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［English, 旅, 日記］

After all these decades, somehow they are always around

The following is a translated version of my former post “何十年経っても、なぜかそこに居る” on August 2nd (1st in the U.S.), 2020. In the article, I wrote about my major professor Lyle Laske, who was literally my all-time  “major” influence. Regrettably, my greatest mentor and dearest friend Lyle passed away exactly two years later. I recently received an invitation from his family for a memorial open house to celebrate Lyle’s life– with the message “Bring only your cherished memories to share.” I am afraid I cannot make it to the celebration on time, but I would like to share my memory of Lyle with his daughter Letitia, son Andrew, other family members and friends. In order to do so, I quickly translated the article written in Japanese into English. There could possibly be misspellings an/or mistranslations, but Please be tolerant of such inappropriateness.

Although I don’t fish,  I’ve got a minnow-shaped fishing lure made by a Finnish company called Rapala– the lure that is always around within my reach. (This small-fry-like bait may or may not be of minnow, though)

It was thirty-five years ago or so; my undergrad major professor at Moorhead State Univ. (present MSU at Moorhead) in the States, Mr. Lyle Laske used to take me out to lakes of Minnesota. One day, he took the fishing lure out of his tackle box and gave it to me. He didn’t even mean to drag me into fishing, but just wanted me to know how interesting and beautiful the form of this curtly simple lure was said he.

Ever since, this minnow has never swum in the water but always kept watching me over.

The bird figure– glued on the lid of a handmade  fubako (letter container), diverted from a candy box and simply painted in black– is shaped after the loon, the state bird of Minnesota. After his retirement, my major professor moved to a in the woods, build his own house and has been enjoying fishing and eagerly engaged in wild loon protection. Even before that, I already knew how he loved loons, so that I bought a small figure of loon after him, and made it the handle of the lid of the box that I would keep important documents in.
Both the loon and the minnow are always beside me ever since.

addendum:
No other person who has lived more intellectually and with a corroborate style (in the formal and/or spiritual meanings) than him is known to me.  What I have learned from him, who grew up close to forests and lakes as a son of part-time hunter in Wisconsin, are so much and invaluable. Admiring him for his way of life and wishing to be like him one day, I have lived my life. However, it may end up in an unfulfilled dream… Well, I would like to live, keep trying to be up to it while the minnow’s eyes wide open watch over me (and if I do something wrong, the loon might warn me with its shrill call.)

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［旅, 日記］

何十年経っても、なぜかそこに居る

釣りをやらない僕だけど、フィンランドのラパラという会社の作ったミノーの（小魚の一種、、、だけどそうじゃないかもしれない。ともかく）ルアー釣りの疑似餌が着かず離れず「その辺」にある。

それは、35年も前の話。アメリカでMoorhead State大学の学部生だった時の指導教授、ライル・ラスケ（Lyle Laske）が時々ミネソタの湖に連れて行ってくれたが、あるとき、彼の道具箱の中から僕にくれたものだった。別に、僕に釣りを強要しようというのではなく、ただこのそっけないほどシンプルな疑似餌の作りの面白さ、美しさを知ってほしいから進呈するんだ、と言うことだった。

以来、このミノーは水を泳ぐこともなく、常に僕を見守っていいる。

菓子箱を黒く塗っただけの手製文入れ箱の蓋に糊でくっつけたルーン（アビという大型の水鳥）はミネソタを象徴する鳥だ。件の教授は引退後に、マントラップ湖（人罠湖）というちょっと恐ろしげな湖のほとりの森の中にに引っ越して、自分で家を建て、釣りやルーンの保護に力を入れてきた。それ以前から、僕は彼がルーンをどれだけ愛していたか知っていたので、僕もあやかってルーンの豆人形を買って、大切な書類を入れる箱のツマミにしたというわけ。

このルーンもミノーと一緒に、ずっと僕のそばに居る。

追記：
彼以上に知的で、確たるスタイル（形式的な意味でも、精神的な意味でも）を持って生きてきた人を他に知らないし、ウイスコンシンの半職業猟師の息子として森と湖に親しく育ったライルから学んだことは計り知れないほど多い。そして、僕は彼の生き方に憧れ、いつかは肩を並べられるようにと生きてきた。でもそれは見果てぬ夢に終わりそうだけど、、、まあ、あの見開いたミノーの目に見守られて、それに恥じない生き方をしたいとは思う。（もしもおかしなことをしでかしたらルーンが大きな声で警告してくれるかも）

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