ブラフマンの埋葬 [Burafuman no maisō]

by Yōko Ogawa, 小川 洋子

読めば読むほどブラフマンがいとおしくなる夏のはじめのある日、〈創作者の家〉の世話をする僕の元にそれはやってきた――。胴の一・二倍もある尻尾と五つの肉球を持つブラフマンとのかけがえのない日々。

Genres: Fiction

180 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2004

About the author

Yōko Ogawa (小川 洋子) was born in Okayama, Okayama Prefecture, graduated from Waseda University, and lives in Ashiya. Since 1988, she has published more than twenty works of fiction and nonfiction. Her novel The Professor and his Beloved Equation has been made into a movie. In 2006 she co-authored „An Introduction to the World's Most Elegant Mathematics“ with Masahiko Fujiwara, a mathematician, as a dialogue on the extraordinary beauty of numbers.

A film in French, "L'Annulaire“ (The Ringfinger), directed by Diane Bertrand, starring Olga Kurylenko and Marc Barbé, was released in France in June 2005 and subsequently made the rounds of the international film festivals; the film, some of which is filmed in the Hamburg docks, is based in part on Ogawa's "Kusuriyubi no hyōhon“ (薬指の標本), translated into French as "L'Annulaire“ (by Rose-Marie Makino-Fayolle who has translated numerous works by Ogawa, as well as works by Akira Yoshimura and by Ranpo Edogawa, into French).

Kenzaburō Ōe has said, 'Yōko Ogawa is able to give expression to the most subtle workings of human psychology in prose that is gentle yet penetrating.' The subtlety in part lies in the fact that Ogawa's characters often seem not to know why they are doing what they are doing. She works by accumulation of detail, a technique that is perhaps more successful in her shorter works; the slow pace of development in the longer works requires something of a deus ex machina to end them. The reader is presented with an acute description of what the protagonists, mostly but not always female, observe and feel and their somewhat alienated self-observations, some of which is a reflection of Japanese society and especially women's roles within in it. The tone of her works varies, across the works and sometimes within the longer works, from the surreal, through the grotesque and the--sometimes grotesquely--humorous, to the psychologically ambiguous and even disturbing.

Reviews

[Yuko Shimizu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Because the title says “the burial of…” we know from the start that this lovely animal will die before the book ends . Knowing that, it’s still breaks our hearts.
For anyone with pets or experienced the heartbreak of the pet loss. And the reminder that the animals give us unconditional love but humans often forget to give that right back to them. 💔

[Rima Devi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Novel Karya Ogawa Yoko ini berjudul Burahman no Maiso (ブラフマンの埋葬) = Pemakaman Brahmana.
Ketika akan membaca novel ini terbayang cerita mengenai kaum Brahmana pada Agama Hindu. Namun setelah membacanya kiranya Burahman (Brahmana) adalah nama yang diambil dari pahatan batu nisan, kemudian nama ini diberikan kepada binatang hutan yang ditemukan oleh tokoh Boku, seorang penjaga rumah penginapan bagi seniman di satu kota kecil yang asri.
Diceritakan bagaimana tokoh Boku ini merawat Brahmana yang ditemukannya terluka di pinggir hutan, dan kemudian memeliharanya hingga tewas tergilas mobil yang digunakan Boku mengajarkan teman wanitanya mengendarai mobil.
Pemakaman Brahmana dihadiri beberapa seniman yang pernah berinteraksi dengannya yaitu seniman pahat, peniup terompet dan penulis.
Tidak dijelaskan binatang apakah sebenarnya Brahmana ini, hanya gambaran fisiknya yang mempunyai ekor dan kaki berkaki empat, suka menggigiti kaki meja dan makan biji bunga matahari seperti tikus, mempunyai kumis seperti kucing, suka jalan-jalan dan berenang seperti anjing dan suka bergelayutan di pundak Boku seperti kera.

[Luna · Rating 3 out of 5]

ブラフマンが猫じゃなくて、まずよかった、と思った(自分が猫を飼っているから)。それにしても、やっぱりそうなるかーって思ったような展開になってしまって、残念。でも、ブラフマンとの散歩しているときの自然の描写とかが綺麗で、ちょうど夏休みに読むにはぴったしな本だった。
この本で学んだことは、「恋は盲目」だということ。この場合、周り見えなくなるというか、何が大切かがわからなくなって、いつも自分のことを支えてくれた周りを傷つけてしまうことがあるんだなと感じた。

[Lonely Trekker · Rating 5 out of 5]

淡々と小綺麗に進む物語なのに、読後大泣きしました。大切な人を亡くした時にこんな風に泣いた記憶が蘇りました。こんなにも静かな物語でここまで感情が揺さぶられたことに衝撃を受けたので５つ星をつけました。