Spring in a Snowy Country

第4話

It is difficult to understand the feelings of the villagers in central Europe who welcome the swallows as messengers of the springtime gods unless you have grown up in a similar environment. As soon as the snow melted and the black earth was revealed in places, the first time the snow melted, new songs of various birds were heard, and the birds that had been quietly flitting about in the grass and behind the branches were all hurrying up to the sky or perched on the tops of the tall trees to look in all directions. But among them, nimble swallows, which we had never seen before, ran all the way around and made us look up at the bright blue sky several times, and by an innocent logic, people thought that the green would be guided by this bird to return. The poem, "Spring has returned?" is that strikes us again and again. The same birds had been bringing people the same joy since time immemorial, when they felt a childlike fear that the long, lonely winter huddle of storms and blizzards would finally make them forget the time when the flowers were in bloom, and perhaps this time they would be trapped in the snow-covered valley depths. Therefore, they used to associate the birds with gods and good luck, and they used to carve the image of the birds in flight on the wall and look at it with their friends on cold days. And so similar sentiments to this were common in the snow countries in Japan.

flit......（動）軽やかに飛ぶ

perch......（動）とまる

nimble......（形）機敏な

immemorial......（形）遠い昔の、有史以前の

trap in......閉じ込める

associate......（動）関連付ける

In other words, the joy of spring thus at last welcomed by them transcends even the superior fancies of those who live in the south. For example, in various parts of the Ou countryside, when the wind is soft and the sound of running water is so high that it is impossible to sit still at home for a few days under the blue shining sky, all the trees in all kinds of gardens open their flowers at once, and the peak of the bloom rushes in all at once. Spring labor begins in this comfortable world, so that not a single day is left for them to play with their sleeves hanging down, and before they have time to bemoan the waste, the beautiful and lustrous fields and mountains are growing, and the mulberry trees are growing and the wheat is ripening in a thin, white, cloudy haze, and soon the cuckoos are crying out incessantly, urging them to prepare the seedlings for the paddy fields. This vibrant seasonal movement and the human ability to adjust to it actually hides a nostalgic medieval immigration history. The pervasive feeling of that history was what warmed the hearts of people, reminding them of home on their travels and enriching their dreams of winter days at home, but simply because the peasants did not harness the literacy power, their nostalgic feelings were long buried under the deep snow and still could not move among many of their countrymen.

transcend......（動）超越する

rush in......どっと押し寄せる、突入する

all at once......いっせいに

lustrous......（形）光沢のある、輝かしい

mulberry......（名）クワ

incessantly......（副）ひっきりなしに、絶え間なく

seedling......（名）苗

medieval......（形）中世の

immigration......（名）移民

pervasive......（形）行き渡る、広がる

enrich......（動）高める、豊かにする

peasant......（名）農民

harness......（動）利用する