英語検定ライティング準１級（第428回）

生き地獄「脱北者の手記を読んでからの話」

65歳でお好み焼き店を始めたおじさんが近所で商売をしていた。数年前の一時期に昼食は必ずそこで済ませていた。図書館で資格試験の勉強に２カ月ほど取り組んだ。その目標を達成して以降はそこで食べてない。半年前くらいに店は閉じていた。
There used to be a certain okonomiyaki restaurant near the public community center till a few months ago, where a shopkeeper started that shop when his age was 65, we frequently ate something delicious at lunchtime, when we were examinees because we wanted to possess a certain certification, and he was someone so friendly.
After all, we could pass the examination, which took a couple of months, and we captured our destinations.
While we have lunch at another restaurant, he closed the okonomiyaki store without us being informed of the fact.

北朝鮮の話題になった時にそのおじさんが日本も変わらんぞと言ってた。悲惨さのレベルは違うが庶民が苦しい生活を強いられているにも関わらず政治家は状況を放置する。お好み焼きを始めた頃は架空の注文が頻発して困ったと苦労話もしていた。
When we had something delicious at his shop, we had a serious and earnest conversation about the North Korea, when he suddenly uttered that numerous rural farmers suffer from extreme poverty, but ordinary citizens in our society suffer from the long continuous recessions for about three decades, which means that both the former and the latter have suffered from corruptive government.
After all, both politicians and bureaucrats never have intentions and aggressiveness to improve these negative affairs both in the economic and political perspectives.
Although the living standard of the North Korea might be beyond description, in short, we fail to imagine what their poverty has been, the government leaves us as we are.
He complained about numerous fake orders caused by someone vicious several years ago, which meant that a certain senior shopkeeper considered the current Japan as somewhere disgusting and challenging to survive.

あれから閉店まで５年間は経営してたから70歳で仕事を辞めたのかなと思う。近くを通るといつも適度に繁盛していたから経営には困ってなかったと思う。近くのスーパーにも商品を卸していた。あのお好み焼きは今になって思うに美味しかった。
Since such unpleasant conversations, around five years have passed, so he might have stopped running a small restaurant at the age of 70, we guess, he wasn’t in need because there were always several customers when we passed there by car, which might enable him to become moderately profitable, in short, he made ends meet.
He frequently asked the supermarket nearby to sell his products, only now, we used to enjoy the okonomiyaki produced by him from the bottom of our hearts, he says.