マーガレットの板
僕の家にかかる橋の、音のなる板を踏み鳴らして、マーガレットはやってくる。
でもどの板が音の出る板なのか僕には分からない。
彼女はいつもその板を踏む。僕はその音で彼女が訪ねてきたことを知る。
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ここを読んで、いつも同じように音を出す人のことを考える。
どうしてあそこを踏んで歩いてくるのか？
そして音を聞くといつも「マーガレットの板」を思い出す。
マーガレットは話に出てくるたびにあの板を踏む。
僕の記憶によみがえる。
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Margaret（マーガレットのこと）
THIS MORNING there was a knock at the door. I could tell who it was by the way they knocked, and I heard them coming across the bridge. "They stepped on the only board that makes any noise. They always step on it.
I have never been able to figure this out. I have thought a great deal about why they always step on that same board, how they cannot miss it, and now they stood outside my door, knocking. I did not acknowledge their knocking because I just wasn't interested. I did not want to see them. I knew what they would be about and did not care for it.
Finally they stopped knocking and went back across the bridge and they, of course, stepped on the same board: a long board with the nails not lined up right, built years ago and no way to fix it, and then they were gone, and the board was silent. I can walk across the bridge hundreds of times without stepping on that board, but Margaret always steps on it.
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フレッドはあの板を踏まない。
He crossed the bridge without stepping on that board Margaret always steps on and couldn't miss if the bridge were seven miles wide.
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Margaret Again, Again, Again（みたびマーガレットのこと）
I SPENT A HALF AN HOUR or so pacing back and forth on the bridge, but I did not once find that board that Margaret always steps on, that board she could not miss if all the bridges in the world were put together, formed into one single bridge, she'd step on that board.
