本日、2015年7月18日は、Alfred Marksさんの95回目の誕生日となるべき日でした。
昨年のこの日は、ニューパルツ・ヴィレッジでは、Alfred Marks Dayとすることが議会で了承され、日本からも多くの祝福メッセージを集めて送りました。
だが、残念ながらAlfred Marksさんは、昨年12月23日にご逝去されました(
Alfred H. Marks博士(New Paltz) 死亡記事の翻訳参照)。
お誕生日である7月18日にAlfred Marksさんを偲ぶ会が開催されることになりました(
Alfred Marksさんを偲ぶ会2015年7月18日に決定
Marksさんにはいろいろとお世話になりましたし、尊敬もさせていただいておりましたので、偲ぶ会にはぜひ参加したかったところです。
ところが、残念ながら学校がとても忙しい時期なので、泣く泣くアメリカ行きを断念しました。
新見市内でもMarksさんと親交があった人たちからのメッセージを集め、私のメッセージも一緒に、ニューパルツのAaron Cohenさんに送りました。
私が送ったメッセージは以下の通りです(一部省略)。
Dear Marks Family:
I met Al Marks san for the first time when the first delegation from the Village of New Paltz visited Osa Town in October 1998. The delegation visited Niimi Women’s College (present Niimi College) and I welcomed the delegation as an interpreter. I still remembered when I told him my favorite American authors are John Steinbeck and Mark Twain, he told me that he has some papers on Nathaniel Hawthorne and Walt Whitman. He also told me that he had translated two of Yukio Mishima’s novels,
Forbidden Colors and
Thirst for Love.
Sometime later when I went to a used book store in Tokyo (visiting used book stores is one of my favorite hobbies when I travel), I encountered a copy of
Forbidden Colors translated by Marks sensei. I was very happy to find it, and got the book, on which I had Marks san signed later with the comment “To Kiyoshi Yamauchi, whose friendship I regret I did not have when I translated this book.” Now this book is one of my treasures in my library.
Another treasure book in my library is
Surimono, Prints by Elbow. After my wife and I married in 2003, we visited New Paltz in the summer of that year with my student delegation from Niiimi College. Our friends in New Paltz kindly had a party for the newly-weds. The large copy of Surimono was one of the gifts we received from our friends in New Paltz. It was by far and literally the largest wedding gift we ever got.
When our son was born, Marks san sent him the first jeans. He was too young to understand this at that time, but the picture we took of him with the jeans on is in our family album.
Through the sister city relationship between the Village of New Paltz and Osa Town/Niimi City, and Niimi College’s Study Tour to New York, I was privileged to see Marks san so many times. Dr. Marks gave me a permission to translate a booklet titled
New Paltz and the Pfalz into Japanese. This pamphlet is on the history of New Paltz, and I translated the 5th and the 6th edition of this and published them in
The Journal of Niimi Academy of Science and Culture in 2003 and 2007 respectively. This helps people in Osa/Niimi understand the history of our sister city, New Paltz,
The last chance I met my beloved Alfred Marks san was September 19, 2014. I was visiting New Paltz taking a group of students from Niimi College. Marks san welcomed me in his happi coat. I was lucky enough to be photographed together with him and his wife, Herta.
I know I am keep coming back to New Paltz many times more in my life. I also know that every time I come back I will certainly miss his friendly smiles, his good sense of humor and literal talk with the renowned man of letters.
マークスさん、どうもありがとうございました。Domo Arigato gozaimashita, Marks-san.
Kiyoshi Yamauchi
