受胎告知バルス・Annunciation Balse

宴を後にし

砂漠に繋がる湿った扉を開けると

辺りに人っこひとりいなかった

道へ出て記憶を手繰る

きた時には気づかなかったベンチに腰をかけ

目を閉じ、うつむいて右手の親指を手の甲に強く握りしめてみる

すると視線を感じ、ふと見上げると

すっとハチドリが横切る先に

あの見覚えのある大きな眼がまばたくことを覚えない

遠く近く

今をも昔をも

全てを飲み込むそれと目が合わないように

しかしすでに全てを見透かされているのは明らかであった

恐る恐る目が会うか合わないか

その瞬間

すでに無音であったのが、完全な真空とともに全て音という概念が消え去る

記憶と意思、思考、自分、私は吸い込まれていた

Leaving the banquet behind, I opened the damp door that opened onto the desert; there was not a single soul to be seen.

Stepping onto the path, I gathered the threads of memory, sitting down on a bench I hadn't noticed when I first arrived. I closed my eyes, bowed my head, and squeezed my right thumb tight against the back of my hand.

Then, sensing a gaze, I looked up. Just past the swift dart of a hummingbird, those familiar, wide eyes did not remember how to blink.

Far and near, present and past— I tried not to meet the eyes of that presence, which swallows all things whole. Yet it was already plain: it saw through everything. Trembling, on the knife-edge of our eyes meeting or not, in that exact instant—

what was already silence vanished into a complete vacuum, dissolving the very concept of sound.

Memory, will, thought, self—I was being drawn in,

少年のころ熱を出す度にみたあの夢

光を超えて宇宙を進み、もうどうにも止められない

グングン、と加速二乗、二乗、そしてまた二乗

限界is nothing

like that recurring dream I had as a boy whenever fever took me: traveling through the cosmos beyond the speed of light, powerless to stop it now. Surging forward, accelerating squared, squared, and squared again. Limits are nothing.

マリアナ海溝の底、宇宙の果て

光はもはや届かない

いや

光はわずかに後ろに置いてきてしまった

がそのわずかの断絶がとてつもなく

暴走する列車の中で声にならないものが込み上げてきて魂を極限までパンパンにする

止めてくれ

The bottom of the Mariana Trench, the edge of the universe: light no longer reaches here. No— light was merely left a fraction behind, yet that fraction of a rupture was monumental.

Inside a runaway train, something beyond words welled up, swelling the soul to its breaking point.

Please stop this—

体から飛び出した念が

新たな形を持って宙を浮き

万物の光がやっとこさ追いついてきて

鼓動をとらえ

私と万物はそこに一緒に置かれた

すぐ近くからシャンシャンというリズムとともに歌が聴こえてきて

The thought, wrenched free of my body, took on a new shape and drifted into the air. The light of all creation finally managed to catch up, capturing the heartbeat, and I and all of creation were set down there together.

From close by, a song arose to a chiming, rhythmic chime;

巫女が不思議な舞いを繰り広げ

みたことのない光が辺りを覆い

僕の目の前に、

そなたに言葉を授けよう

a maiden of the shrine wove a wondrous dance. An unseen light bathed the surroundings; she drew close before my eyes, saying she would bestow a word upon me.

耳元に寄って一言

バルス

その瞬間聴覚が戻り

体の速度は地球の自転に瞬時に調和したのが分かるや否か

目が覚める

BALSE

僕は自らの全ての魂を持って声を放ち

明らかになった道をひたすら歩き出した

Leaning to my ear, she whispered a single word:

Balse.

In that instant, my hearing returned. No sooner did I sense my body's velocity synchronize with the earth's rotation than I woke.

BALSE

With all the weight of my soul, I released my voice, and set out, simply walking down the newly illuminated path.