セピア色の記憶のなかの少年は
縁日の夜店で万華鏡を買った
カーバイドの匂いとゆらめくアセチレンの灯りのなかで
筒を回せばクルクルと移りかわり
それでいて同じ紋様は二度と現れない不思議な光の芸術が
少年になけなしの小遣いをはたかせたのだろうか
だが幻想的なその美しさにもまして
少年の好奇心をさらに強くひきつけたのは
それをつくりだす筒のなかのしくみであった
次々と際限なく現れる紋様が
たった三枚の鏡による多重反射でつくられるように
生々流転する自然界もまた
少数の極めて単純な基本法則に支配されている
Memories of the Festival
A boy in the sepia-toned memories of the past bought a kaleidoscope at a night stall during a festival.
Amidst the smell of carbide and the flickering light of acetylene lamps, he spun the cylinder to find an ever-changing, wondrous art of light where the exact same pattern would never appear twice. Was it this magic that prompted him to spend his meager pocket money?
Yet, even more than its fantastical beauty, what captivated the boy’s curiosity even more deeply was the mechanism inside the cylinder that created it all.
Just as an endless succession of patterns is created by the multiple reflections of a mere three mirrors, the ever-changing natural world is likewise governed by a few, remarkably simple, fundamental laws.
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