A Story About Dictionaries 1 -Murakami Asahi-do -Haruki Murakami-

The world is filled with various difficult things, and one of them is the task of buying new dictionaries, encyclopedias, atlases, or globes. When you think about it, it's quite a challenging endeavor. Take maps, for example. The ones from fifteen years ago are significantly different from the ones today. Even Vietnam was divided into North and South fifteen years ago. Around the Arab Emirates, there must have been some changes in country names as well. However, that doesn't mean we rush to buy new atlases. We tend to keep using the old ones. After all, world maps are not something we use that often, and the opportunity to delve into the details of Vietnam or the tiny countries in the corners of the Arab world rarely presents itself. If that's the case with atlases, then it's hard to imagine there are so many diligent people who would buy a new set of fifty-volume encyclopedias several times in their lifetime. It's understandable that publishing companies specializing in encyclopedias face financial difficulties. When I work on translation projects, I arrange three types of English-Japanese dictionaries (large, medium, and pocket-sized) and two types of English-English dictionaries on my desk, using them accordingly depending on the situation. Among them, I have one called "Shin Kanyaku Eiwa" published by Kenkyusha. I bought it when I entered high school, and I've been using it for almost twenty years. It fits my hand perfectly, and I'm very comfortable with it. However, the problem is that this dictionary is missing four pages in the middle. It's not because the dictionary is defective; it's because I carelessly lost those pages. So, I keep thinking I should buy a new one, but I end up neglecting it, saying to myself, "Well, it's just four pages out of two thousand one hundred fifty." In the meantime, I completely forget about the missing pages, and every few months, I suddenly remember, "Oh, right, I've been missing those pages!" It's not that I'm being frugal, but buying a new dictionary truly requires courage.