地球の反対側に住む母と息子。通信手段はスカイプやZOOMのようなもので、お互いの画像を見て話すだけ。息子は母親に会いにきてほしい、と願います。
“I really believe you enjoy dawdling.”
“I have called you before, mother, but you were always busy or isolated. I have something particular to say.”
“What is it, dearest boy? Be quick. Why could you not send it by pneumatic post?”
“Because I prefer saying such a thing. I want–“
“Well?”
“I want you to come and see me.”
Vashti watched his face in the blue plate.
“But I can see you!” she exclaimed. “What more do you want?”
“I want to see you not through the Machine,” said Kuno. “I want to speak to you not through the wearisome Machine.”
“Oh, hush!” said his mother, vaguely shocked. “You mustn’t say anything against the Machine.”
“Why not?”
“One mustn’t.”
“You talk as if a god had made the Machine,” cried the other. “I believe that you pray to it when you are unhappy. Men made it, do not forget that. Great men, but men. The Machine is much, but it is not everything. I see something like you in this plate, but I do not see you. I hear something like you through this telephone, but I do not hear you. That is why I want you to come. Pay me a visit, so that we can meet face to face, and talk about the hopes that are in my mind.”
She replied that she could scarcely spare the time for a visit.
“The air-ship barely takes two days to fly between me and you.”
“I dislike air-ships.”
“Why?”
“I dislike seeing the horrible brown earth, and the sea, and the stars when it is dark. I get no ideas in an air-ship.”
きょうはちょっと長いけれどクーノーのセリフを読んでみましょう。お母さんのヴァシュティがマシーンの悪口を言うクーノーを戒めるシーンです。
I believe that you pray to it when you are unhappy. Men made it, do not forget that. Great men, but men.「母さんは困ったときにはマシーンに祈っているんだろうけれど、忘れちゃいけない、マシーンは人間が作ったもの。作ったのは偉い人間なんだろうけれど、人間なんだ」って言ってますね。
そしてクーノーは、自分の考える幸せについてお母さんと語り合いたい、って言ってるわ。飛行船に乗れば二日で来れるって（The air-ship barely takes two days to fly between me and you.）。会って話したいのね。
うーむ。たしかに問題あり、ですな。直に会って語りあえる手段はあっても、使いたくない、ということですかな。クーノーの希望とはいったい何でしょうか。
