2019年6月5日
A Dosage of Medicine(1) by Akihisa Ogino, translated by J.Kageyama
The cherry blossoms were in bloom. People were beginning to accustom themselves to the passing of winter and the coming of spring.
A fifty-ish farmer, who claimed that I had once examined his son, came to visit me. I had sent word for him to come to the office, if the matter concerned an illness, but the man claimed that he had purposely come to the residence because he wished to talk in private with me.
Seeing his face, I recalled that he was Genzo Ohba, who lived in Hiratani Village and raised carnations in his green house. Once I had asked out of curiosity why his wife was never around, when their only son was in a life or death situation.
"She's been sick with rheumatism for twenty years," Genzo had replied, a tinge of detest in his tone. Then I had remembered that, even while his son was ill, Genzo had often been drunk.
I was familiar with the ways of the country-folk who had to ramble, even tracing their family history, just to talk about a son's illness, so I told him forthright, "Please make it simple."
