Naoko Yasuo [Japan]
I forgot what day it was. This is a story when I got lost in the mountains. I'm going back to my cabin in the mountains. On the familiar mountain road, I walked with a gun on my shoulder. By the way, I was completely in a daze, aimlessly thinking about the girl I liked best before.
Turning a corner, suddenly, I feel the sky is particularly dazzling, just like polished blue glass ... At this time, the ground is a little light blue.
"Huh?"
I froze and blinked twice. Ah, it's not the ordinary Chinese fir forest, it's the vast leaves, and it's also the flower field of blue balloon flowers.
I held my breath. Where the hell are you? How did you go the wrong way and suddenly come to this place? First of all, has there ever been such a flower field on this mountain?
(Go back at once! )
I ordered it myself. The scenery is so beautiful that I'm a little scared.
However, the wind is very good there, and the balloon fields are endless. It's a pity to go back like this.
"Just take a break." I sat there wiping my sweat.
Suddenly, my eyes lit up and a white thing was running. I suddenly stood up. An exhaust ball is swaying, and white animals are rolling like balls.
It is really a white fox. It looks like a child. I picked up my gun and ran after it.
I didn't expect it to run so fast that I couldn't catch up with it. It's good to try, but I want to find the fox's nest as much as possible and kill the big fox there. But the fox ran to a higher place, plunged into the flowers and disappeared.
I stood dumbfounded, as if I couldn't see the moon during the day. I was cleverly abandoned by it.
At this time, a strange voice came from behind: "You are here."
I was taken aback and looked back. There is a small shop with a blue sign hanging at the door, which reads: "Printing and dyeing platycodon grandiflorum shop". Under the signboard, stood a small shop assistant in a navy apron. I understood at once.
"Oh, it's a little fox that has just changed."
A funny, 1 vigorously from the bottom of my heart. I thought to myself: Hum, I pretend to be fooled and catch the fox. So, I tried my best to make up for the smiling face and said, "Can you give me a rest?"
Fox, who became a shop assistant, squinted and said, "Please, please." Take me to the store.
The shop is a mud room with five neat chairs and beautiful tables made of birch.
"Isn't this a good shop?" I sat in the chair and took off my hat.
"Yes, thanks to you." The fox respectfully brought tea.
"What does this printing and dyeing shop dye?" I asked half jokingly. The fox suddenly picked up my hat from the table: "Yes, everything can be dyed." Such a hat can also be dyed in beautiful blue. "
"outrageous!" I quickly got my hat back. "I don't want to wear a blue hat."
"Are you? So, "the fox kept looking at my clothes and said," How about this scarf? Also, how about socks? Pants, tops and sweaters can all be dyed into beautiful blue. "
But, I think, maybe people are just like foxes, and foxes must want to get paid. In short, they want to treat me as a customer.
I nodded alone. Even tea is served, but I'm not sure about anything and I don't think it's appropriate. I thought, how about letting it dye handkerchiefs? Put it in my pocket. At this time, the fox gave an abnormal scream: "Yes, yes, dye your fingers!" " "
"Fingers?" I lost my temper. "Can you stand dyeing your fingers?"
Unexpectedly, the fox smiled: "well, guest, dyeing your fingers is a particularly great thing!" " "
Say, put your hand in front of my eyes.
Two small white hands, only thumb and forefinger, dyed blue. The fox folded his hands and made a diamond-shaped window. His four fingers were dyed blue. Then, he put the window on my eyes and said happily, "Come, look!" " "
"Mm-hmm?" I made an uninterested sound.
"Hey, please watch it for a while."
So, I looked into the window reluctantly, and then I was surprised.
In the small window composed of fingers, you can see the posture of the white fox. That's a beautiful mother fox, sitting quietly, with her tail gently upright. That makes people feel that there is a picture of a fox embedded in the window.
"This, this is ..."
I was so surprised that I couldn't even make a sound. The fox said sadly:
"This is my mother."
"……"
"A long time ago, I banged."
"'click-'? Is it a gun? "
"Yes, it's a gun."
The fox lowered his hands feebly and lowered his head. It didn't notice that it exposed its identity, and then said:
"Even so, I still want to see my mother again. I want to see my dead mother again. Is this called human feelings? "
I nodded "mm-hmm" while thinking about things a little sad.
"Later, on such an autumn day, the wind swished, and the balloon flowers said in unison,' Dye your fingers and make a window!' I piled a lot of balloon flowers together and dyed my fingers with flower juice. So, look, here. "
The fox stretched out his hands and formed a window.
"I am no longer lonely, because I can see my mother at any time from this window."
I was moved to nod again and again. Actually, I'm alone.
"I want a window like this!" I make a childlike sound. The fox showed an unbearable expression of joy: "then, I'll dye it for you right away!" Please put your hand there. "
I put my hand on the table. The fox brought a plate and a pen with flower juice. Then, he dipped the pen in blue water and dyed my fingers slowly and carefully. After a while, my thumb and forefinger turned into platycodon grandiflorum color.
"Hey, dyed, please quickly form a window to see!"
My heart thumped, forming a diamond-shaped window, and then gingerly put it on my eyes.
Suddenly, a girl was reflected in my small window. Wearing patterned clothes and a hat with ribbons. That's a familiar face. She has a mole under her eye.
"Ah, isn't this a child?"
I jumped up. That was a girl I used to like very much, but now I will never see her again.
"Well, dyeing your fingers is a good thing, right?"
The fox smiled innocently.
"Oh, it's amazing!"
I wanted to pay some money, so I felt in my pocket, but I had no money. I said to the fox:
"Unfortunately, I have no money. However, I can give anything, such as hats, coats, sweaters and scarves. "
The fox said:
"Then, please give me the gun."
"a gun? That's a bit ... "
I think there's a problem. However, when I think of the great window I just got, I don't feel sorry for the gun at all.
"okay. Here you are! "
I generously gave the gun to the fox.
"Thank you for your concern."
The fox bowed quickly, took the gun and gave me some mushrooms as a gift.
"Please make soup tonight!"
Mushrooms have been packed in plastic bags.
I asked the fox the way home. The fox told me that behind this shop is the fir forest. After walking 300 meters in the forest, I arrived at my cabin. I thanked it and turned to the back of the store as it said. At first glance, there are familiar fir forests there. The sunshine in autumn is shining, and the forest is warm and quiet.
"hmm."
I admire it. I always thought that the mountain I was particularly familiar with had such a secret passage, such a beautiful flower field and such a friendly fox shop ... I became very comfortable, humming "whoops" and mending the window with my hands as I walked.
This time, it was raining outside the window. Thin fog and rain, no sound at all.
At that depth, I saw my nostalgic courtyard. Facing the courtyard, there was a veranda. Below, there are children's boots wet by rain.
That's mine! )
I suddenly remembered, and then, my heart plopped away. I think my mother will come to tidy her boots soon. She wore work clothes and a white towel;
"Oh, how bad, just throw it!"
I even seem to hear that voice. There is a small vegetable garden planted by my mother in the yard, and it is raining. Ah, unless mom wants to pick leaves and come to the yard. ...
There is a lamp at home. Turn on the light. Mixed with the music of the radio, two children's laughter came intermittently. That's my voice, and the other is the voice of my dead sister. ...
"Hoo-"I sighed and put down my hand. I don't know why, but I'm particularly sad. When I was a child, my home was burned down, and now the yard is gone.
Nevertheless, my fingers are very dexterous. Always cherish this finger, I want to walk in the middle of the forest.
Unexpectedly, what was the first thing I did when I returned to the cabin?
Ah, I washed my hands completely unconsciously. This is a long-term habit.
"Not good!" When I first remembered it, it was too late. The blue disappeared immediately. Washed fingers, no matter how they form diamond-shaped windows, can only see the ceiling of the hut.
That night, I forgot to eat the mushrooms sent by the fox and bowed my head in disappointment.
The next day, I want to go to the fox's house again and let him dye his fingers. So, as a thank-you gift, I made a lot of bread with meat and went to the fir forest.
However, no matter how you walk in the fir forest, it is still a fir forest. Balloon flower fields or something, nowhere.
Then for several days, I wandered in the mountains. As long as there seems to be a fox barking, as long as there may be a white shadow flashing in the forest, I will prick up my ears and search in that direction, motionless. But since then, I have never met a fox.
From time to time, I use my fingers to form a window to watch. I think I might see something. People often laugh at me: you really have a strange habit!
(translated by An Weibang)
Blue is one of Naoko's favorite colors. She said it was a blue flower field that touched her to write about the fox window. She transplanted this blue flower field into this fairy tale, together with the blue flower fragrance and the wind that swept the flower field and was dyed blue. The little fox in the fairy tale picked the blue of this flower field, dyed his thumb and forefinger blue, and dyed four fingers blue, forming a diamond-shaped "window frame"-the fox's window was born!
The hero of this fairy tale is a young man who hunts with a gun. I lost my way in the mountains that day, and just "turned a corner", I stepped into a fantastic world unnoticed. What you see is boundless blue: "I think the sky is particularly dazzling, just like polished blue glass ... at this time, the ground is a little pale blue." In the vast blue, there is a blue balloon flower field. What really makes readers realize that this is a fantasy world is the sudden appearance of the little white fox. Just like there are no white tigers and lions in the world, who has seen white foxes? The appearance of the white fox indicates that the "I" in fairy tales will experience a unique spiritual experience.
My first reaction when I saw the white fox was "chasing me with a gun". In a blink of an eye, the white fox became a person and a small clerk in a printing and dyeing shop who suddenly appeared from the ground. Pretending not to know, "I" went into the printing and dyeing shop and waited for an opportunity to catch the fox. Fox suggested dyeing my hat, scarf, socks, coat and sweater blue. I was hesitating when the fox suddenly offered to dye my fingers. Just when he wanted to refuse, the fox reached out his blue finger to form a diamond-shaped window and put it on my eyes. The fox's window is embedded in a fantasy world. What I saw through the fox's window surprised me. I wasn't interested at first! There is a beautiful fox sitting in the window, with its tail standing gently. She is fox's mother! It has been killed by humans with guns! How did she end up in Fox's window? Can foxes come back from the dead?
What a wonderful fox window this is! This window is a memory window: as long as you want to recall the past, you can see it in the fox's window! The past is covered with the riverbed of memory, and the flowing water of time can never float them. The more so, the more human beings who sail on the river of time in the boat of life want to salvage the past. The fox's window provides such an opportunity. Fox himself salvaged the past through this window-he really saw the memories he wanted to see most, and also saw the past in the memories, so as to pin his unforgettable memories on his dead mother. We noticed that the window of the fox was not born by the little fox, but was given to it by the blue balloon flower field after its mother was shot by human beings. Does this imply nature's sympathy for the weak creatures indiscriminately killed by human beings? Interestingly, if I get the fox's window, I have to exchange it with a gun. The idea came from little fox. I can't see it has a calculation. Otherwise, you won't be naive to expose your true identity. It just wants me to hand over my gun and soothe the eternal pain in my heart. The rational thinking contained in this dramatic setting is heavy, which touches the proposition of the times without trace: how can human beings live in harmony with nature and creatures in nature?
I handed in my gun and got the fox's window. The harvest far exceeds the pay. Through the fox's window, I saw more richness and complexity than the little fox saw. This is human nature. I saw two scenes. The first picture shows a girl who is in love for the first time. This foreshadowed at the beginning of the fairy tale-"I" and "Talking about my favorite girl before". This is exactly what I want to see. The scene in the window in the second picture is deeper-
It's raining in the window! Deep in the rain, there is a yard where I lived when I was a child. There are my little boots in the yard, which are wet by the rain. Mother's voice floated in the rain: "Oh, how bad, just throw it!" " "The lights are on at home. Under the lamp came the laughter of two children: one is mine and the other is my sister's ... warm family happiness, innocent childhood joy and poetic light. There is a deep feeling, a human touch, which has quietly spread. You know, the younger sister in memory is the one who has died, and the home in memory is the one that has been burned down, while the lively younger sister and kind home are so fantastically presented in the window set by the fox for "me". This poetic life is full of sadness. Because of the rain, the fine fog and rain have become wet.
In short fairy tales, the shadow of death floats twice: the dead mother fox and the dead sister of "I", which is deviant in children's literature creation, but both young readers and adults who are as childlike as the protagonist "I" can feel a deep and rich love from it.
After all, the fox's window is a prop of the fantasy world, so as soon as I walked out of that magical forest-it was not so much that I accidentally arranged it as that the author deliberately arranged it-I washed off the blue! As the blue painted by the fox on my finger quickly faded, the fox's window was left forever and became an eternal landscape in my memory.
(Dada)