| Inventor: The Mask | |
February 16, 2015
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| On this day, one woman in her late thirties came to the inventor's office and told him her concerns: "I am a bad person to my husband. He is a good person. He is kind, and gentle, but he is a little bit timid. And I am a little bit short tempered. When I talk to him, my words become strong. I hate this, but I can't stop it. Every time after I speak to him in this manner, I feel guilty, and… yesterday, I cursed him very badly, he looked shocked. I was also shocked to see his face, so I'm here now." She added, "Maybe I might have inherited my mother's bad habits. My mother was very strict to my dad. I thought that my father was pitiful, but I'm repeating the same thing…" She weakly laughed. The inventor asked, "Haven't you ever said to your husband good things?" She
She said, "Even though I am a bad wife, I love him. Maybe you could make a machine that when I say bad things, the machine could stimulate a strong electric charge to me so that I would stop saying bad things, like Pavlov's dogs." She weakly laughed again. The inventor told her to come back one week later. One week later, she came to the inventor's office. The inventor showed her a gadget. She looked suspicious. It was a mask, like the one in which protects viruses and bacteria, although it looked a little bit thicker than the original ones. She said, "I hope you don't want me to wear this thing so I don't say anything, pretending to have a cold or a sore throat." The inventor started to explain how to use it. That night, when her husband got home late, she came to the entrance. It was clear that her eyes were sharp in anger. The husband first said, "I'm so sorry. I should have called you, but I didn't intend to be this late … but… did you catch a cold? You were OK in the morning." She was wearing a mask. She started to open her mouth (although the husband couldn't see it), "Honey. You must be tired then. You don't need to apologize. I am so proud that you work so hard for me until this late." The husband was speechless. It was so shocking that he totally doubted what he was hearing. He thought he was drunk, although he didn't drink anything. But, it looked strange for him because her eyes weren't smiling, rather, they were the angry ones. He asked, "Are you OK? Don't you have a fever? Did you go to the hospital?" She said, "Why do you doubt what am I saying? I'm saying nice things! Why don't you feel good? Although, I didn't say this actually." But, what she just said was muted. Her words were translated by the mask-shaped machine into an artificial voice (but the husband didn't realize it because it was so precise). Actually, the mask-shaped machine took her voice tone and calculated her real emotions towards him, and converted her words into suitable sentences. Her voice said, "I'm OK. I'm very pleased that you are worried about me. I don't have any fever. Although I might have a slight fever because of loving you very much." He was very shocked. He shook his head many times, and, hugged her firmly. In his arms, she was a little bit worried about thinking when she would take the mask off at bed time, what she would say. But, soon she realized that she wouldn't need to say anything, because her emotions would already be fully expressed. |
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*concern 心配事
*timid 臆病
*short tempered 短気
*inherit 受け継ぐ
*stimulate 刺激する
*so that~ するように
*Pavlov's dog パプロフの犬
*remark 言う
*pretend 装う
*sore throat のどが痛い
*intend 意図する
*rather むしろ
*mute 無音になる
*artificial 人工の
*convert 変換する
*slight かすかな
*would 〜する、〜だろう