The Letter in the Cement Barrel
セメント樽の中の手紙
葉山嘉樹 · Japanese
A cement worker opens a barrel and finds a scrap of paper inside.
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Pagera Editor's Note
A cement worker opens a barrel and finds a scrap of paper inside. It is a letter from a woman at the cement factory whose lover fell into the crusher and was ground into the very cement he is now handling. She wants to know where it was used. Hayama, a proletarian writer who wrote from prison, delivers the whole thing in a few pages and ends on the reader's own hands.
Author
葉山嘉樹
Hayama Yoshiki (1894-1945) was a Japanese novelist and a central figure in proletarian literature. He worked as a sailor and a labourer and wrote parts of The Letter in the Cement Barrel and People Who Live on the Sea while imprisoned for union activity.
The Letter in the Cement Barrel
セメント樽の中の手紙
葉山嘉樹 · Japanese
A cement worker opens a barrel and finds a scrap of paper inside.
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Original (Japanese)
セメント樽の中の手紙 葉山嘉樹 松戸与三はセメントあけをやっていた。外の部分は大して目立たなかったけれど、頭の毛と、鼻の下は、セメントで灰色に蔽われていた。彼は鼻の穴に指を突っ込んで、鉄筋コンクリートのように、鼻毛をしゃちこばらせている、コンクリートを除りたかったのだが一分間に十才ずつ吐き出す、コンクリートミキサーに、間に合わせるためには、とても指を鼻の穴に持って行く間はなかった。 彼は鼻の穴を気にしながら遂々十一時間、――その間に昼飯と三時休みと二度だけ休みがあったんだが、昼の時は腹の空いてる為めに、も一つはミキサーを掃除していて暇がなかったため、遂々鼻にまで手が届かなかった――の間、鼻を掃除しなかった。彼の鼻は石膏細工の鼻のように硬化したようだった。 彼が仕舞時分に、ヘトヘトになった手で移した、セメントの樽から小さな木の箱が出た。 「何だろう？」と彼はちょっと不審に思ったが、そんなものに構って居られなかった。彼はシャヴルで、セメン桝にセメントを量り込んだ。そして桝から舟へセメントを空けると又すぐその樽を空けにかかった。 「だが待てよ。セメント樽から箱が出るって法はねえぞ」 彼は小箱
English translation (Pagera AI)
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Pagera Editor's Note
A cement worker opens a barrel and finds a scrap of paper inside. It is a letter from a woman at the cement factory whose lover fell into the crusher and was ground into the very cement he is now handling. She wants to know where it was used. Hayama, a proletarian writer who wrote from prison, delivers the whole thing in a few pages and ends on the reader's own hands.
Author
葉山嘉樹
Hayama Yoshiki (1894-1945) was a Japanese novelist and a central figure in proletarian literature. He worked as a sailor and a labourer and wrote parts of The Letter in the Cement Barrel and People Who Live on the Sea while imprisoned for union activity.
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