Ursula K. Le Guin – Firelight (The Best Science Fiction & Fantasy of the Year 13, 2019)

Nostalgiline maiuspala kõigile Meremaa austajatele ehk siis le Guini viimane kokkuvõte vana Gedi elust ja tegemistest; nähtuna tema … surivoodil või nii.

Mitte et ma Meremaa romaanide ja juttude sündmusi suurt mäletaks, aga paistab, et kõik olulisemad seigad Gedi elust saavad mingil moel läbi tunnetatud (seda nii vanema tegelase kui autori vaatenurgast) – tema lapsepõlv, maagiks üleskasvamine kodukandis ja koolis, ning Gedi teekonnad, põgenemised ja võitlemised. Ja õpetajad ja kaaslased ja vastased.

Võiks muidugi kergelt arutleda, kas seda võiks lugu võiks kohalike austajate tarbeks eesti keelde tõlkida, aga no vaevalt, et mõni kirjastus saaks endale sellist luksust lubada – mõne Meremaa uue väljaande avaldamiseks. Aga ehk … Täheaeg, või nii. On muidugi imetlusväärne, et le Guin oli kuni kõrge eani igati terav pliiats.

„The aching was in his chest again. He thought of it not so much as an ache as an architecture, an arch in there at the top of his lungs, a dark arch a little too large for his ribs to hold. After a while it eased, and then was gone. He breathed easily. He was sleepy. He thought of saying to her, I used to think I’d want to go into the woods, like Elehal, to die, he meant, but there’d be no need to say it. The forest was always where he wanted to be. Where he was whenever he could be. The trees around him, over him. His house. His roof. I thought I’d want to do the same. But I don’t. There’s nowhere I want to go. I couldn’t wait to leave this house when I was a boy, I couldn’t wait to see all the isles, all the seas. And then I came back with nothing, with nothing left at all. And it was the same as it had been. It was everything. It was enough.“ (lk 590)