A Lorry
When the construction of the light railroad between Odawara and Atami began, Ryohei was 8 years old.
Every day, Ryohei went to the outskirts of the village to watch the construction.
The construction――Just hauling dirt on a trolley――It was fun for him to look.
2 construction workers were standing on the trolley behind a pile of dirt.
The trolley came running down the mountain without any help.
The body of the trolley moved as if to stir, the hem of the workers' short coats fluttered, and the narrow railroad tracks bent, ――while watching such a scene, Ryohei sometimes wished he could be a construction worker.
Sometimes he wanted to ride the trolley, at least once, with the workers.
When the trolley came to the flatlands outside the village, it would naturally stop there.
At the same time, the workers would jump off the trolley lightly then quickly dump the dirt from the trolley at the end of the railroad.
Then they pushed and shoved the trolley and began to climb up the mountain from which they had come.
Ryohei wished he could push the trolley, even if he couldn't get on it then.
One evening――It was the beginning of February.
Ryohei went with his 2-year-younger brother and a neighbor kid to the outskirts of the village where the trolleys were parked.
The trolleys were still muddy and lined up in the dim light.
But everywhere else they looked, there were no workers in sight.
Fearfully, the three children pushed the trolley at the very end.
When the power of the three came together, the trolley suddenly started to turn its wheels.
Ryohei felt a twinge of trepidation at this sound.
But the second sound of the wheels no longer startled him.
Rumbled, rumbled――With that sound, the trolley, pushed by three hands, was about to go up the railroad.
After about 20 meters of this, the gradient of the railroad started to steepen.
The trolley, no matter how much they pushed it, didn't move anymore.
If they were not careful, they might be pushed back along with the trolley.
Ryohei decided it was time to go, so he motioned to the 2 younger ones.
"Come on, let's get in!"
They let go of at once and jumped onto the trolley.
The trolley, at first absentmindedly and then with great momentum, started down the railroad in a breath.
The scenery from the trolley was quickly split off to both sides and unfolded in front of them.
The dusk wind against his face, the movement of the trolley dancing under his feet――He was almost ecstatic.
But the trolley had already stopped at its original end point 2 or 3 minutes later.
"Now, We'll push it again."
Ryohei, with the 2 younger boys, started to push the trolley up again.
But before the wheels had even moved, they suddenly heard the sound of someone's footsteps behind them.
Not only did they start to hear it, but it suddenly turned into a shouting voice.
"You bastard! Whom did you ask in order to use the trolley?"
There stood a tall worker, wearing an old short-coat-with-seal and an unseasonable straw hat.
――When Ryohei saw it, he had already escaped for about 10 meters, along with the 2 younger ones.
――Never again did Ryohei think to ride the trolley in the unpopular construction site on his way back from an errand, even though he had seen it.
The only thing that remained clear in Ryohei's mind was the sight of the worker at that time.
A small yellow straw hat in the twilight――But even that memory seemed to fade in color every year.
10 days later, Ryohei was again standing alone on the construction site in the early afternoon, watching the trolley come by.
Then, besides a trolley laden with dirt, there was another trolley laden with sleepers coming up the thick railroad, which was to be the main line.
The men pushing this trolley were both young men.
From the moment Ryohei saw them, they seemed somehow friendly.
"They wouldn't get angry."――He thought as he ran to the side of the trolley.
"Would you like me to push it?"
One of them――the man in the striped shirt replied as pleasantly as he expected, as he pushed the trolley looking down.
"Oh, push on."
Once Ryohei was between them, he began to push as hard as he could.
"You are quite powerful, aren't you?"
One of them――the man with a rolled cigarette in his ear also praised Ryohei for this.
In the meantime, the gradient of the railroad began to ease up.
"You don't have to push anymore."――Ryohei was secretly worried that they would say that now.
But the 2 young workers, getting their waists up more than before, continued to push the trolley in silence.
At last, Ryohei couldn't help himself and inquired hesitantly.
"Is it okay to keep pushing it?"
"OK."
They both replied at the same time.
"They're kind," thought Ryohei.
After about half a kilometer or so of pushing, the railroad steepened again.
There were yellow fruits catching the sun on both sides of the field of orange.
"I prefer the uphill path, it makes me push forever."
――Ryohei thought as he pushed the trolley with all his might.
As they climbed up between the field of orange, the railroad suddenly went downhill.
The man in the striped shirt told Ryohei, "Hey, get on."
Ryohei immediately jumped on.
As soon as the three of them got on, the trolley started to run down the railroad in a heap, fanning the smell of the field of orange.
"It's much better to ride it than to push it".――Ryohei thought the obvious while letting the wind blow against his short coat.
"The more places we push on the way there, the more places we'll ride again on the way back."――So he thought.
When they came to a bamboo grove, the trolley quietly stopped running.
The three of them began to push the heavy trolley again, as before.
The bamboo grove became a thicket.
In some places on the gentle uphill, there were so many fallen leaves that they couldn't even see the red-rusted railroad.
When we finally climbed up the road, we saw a wide, chilly sea on the other side of a high cliff.
At the same time, Ryohei suddenly felt that he had come too far.
The three of them got on the trolley again.
The trolley was running under the branches of the trees, with the sea to the right.
But Ryohei was not in the same interesting mood as before.
"Just go home already."――He looked at it with that in mind.
But he knew, of course, that neither the trolley nor they would be able to return if they didn't get to where they were going.
The next trolley stopped in front of a straw-roofed teahouse, which owed its back to a hewn mountain.
The 2 workers entered the shop and began to drink tea talking with the madam who was carrying a baby on her back.
Ryohei looked around the trolley, irritated with himself.
The trolley had a sturdy carriage board with dry, ricocheted mud on it.
A short time later, as they were coming out of the teahouse, a man with a rolled cigarette in his ear (it was no longer there at the time) gave Ryohei standing by the trolley, a sweets wrapped in newspaper.
Ryohei said, "Thank you," in a curt manner.
But he quickly reminded himself that he was sorry for being so curt.
He put one of the sweets in his mouth as if to make up for his coldness.
The sweet smelled a petroleum that seemed to be stained in the newspaper.
The three of them pushed the trolley up a gentle slope.
Even though Ryohei had his hands on the trolley, his mind was on something else.
Down that slope to the other side, there was another similar teahouse.
After the workers had gone inside, Ryohei sat on the trolley, thinking only of going home.
In front of the teahouse there was a plum tree in bloom, the light of the western sun was fading.
"It's getting dark."――He couldn't just sit idly by thinking that.
He kicked the wheel of the trolley, pushed it groaning, knowing that it wouldn't move by one person――to distract himself.
But when they came out, they ran their hands over sleepers on the trolley and said to him carelessly.
"You go home. We're staying over there today."
"Your family will worry about you if you go home too late."
For a moment, Ryohei was stunned.
He realized――that it was dark soon, that there was 3 or 4 times distance to Iwamura which he had gone to with his mother at the end of last year, that he would have to walk back alone from now on.
He almost cried, but there was no use in crying.
He knew that this was no time to cry.
He bowed the 2 young workers a little formally and started running faster and faster along the railroad.
Ryohei continued to run along the side of the railroad for a while.
Soon He realized that the sweets-wrapping was getting in the way, so he threw it away to the side of the road, and took his slippers off there too.
Then the pebbles hit directly into the sole of his thin socks, but his feet felt very light.
Feeling the sea to his left, he hurried up the steep slope.
Sometimes the tears would well up and his face would naturally contort.――
He forced himself to endure that, but his nose emitted sound constantly.
The sky over Mt. Higane, with its sunset glow, was no longer red.
Ryohei was getting more and more worried.
He was worried about the difference in scenery on the way there and back.
He was also worried about the wetness of the sweat on his clothes, but he continued to run frantically and threw off his short coat to the side of the road.
It was getting darker and darker by the time he reached the orange grove.
Thinking, "If only I could save my life――," he ran on, no matter if he slipped or tripped.
When the construction site on the outskirts of the village was finally visible in the distant darkness, Ryohei wanted to cry.
However, even then he became crying face, but at last he kept running without crying.
As he entered the village, he saw that the houses on both sides of the road were already lit by electric lamps.
Ryohei could clearly feel the steam of sweat rising from his head in the light.
The women who were fetching water from the well and the men who were coming back from the fields saw Ryohei panting and gasping as he ran, and asked, "Hey, what's the matter?"
But he was silent as he ran past the brightly lit houses, a general store, and a barbershop, and so on.
When he ran to the gate of his house, Ryohei couldn't help but cry out loudly.
His cries had caused his mother and father to gather around him all at once.
Mother, in particular, managed to say something to him and tried to hold him back.
But Ryohei continued to sob and cry, struggling with his arms and legs.
His voice was so loud that 3 or 4 women from the neighborhood gathered at the darkened gate.
They asked him why he was crying, but he didn't say anything.
But no matter what they said to him, he had no choice but to cry.
When he looked back on the loneliness and helplessness he had been through on that faraway road, no matter how loudly he cried, he felt it was not enough............
Ryohei came to Tokyo with his wife and children when he was 26 years old.
He is now on the second floor of a magazine company, holding a red ink brush for proofreading.
But he sometimes remembers himself at that time for no good reason at all.
For no reason at all?――He is tired of the dusty work, and even now, there is a narrow path with the dimly lit bushes and slopes, in front of him as then.
(I translated A Lorry (トロッコ, Torokko) by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa.)
- To return to Japanese short stories translated into English
Every day, Ryohei went to the outskirts of the village to watch the construction.
The construction――Just hauling dirt on a trolley――It was fun for him to look.
2 construction workers were standing on the trolley behind a pile of dirt.
The trolley came running down the mountain without any help.
The body of the trolley moved as if to stir, the hem of the workers' short coats fluttered, and the narrow railroad tracks bent, ――while watching such a scene, Ryohei sometimes wished he could be a construction worker.
Sometimes he wanted to ride the trolley, at least once, with the workers.
When the trolley came to the flatlands outside the village, it would naturally stop there.
At the same time, the workers would jump off the trolley lightly then quickly dump the dirt from the trolley at the end of the railroad.
Then they pushed and shoved the trolley and began to climb up the mountain from which they had come.
Ryohei wished he could push the trolley, even if he couldn't get on it then.
One evening――It was the beginning of February.
Ryohei went with his 2-year-younger brother and a neighbor kid to the outskirts of the village where the trolleys were parked.
The trolleys were still muddy and lined up in the dim light.
But everywhere else they looked, there were no workers in sight.
Fearfully, the three children pushed the trolley at the very end.
When the power of the three came together, the trolley suddenly started to turn its wheels.
Ryohei felt a twinge of trepidation at this sound.
But the second sound of the wheels no longer startled him.
Rumbled, rumbled――With that sound, the trolley, pushed by three hands, was about to go up the railroad.
After about 20 meters of this, the gradient of the railroad started to steepen.
The trolley, no matter how much they pushed it, didn't move anymore.
If they were not careful, they might be pushed back along with the trolley.
Ryohei decided it was time to go, so he motioned to the 2 younger ones.
"Come on, let's get in!"
They let go of at once and jumped onto the trolley.
The trolley, at first absentmindedly and then with great momentum, started down the railroad in a breath.
The scenery from the trolley was quickly split off to both sides and unfolded in front of them.
The dusk wind against his face, the movement of the trolley dancing under his feet――He was almost ecstatic.
But the trolley had already stopped at its original end point 2 or 3 minutes later.
"Now, We'll push it again."
Ryohei, with the 2 younger boys, started to push the trolley up again.
But before the wheels had even moved, they suddenly heard the sound of someone's footsteps behind them.
Not only did they start to hear it, but it suddenly turned into a shouting voice.
"You bastard! Whom did you ask in order to use the trolley?"
There stood a tall worker, wearing an old short-coat-with-seal and an unseasonable straw hat.
――When Ryohei saw it, he had already escaped for about 10 meters, along with the 2 younger ones.
――Never again did Ryohei think to ride the trolley in the unpopular construction site on his way back from an errand, even though he had seen it.
The only thing that remained clear in Ryohei's mind was the sight of the worker at that time.
A small yellow straw hat in the twilight――But even that memory seemed to fade in color every year.
10 days later, Ryohei was again standing alone on the construction site in the early afternoon, watching the trolley come by.
Then, besides a trolley laden with dirt, there was another trolley laden with sleepers coming up the thick railroad, which was to be the main line.
The men pushing this trolley were both young men.
From the moment Ryohei saw them, they seemed somehow friendly.
"They wouldn't get angry."――He thought as he ran to the side of the trolley.
"Would you like me to push it?"
One of them――the man in the striped shirt replied as pleasantly as he expected, as he pushed the trolley looking down.
"Oh, push on."
Once Ryohei was between them, he began to push as hard as he could.
"You are quite powerful, aren't you?"
One of them――the man with a rolled cigarette in his ear also praised Ryohei for this.
In the meantime, the gradient of the railroad began to ease up.
"You don't have to push anymore."――Ryohei was secretly worried that they would say that now.
But the 2 young workers, getting their waists up more than before, continued to push the trolley in silence.
At last, Ryohei couldn't help himself and inquired hesitantly.
"Is it okay to keep pushing it?"
"OK."
They both replied at the same time.
"They're kind," thought Ryohei.
After about half a kilometer or so of pushing, the railroad steepened again.
There were yellow fruits catching the sun on both sides of the field of orange.
"I prefer the uphill path, it makes me push forever."
――Ryohei thought as he pushed the trolley with all his might.
As they climbed up between the field of orange, the railroad suddenly went downhill.
The man in the striped shirt told Ryohei, "Hey, get on."
Ryohei immediately jumped on.
As soon as the three of them got on, the trolley started to run down the railroad in a heap, fanning the smell of the field of orange.
"It's much better to ride it than to push it".――Ryohei thought the obvious while letting the wind blow against his short coat.
"The more places we push on the way there, the more places we'll ride again on the way back."――So he thought.
When they came to a bamboo grove, the trolley quietly stopped running.
The three of them began to push the heavy trolley again, as before.
The bamboo grove became a thicket.
In some places on the gentle uphill, there were so many fallen leaves that they couldn't even see the red-rusted railroad.
When we finally climbed up the road, we saw a wide, chilly sea on the other side of a high cliff.
At the same time, Ryohei suddenly felt that he had come too far.
The three of them got on the trolley again.
The trolley was running under the branches of the trees, with the sea to the right.
But Ryohei was not in the same interesting mood as before.
"Just go home already."――He looked at it with that in mind.
But he knew, of course, that neither the trolley nor they would be able to return if they didn't get to where they were going.
The next trolley stopped in front of a straw-roofed teahouse, which owed its back to a hewn mountain.
The 2 workers entered the shop and began to drink tea talking with the madam who was carrying a baby on her back.
Ryohei looked around the trolley, irritated with himself.
The trolley had a sturdy carriage board with dry, ricocheted mud on it.
A short time later, as they were coming out of the teahouse, a man with a rolled cigarette in his ear (it was no longer there at the time) gave Ryohei standing by the trolley, a sweets wrapped in newspaper.
Ryohei said, "Thank you," in a curt manner.
But he quickly reminded himself that he was sorry for being so curt.
He put one of the sweets in his mouth as if to make up for his coldness.
The sweet smelled a petroleum that seemed to be stained in the newspaper.
The three of them pushed the trolley up a gentle slope.
Even though Ryohei had his hands on the trolley, his mind was on something else.
Down that slope to the other side, there was another similar teahouse.
After the workers had gone inside, Ryohei sat on the trolley, thinking only of going home.
In front of the teahouse there was a plum tree in bloom, the light of the western sun was fading.
"It's getting dark."――He couldn't just sit idly by thinking that.
He kicked the wheel of the trolley, pushed it groaning, knowing that it wouldn't move by one person――to distract himself.
But when they came out, they ran their hands over sleepers on the trolley and said to him carelessly.
"You go home. We're staying over there today."
"Your family will worry about you if you go home too late."
For a moment, Ryohei was stunned.
He realized――that it was dark soon, that there was 3 or 4 times distance to Iwamura which he had gone to with his mother at the end of last year, that he would have to walk back alone from now on.
He almost cried, but there was no use in crying.
He knew that this was no time to cry.
He bowed the 2 young workers a little formally and started running faster and faster along the railroad.
Ryohei continued to run along the side of the railroad for a while.
Soon He realized that the sweets-wrapping was getting in the way, so he threw it away to the side of the road, and took his slippers off there too.
Then the pebbles hit directly into the sole of his thin socks, but his feet felt very light.
Feeling the sea to his left, he hurried up the steep slope.
Sometimes the tears would well up and his face would naturally contort.――
He forced himself to endure that, but his nose emitted sound constantly.
The sky over Mt. Higane, with its sunset glow, was no longer red.
Ryohei was getting more and more worried.
He was worried about the difference in scenery on the way there and back.
He was also worried about the wetness of the sweat on his clothes, but he continued to run frantically and threw off his short coat to the side of the road.
It was getting darker and darker by the time he reached the orange grove.
Thinking, "If only I could save my life――," he ran on, no matter if he slipped or tripped.
When the construction site on the outskirts of the village was finally visible in the distant darkness, Ryohei wanted to cry.
However, even then he became crying face, but at last he kept running without crying.
As he entered the village, he saw that the houses on both sides of the road were already lit by electric lamps.
Ryohei could clearly feel the steam of sweat rising from his head in the light.
The women who were fetching water from the well and the men who were coming back from the fields saw Ryohei panting and gasping as he ran, and asked, "Hey, what's the matter?"
But he was silent as he ran past the brightly lit houses, a general store, and a barbershop, and so on.
When he ran to the gate of his house, Ryohei couldn't help but cry out loudly.
His cries had caused his mother and father to gather around him all at once.
Mother, in particular, managed to say something to him and tried to hold him back.
But Ryohei continued to sob and cry, struggling with his arms and legs.
His voice was so loud that 3 or 4 women from the neighborhood gathered at the darkened gate.
They asked him why he was crying, but he didn't say anything.
But no matter what they said to him, he had no choice but to cry.
When he looked back on the loneliness and helplessness he had been through on that faraway road, no matter how loudly he cried, he felt it was not enough............
Ryohei came to Tokyo with his wife and children when he was 26 years old.
He is now on the second floor of a magazine company, holding a red ink brush for proofreading.
But he sometimes remembers himself at that time for no good reason at all.
For no reason at all?――He is tired of the dusty work, and even now, there is a narrow path with the dimly lit bushes and slopes, in front of him as then.
(I translated A Lorry (トロッコ, Torokko) by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa.)
- To return to Japanese short stories translated into English