English Pastoral is such a beautifully crafted book - woven with the warp of vividly told personal histories and memories, and the weft of Rebanks's utmost love, faith and sense of responsibility towards his family, land, and the world we pass on to the next generations. It was an engaging and enchanting reading experience, or a journey across this intriguingly detailed and richly textured tapestry of a book,  much like the traditional farming landscape up in the fells and in other uplands of the country.

What is perhaps most significant about English Pastoral  is that Rebanks entices and allows us to see English landscape from a farmer's point of view, including not only its glory but also scores of seemingly imminent catastrophes it faces. We tend to see English countryside as something depicted on a lid on a biscuit tin, never making a tangible connection between it and what's on our dinner plate. The author says that's where the problems rooted. He therefore urges us to put ourselves in his muddy boots and to walk across his fields, in the past and present, over the pond to American Mid West, in order to peek into the future, then back again to see a barn owl hunt and curlews call.  (I've never seen one or hear them with my own eyes and ears, but that doesn't seem matter, perhaps, as even many of those living in countryside didn't until they were taken to this journey by the likes of him.)

And then he asks what we can do to help. Farming is, English landscape is, the nature is constantly pulled, stretched, shaped, and to a large extent, damaged, exhausted, and slowly killed by the force of consumerism, in which we all take part. And that's the end of the strings we hold. Regardless of whether we've ever seen an owl hunting or curlews calling, that's how we are all connected to farming and the nature, by our own need and greed. That's how we can all participate, by pulling our end of the threads right, so that the beautiful tapestry that is English pastoral won't unravel; so that we can pass it onto the future generations, still being rich, alive and bountiful.

I do not know much about the reality of farming and forestry in Japan. I do not know whether books like English Pastoral have been written, or should be written. But I know there is something I can do here. Now that I have moved back to Japan, my own country, I wish to be part of its land, its nature and its landscape. I would like to ensure that I pull the strings in my hands right. And that is my responsibility now.

日本の農業、そして林業の実情を私はよく知らない。English Pastoralのような本が書かれているのか、書かれるべきなのかもよくわからない。それでも私にできることはあるはずだし、日本に帰ってきたのだから、私も日本の土地の、自然の、ランドスケープの一部でありたいと思う。この手に握った糸を正しく引きたいと思う。それが私の責任だと思うから。

*写真はYorkshire Moorsで撮ったもの。日本語バージョンはこちら。