Lessons from a movie on Turkish immigrants

　僕は英辞郎を使って英語を読みまくり、インターネットラジオのNHKのラジオジャパン英語ニュースで時事英語を聞きまくってます。（＾＾；また、VOAでヴォイスレコーダーにDLしたMP3音声とテキストも楽しんでます。
参考「こんな感じで英辞郎を使ってます」

Lessons from a movie on Turkish immigrants

07/22/2005

Ibrahim, an elderly Turkish immigrant who owns a small grocery store in a working-class district of Paris, is the protagonist of "Monsieur Ibrahim et les Fleurs du Coran" (Mr. Ibrahim and the flowers of the Koran), a 2003 film by Francois Dupeyron. The story revolves around Ibrahim's friendship with a lonely young boy.

2005年07月21日（木曜日）付
【天声人語】

　イブラヒムおじさんは、パリの下町で小さな食料品店を営んでいる。フランソワ・デュペイロン監督の映画「イブラヒムおじさんとコーランの花たち」（０３年）は、このトルコ移民の老人と孤独な少年の心の物語だ。

Egyptian-born actor Omar Sharif, now in his 70s, plays Ibrahim, a devout Muslim living quietly in his adopted country. In addition to his natural and dignified screen presence, the veteran actor gives a superb portrayal of an elderly immigrant who has craftily assimilated into this foreign environment, adopting the necessary facade to survive.

　異国でひっそり暮らす信心深いイスラム教徒を、７０代に入った名優オマー・シャリフが演じた。落ち着いたたたずまいは持ち前だが、その姿は、異国にとけ込もうとする移民の知恵や、必要に迫られて身につける「擬態」を表しているようだった。

France is certainly not the only country where society places great pressure on immigrants to blend in and not stand out. For first-generation immigrants, it is probably their lingering sense of connection to their home countries that sustains them as they strive to become acclimatized in their new lands.

　移民が周りから際だたない暮らしを強いられるのはフランスに限らない。周りにとけ込む姿勢をとりつつも、移民一世の場合は母国への思いが心の支えになっているのだろう。

Most of the suspects in the July 7 London bombings were of Pakistani origin, but were born and raised in Britain by parents who had emigrated from what used to be British-ruled India. In recent years, however, an issue that is being re-examined is, "Do second- and third-generation Britons from immigrant families really feel as though they belong in their adopted country?"

　ロンドンの同時爆弾テロ事件の容疑者の多くはパキスタン系だった。親たちが、かつて植民地支配していた英国に来た後に生まれた。そして近年、こうした移民二世や三世の帰属意識が改めて注目されている。

According to a recent survey of Muslims in Britain by the London-based Islamic Human Rights Commission, only about 40 percent of the respondents said they felt they were "members of British society." But 80 percent said they have been discriminated against. Does this mean there are many young men who feel completely alienated in a land that they don't identify with?

　ロンドンのイスラム人権委員会のアンケートで「英国社会の一員だ」と答えたイスラム教徒は約４割にとどまった。一方で「差別を受けた」と答えた人は８割もいた。母なる国も、安らげる居場所も無いという悲痛な思いで日々を過ごす青年も多いのか。

In the film, old Ibrahim adopts the orphaned boy and takes him on a trip to Turkey, where they find peace of mind as well as sorrow. The old man passes away in his native land, while the boy overcomes this loss of his adoptive father and learns to live again. This is a story told with gentle, understated charm about what is apparently a universal human quest for the ultimate mutual bond of acceptance that transcends nationality, race and even a parent-child relationship.

　イブラヒムおじさんは、親を失った少年を養子にして、ふたりでトルコへ旅する。そこには安らぎと悲しみとが待っていた。母国で土に帰る老人と、別離を越えて生きてゆく少年と。国籍や民族、そして親と子すらも超えた、ひとりとひとりの人間のきずなへの希求が静かに描かれていた。

--The Asahi Shimbun, July 21(IHT/Asahi: July 22,2005)