肩の荷をおろす こうか
ミカロフ: 書記長、ペレストロイカも効果をあらわしてきてよかったですね」
ゴルバチョフ:「これで私の肩の荷がおろせそうですよ」
Kata no Ni wo Orosu
Mikarofu: Shokichoo, peresutoroika mo feofea wo arawashite kite yokatta desu ne.
Gorubachofu; Kore de watashi mo kata no ni ga orosesoo desu yo.
Mikhalov: General Secretary, your program of perestroika is showing results. You must be pleased.
Gorbachev: What a load off my shoulders!
* * *
Kata no ni wo orosu means to relieve one's burdens, to take a load off one's mind/shoulders.
A whole range of events shaped the course of history in 1989. China's Tiananmen Square incident (some would say massacre) and the collapse of the wall dividing East and West Germany stand but for me. Teaching ryugakusei as I do, I sometimes find it hard not to sympathize with them as I see world events directly influencing their lives. During the Tiananmen Square incident, for instance, I could tell my Chinese students were worried just by looking at their faces. There was also the young West German student who, on hearing that the Brandenburg Gate had been opened, was so happy because he could now invite relatives in East Germany to his home town of Cologne. And then all those surprising changes in Eastern Europe !
Gorbachev's perestroika - it sometimes appears he has introduced the concept all by himself - is surging quietly yet quickly into almost all of Eastern Europe.
How many times he must say to himself, "Kata no ni wo soro soro oroshitai" ("I want to relieve myself of these burdens in the near future.") Though we are all given about a hundred years in which to live, the responsibilities we carry vary in weight. If Gorbachev's burdens were only related to problems within the Soviet Union he might shake his broad shoulders while laughing, "Kata no ni wa sorehodo omoku arimasen" ("The burdens I carry are not really that heavy".) But actually, the actions of the Soviet Union are serving to erase the remaining scars of World War II and are transforming the course history will take in the quickly approaching 21st century. At least this is what I think. If I were Mr. Gorbachev, kata no ni ga omosugite tochu de nagedashite itakamo shirenai (the burdens would have been too heavy, I probably would have thrown them off along the way).
But far from abandoning these heavy burdens, he takes them wherever he goes; he wants people to forget there was ever an "Iron Curtain." I've probably said too many nice things about Gor- bachev. One can imagine the American president saying: "Watashi datte kata no ni wa oroshitai to omou koto wa arimasu yo" ("At times, I too-i.e., Gorbachev is not the only one-would like to free myself of my responsibilities." ) Whether in leading a country or a company, the burdens can be heavy. Why is it then that burdens our Japanese prime minister carries don't seem particularly weighty (zuibun kata no ni ga karuso desu ne)?!