As promised in Did Candy find her happiness? (Part 3), I will talk about Candy’s letter to Anthony in the old novel. First, my appreciation goes to my admin friend of the Facebook page, William Albert Andrew (el príncipe de la colina), for sending this particular letter to me months ago.😍 I read it and couldn’t help comparing it to the one in Candy Candy Final Story (CCFS), which I’ve discussed in various posts in the past. 😀
At first glance, the major differences are: (1) this is a normal letter, highly unlikely a mental letter like the one in CCFS (at least Candy didn’t specify this as such), and (2) this letter is the first in the group of her four letters to those whom she wasn’t going to see again (like Stear, Susanna and Terry). They are all under chapter 6 of Volume 3, the one just before chapter 7 as shown in Did Candy find her happiness? (Part 3).
For your interest to know more about the table of contents in the old novel, please read the marvelous post from Yue Chan, discussing the differences between the Old Candy Candy and CCFS, Candy Candy Final Story ~ Primera edición de la Antigua Novela de Candy Candy, which Fay has also translated to English for Candy Candy Fans here.
This is the first time I’ve ever translated a long Japanese letter into English. Just so you know, it’s taken me some time to polish this, mainly because I wanted it to really sound like Candy writing in English, so I decided to paraphrase some lines as well, carefully choosing nuanced words. 😅😄 I also added my interpretation of Anthony’s mother’s last words within parentheses.
If you find any mistake in translation or want to translate my post into your native language, please contact me. I’d love to post your translation on my blog too to share with other Candy Candy fans. 😘 Without further delay, this is the first part of the letter. I’ll post the rest in Part 5.
Dear Anthony Brown,
Anthony, at this moment, what are you doing?
Even in Heaven, the roses must be blooming, am I right?
Are you with Stear now? Because you must have dashed to his side, being very lonely on your end.
You know, the other day, I went to Lakewood. Anthony, your rose garden was like what it used to be. The rose gate had also been well maintained, and the flowers are blooming every year. Truly, while looking at the flowers, I thought in a daze about what you had mentioned to me before.
After a flower withers, it will bloom more beautifully (as other flowers).
After a person dies, this person will be revived more beautifully in another’s heart (as memories)…— I thought I would never in my life return to the forest, the fox hunting one, and yet I went there too.
The area of the grassland where Anthony had fallen off the horse has become a sea of wild roses. Granduncle William himself has planted them there.
Oh right! Granduncle William made his appearance, at long last!
Anthony, I wonder if you already know?
Is it true that you can see everything when you’re in Heaven? (Hmmmm, if that’s the case, it is inconvenient for me.) Yet, even if you do know, please pretend that you don’t know and listen to me, can you?
Granduncle William is not like what we have imagined; he was not a stubborn old man.
Albert-san! …… although I say his name, Anthony, you don’t know who Albert-san is, do you? (About his looks and so forth you can ask Stear because he knows the details.)
You see, I met Albert-san long time ago, the day Annie had paid us a visit. I had left the Lagans but not returned that night. Though I could not talk to you about what happened in detail—–
That day, I fell asleep inside a boat when it was flowing along the river, and I ended up being swept away, slipping down the waterfall. The one who came to my rescue was Albert-san. Back then, since he wore sunglasses and had full beard, I thought he was a pirate. As a vagabond, he took the liberty of occupying the mountain lodge of the Ardlays; I determined not to disclose to others anything about it, and I believed he was a good man, so this is the reason why I couldn’t tell you, Anthony, even after I came back.
And the real identity of this pirate was none other than Granduncle William himself! Humph… He made a fool of me! Wasn’t that mountain lodge also his own property, my, oh, my!
There were still more surprises.
(To be continued…)
This post has been translated to Spanish by my dear friend Yue Chan, “¿Candy encontró su felicidad? (Parte 4)”
