick turning windmill. The player also felt
dizziness and said, “I will let you go now.”
The cat said boldly, “Your music was
something funny today.”
The cat’s words ignited Gauche’s anger, but he pretended
to be calm and hold a cigarette in his mouth.
“How is your health? Let me see your tongue.”
While asking the cat, Gauche picked a match from a box.
As if fooling Gauche, the cat stuck out his long
pointy tongue in front of him.
“Oh, it looks a little rough.” said the
cellist and rubbed the match against the cat’s
tongue to light up the cigarette.

That was a huge shock to the cat! Turning
his tongue like a windmill and he bumped into
the entrance door many times and came back to
find the way out.
Gauche looked it with grin and said, “I let
you go now. Do not come back again.”
Gauche laughed at the cat who was running back among the
miscanthus bush like an arrow then had a sound sleep entire
rest of night with big satisfaction.

Next evening, Gauche came back home carrying a black
cello case again. After gulping the water, he
started practicing the cello. After the twelve
midnight or one o’clock or even two, he did
not finish his practice. He kept playing hard
without noticing the time. Then he heard
somebody knocking on the ceiling.
“The cat hasn’t learned the lesson yet.”
As Gauche shout out toward the ceiling, a gray bird
flew down from the corner hole. Having a
close look at the bird on the floor, he found out it
was a cuckoo.
“I cannot believe having another strange
guest. What do you want from me?” said Gauche.
“I want to learn the music from you.” said
the bird calmly.
“Music? Your song is only repeating the same
tune, ‘cuckoo’.” laughed Gauche.
“Yes, but our song is really difficult."
answered the bird.
“Are you saying it’s difficult? Your problem
is your hoarse voice, the tune is simple.”
“Oh, that is not so. If I sing ‘cuckoo’ like
this and ‘cuckoo’ like that, they sound
totally different.”
“That beats me.”
“You don’t understand. Ten thousands cuckoo
have ten thousands different songs.”
“Very well. If you already know the cuckoo music that
much why you do need me?”
“I want to correctly learn the music basics.”
“You don’t need it.”
“Yes, I do, before going to abroad, I want
to master it.”
“Are you sure you need music basics abroad ?”
“Sir, please teach me the music basics. I sing
following your tune.”
“That is enough. Ok, I play it for three
times. After getting satisfied, go home quickly.”

Gauche picked his cello and filliped the strings
to play do, re, me, far, so, la, si and do.
Then the bird hastily flapped his wings and said
“No, no, no. That is not what I asked.”
“What is it now? Show me your music.”
“Now listen.”
He straitened his body to make a posture then
said “Cuckoo.”
“Is it your music basic? You cannot make a
distinction between the sixth symphony and
simple tunes.”
“They are very different.”
“What is the difference?”
“You see when we sing ‘cukoo’ a lot.”
“That means playing like this?”
The cello player took his instrument again and
played “cukoo, cukoo, cukoo” many times.
That made the bird ecstatic and he started
singing with the cello. His song was so
passionate and bending his body to sing with
all his might.
After all, Gauche’s hand ached and said to
the bird, “That is enough. Stop the music.”
Glaring at Gauche with regret, the cuckoo
was still singing for a while then stopped.
Just before finishing, he raised his voice and said “Cukoo, cukoo,ka,ka,ka,ka.”

That made Gauche disturbed. He says, “Bird,
you must be satisfied by now. Go home.”
“Please play the tune again. It sounds almost
ok but still there is something funny in your
tune.”
“What are you saying? Why do I need to learn
from you?”
“Please, this is my last favor, sir. Please
play it for me just one more time.”
The bird politely bowed and asked him.
“This is the last lesson, then.”
Gauche held his cello again. The bird cleared
his throat and straitened his body saying,
"Please make your lesson as long as possible.”
Then he bowed to Gauche.
“You are demanding too much.” Gauche wore a
bitter smile and started playing. The cuckoo
again sang with all his might twisting his
body and passionately cried out, “Cuckoo,
cuckoo, cuckoo.”
That made Gauche irritated. But after playing
the tune for a while, he felt as if the
bird’s song was more proper than his music.
Actually, more Gauche and the bird repeated the same tune, better the bird sounded.
“Oh, I don’t want to play like a bird.”
Gauche suddenly stopped playing the cello.
The cuckoo toppled down as if being slapped
by his head. Finally he sang loud
“Cukoo, cukoo,ka,ka,ka,ka” then stopped.

TO　BE　Continued
http://d.hatena.ne.jp/Soraike123/20121223/1356223295