やまなし English

These are two blue lantern slides depicting the bottom of a small stream.

I. May

Two young crabs were talking at the bottom of the pale blue water.

'Kuramubon laughed.'

'Kuramubon laughed kapukapa.'

'Kuramubon leaped and laughed.'

'Kuramubon laughed kapukapa.'

Above and to the sides, the water looked blue and dark, like steel.

Across that smooth ceiling, dim bubbles drifted in clusters.

'Kuramubon was laughing.'

'Kuramubon laughed kapukapa.'

'Then why did Kuramubon laugh?'

'I don't know.'

The bubbles drifted along in clusters.

The young crabs also blew five or six bubbles in succession—pop, pop, pop.

The bubbles swayed and rose diagonally upward, glinting like mercury.

With a swift flash of its silver belly, a fish passed overhead.

'Kuramubon died.'

'Kuramubon was killed.'

'Kuramubon has died………'

'It was killed.'

'Then why was it killed?'

The elder crab spoke, resting two of the four legs on its right side on the younger one's flat head.

'I don't know.'

The fish glided back again and headed downstream.

'Kuramubon laughed.'

'It laughed.'

Suddenly everything brightened, and golden sunlight descended into the water like a dream.

Nets of light from the waves stretched and shrank beautifully over the white rocks on the bottom.

From the bubbles and tiny specks of debris, straight shadow-rods slanted into the water and stood in rows.

The fish then churned all the golden light around it into a mess, and itself turned an odd iron color with a dim glow from below, and swam back upstream again.

'Father, why does the fish go back and forth like that?'

The younger crab asked, moving its eyes as if dazzled.

'It's doing something wicked—it's catching things.'

'Catching things?'

'Yes.'

The fish returned from upstream once more.

This time it came slowly and calmly, moving neither fin nor tail, simply carried by the current, its mouth forming a perfect circle as it drifted along.

Its shadow glided dark and quiet over the net of light on the bottom.

'The fish is……'

Just then.

All at once white foam burst against the ceiling and something utterly dazzling—blue and glittering like a rifle bullet—plunged straight down into the water.

The elder crab clearly saw that the tip of the blue thing was pointed black like a compass needle.

Before he had time to think, the fish's white belly flashed once and flipped, seeming to rise upward, and then the blue shape and the fish were both gone, the golden net of light swayed and swayed, and the bubbles drifted along in clusters.

The two crabs were utterly speechless and frozen in place.

Father crab came out.

'What happened? You're trembling all over.'

'Father, something strange just came.'

'What sort of thing?'

'It was blue, and it shone. The tip was pointed this black. When it came, the fish went up above.'

'Were its eyes red?'

'I couldn't tell.'

'Hmm. But that was a bird—a kingfisher. It's all right, don't worry. It has nothing to do with us.'

'Father, where did the fish go?'

'The fish? The fish went somewhere frightening.'

'I'm scared, Father.'

'It's all right, it's all right. Don't worry. Look—birch blossoms are flowing by. See how beautiful they are.'

Together with the bubbles, many white birch petals came sliding along the ceiling.

'I'm scared, Father.'

The younger crab said the same.

The net of light swayed and swayed, stretching and shrinking, and the shadows of the petals glided quietly over the sand.

II. December

The young crabs had grown considerably, and the scenery at the bottom had changed entirely from summer through autumn.

White, soft rounded stones had tumbled in, and tiny crystal grains in the shape of little drills, and flakes of golden mica had drifted down and settled.

To the very bottom of that cold water, moonlight the color of ramune-bottle glass filtered through in abundance; overhead, the waves seemed to kindle and douse pale blue flames; all around was hushed, and the only sound was the murmur of those waves, as though coming from somewhere very far away.

Because the moon was so bright and the water so clear, the young crabs could not sleep and came outside, and for a while they blew bubbles in silence, gazing up at the surface.

'Mine are still bigger, aren't they.'

'Brother, you're blowing them big on purpose. If I tried on purpose I could blow them even bigger.'

'Go ahead and try. Oh, is that all? Watch—I'll blow one now. See? Big, isn't it.'

'It's not bigger—they're the same.'

'Yours looks bigger because it's close to you. Let's blow at the same time then. Ready—go.'

'Mine is still bigger.'

'Is that so? Then I'll blow one more.'

'No fair, you're stretching up like that.'

Father crab came out again.

'Go to sleep now. It's late—I won't take you to Isado tomorrow if you don't.'

'Father, which of our bubbles is bigger?'

'That would be your brother's.'

'No it isn't—mine are bigger.'

The younger crab was on the verge of tears.

Just then—plunk.

Something large, black, and round fell from the ceiling, sank slowly downward, and then rose back up.

Golden speckles flashed and glittered.

'It's a kingfisher.'

The young crabs drew in their necks and said so.

Father crab extended both his telescope-like eyes as far as they would go, looked very carefully, and then spoke.

'No—that's a yamanashi. It's drifting along. Let's follow it and see. Ah, what a wonderful fragrance.'

Indeed, the moonlit water all around was filled with the sweet fragrance of yamanashi.

The three of them chased after the yamanashi as it drifted softly along.

Their sideways scuttling and the three dark shadows on the bottom together made six things dancing, all chasing the round shadow of the yamanashi.

Before long the water murmured with a shimmering sound, the waves overhead raised ever bluer flames, the yamanashi tipped sideways and caught on a tree branch and stopped, and above it rainbow-light from the moon gathered in soft, billowing clusters.

'See—it really is a yamanashi, and it's well ripened too. What a fine fragrance, isn't it.'

'It looks delicious, Father.'

'Wait, wait—if we wait just two more days, it will sink down to us, and then all on its own it will make a fine, sweet liquor. Now then, let's go home and sleep. Come along.'

The family of crabs, all three of them, made their way back to their burrow.

The waves raised ever paler blue flames, swaying and swaying, and it was as though they were scattering dust of diamond.

*

And that is the end of my lantern-slide show.