毎月1回と設定した「ハイムガーデン散歩」が、もう実現。左足がなぜか急にポンと跳ね上がり、引きずっていたのが噓のようだった。その分ぎこちない歩きだったけど、「あのかわいい坊やのところまで歩きたい!」と思って歩いた。Ms. Wに花壇でまたばったり会ったのにもびっくり!今回は2本杖だった。

 何はなくても、長く一緒の「家族」だから楽しい。どこかの国から来たかとか、関係ない。みんなおんなじ人間だ。失職の心配をしていたSarahが4月からT大に就職との大ニュースも「そうかな」程度のことだ。Mariに英語を教えてもらい、Aliには車いすを軽々と担いでもらい、Barmyanのご飯を食べて楽しいフツーの家族だ。

「日本には危機が迫っているかもしれない」と案じる。危機は音もなくやってくるというから・・・。

In the economist’s 2022 glass-ceiling index, an annual measure of the role and influence of women in the workforce in 29 countries, only South Korea scored lower than Japan.

The World Economic Forum’s 2022 Global Gender Gap Report, which also factors in political representation, ranked Japan 116th out of 146 countries. That would have been little surprise to Japanese women, who are used to living in a strict patriarchal society.

The government aspires to create a society “in which all women shine”, a slogan that seems unintentionally ironic, since Japanese women have always lived in the shadow of men.

Murasaki Shikibu, a lady-in-waiting of the imperial court in the 11th century who wrote “The Tale of Genji”, thought to be the first novel in history, described the discrimination she suffered. She wrote in her diary that her father would often sigh and say, “If only you were a boy.” Such a sentiment is familiar to Japanese women 1,000 years later. They routinely abandon their professional ambitions to prioritise their husbands and children. They are less visible in public life than women in other rich countries. (そうも思わないけど!)These books, and one film, help to illuminate those Japanese—half the population—whom the government says it wants to usher into the light.  FULL TEXT

The Economist’s glass-ceiling index

  • What to read to understand the history of Western capitalism (下の本は、読めるわけがない。英語の勉強のため掲載)
    • The Worldly Philosophers. By Robert Heilbroner
    • A Culture of Growth. By Joel Mokyr. Princeton University Press
    • War as an Economic Activity in the “Long” Eighteenth Century. By N.A.M. Rodger. International Journal of Maritime History. XXII, No. 2 (December 2010)
    • The Hundred Years’ War, Volumes 1-4. By Jonathan Sumption. University of Pennsylvania Press
    • Enclosures, Common Rights, and Women: The Proletarianisation (プロレタリア化)of Families in the Late Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries. by Jane Humphries. The Journal of Economic History
    • The Classical School: The Turbulent(激動、乱流) Birth of Economics in Twenty Extraordinary Lives. By Callum Williams. Hachette;
  • What is the economic cost of covid-19?
  • Why inflation looks likely to stay above the pre-pandemic norm
  • The Full TEXT

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(1) Who are these children      (2)Winter Words      (3) ひとりだけの旅 ほか

素敵なIan Bostridgeの歌声を聴く午後に・・・

Who are these children? Op 84

composer Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) author of text William Soutar (1898-1943)

  • Ⅰ悪夢
  • Ⅱ殺りく
  • Ⅲこの子らは誰?
  • Ⅳ子供たち
Ian Bostridge and Julius Drake NHK Recital in Japan (Part 1/7)

“Nightmare”

The tree stood flowering in a dream:
Beside the tree a dark shape bowed:
As lightning glittered the axe-gleam
Across the wound in the broken wood.
The tree cried out with human cries:
From its deepening hurt the blood ran:
The branches flowered with children’s eyes
And the dark murderer was a man.

There came a fear which sighed aloud;
And with its fear the dream-world woke:
Yet in the day the tree still stood
Bleeding beneath the axe-man’s stroke.

“Slaughter”

Within the violence of the storm
The wise men are made dumb:
Young bones are hollowed by the worm;
The babe dies in the womb.
Above the lover’s mouth is pressed
The silence of a stone:
Fate rides upon an iron beast
And tramples cities down.

And shall the multitudinous grave
Our enmity inter;
These dungeons of misrule enslave
Our bitterness and fear?

All are the conquered; and in vain
The laurel binds the brow:
The phantoms of the dead remain
And from our faces show.

William Soutar (1898-1943)

William Soutar (1898-1943)

“Who are these children”

With easy hands upon the rein,
And hounds at their horses’ feet,
The ladies and the gentlemen
Ride through the village street.
Brightness of blood upon the coats
And on the women’s lips:
Brightness of silver at the throats
And on the hunting whips.

Is there a dale more calm, more green
Under this morning hour;
A scene more alien than this scene
Within a world at war?

Who are these children gathered here
Out of the fire and smoke
That with remembering faces stare
Upon the foxing folk?

William Soutar (1898-1943)

Ian Bostridge NHK Recital in Japan (Part 2/7)

The Children

Upon the street they lie
Beside the broken stone:
The blood of children stares from the broken stone.

Death came out of the sky
In the bright afternoon:
Darkness slanted over the bright afternoon.

Again the sky is clear
But upon earth a stain:
The earth is darkened with a darkening stain:

A wound which everywhere
Corrupts the hearts of men:
The blood of children corrupts the hearts of men.

Silence is in the air:
The stars move to their places:
Silent and serene the stars move to their places:

But from earth the children stare
With blind and fearful faces:
And our charity is in the children’s faces.

William Soutar (1898-1943

冬のことば

Winter Words   Op.52冬の言葉  冬のことば

詩: ハーディ (Thomas Hardy,1840-1928) イングランド


1 At Day-Close in November1 十一月のたそがれ
The ten hours’ light is abating,
And a late bird wings across,
Where the pines,like waltzers waiting,
Give their black heads a toss.

Beech leaves,that yellow the noon-time,
Float past like specks in the eye;
I set every tree in my June time,
And now they obscure the sky.

And the children who ramble through here
Conceive that there never has been
A time when no tall trees grew here,
That none will in time be seen.
十時間の昼の光も今や弱まって
帰りそびれた鳥が羽ばたいて通り過ぎる
松の木々が ワルツの順番待ちの踊り手のように
黒い頭を揺り動かしている

ブナの葉は 昼時には黄色に染まっていたが
漂い通り過ぎて行く 目の中のしみのように
この木々は わが人生の六月に椊えたものだ
今やそれがこの空を覆っている

このあたりを歩き回る子供たちは
思い込んでいる 決してなかったのだと
ここに高い木々が生えていなかった時など
そしてやがて何も見えなくなることも思いもせずに
2 Midnight on the Great Western   2 真夜中の大西部鉄道 グレート・ウェスタンの真夜中
In the third-class seat sat the journeying boy,
And the roof-lamp’s oily flame
Played down on his listless form and face,
Bewrapt past knowing to what he was going,
Or whence he came.

In the band of his hat the journeying boy
Had a ticket stuck; and a string
Around his neck bore the key of his box,
That twinkled gleams of the lamp’s sad beams
Like a living thing.

What past can be yours,O journeying boy
Towards a world unknown,
Who calmly,as if incurious quite
On all at stake,can undertake
This plunge alone?

Knows your soul a sphere,O journeying boy,
Our rude realms far above,
Whence with spacious vision you mark and mete
This region of sin that you find you in,
But are not of?
三等車の座席に旅する少年が座っていた
天井のランプの油の炎が
彼の物憂げな姿や顔の上で揺らめいている
だれが知るというのか 彼がどこへ行くのか
そしてどこから来たのかを?

帽子のバンドに その旅する少年は
切符を挟んでいた そして紐に
彼のスーツケースの鍵を付けて首にかけていた
ランプの悲しげな光線のちらつく輝きは
まるで生き物のようだった

いったいどんな過去がお前のものであったのか
おお旅する少年よ
見知らぬ世界へと向かって行く
こんなにも穏やかに まるで人ごとのように
こんな賭けに たったひとりで飛び込むとは?

お前の魂はあの天球を知っているのだな 
旅する少年よ
我らの粗野な世界のはるか上にあって
そこからお前が広大な視野で見下ろし
測っているところ
この罪に満ちたこの世を 
お前がたまたま居るけれども
お前はその一員ではないこの世のことを
3 Wagtail and Baby   3 セキレイと赤ん坊 せきれいと赤ん坊
A baby watched a ford,whereto
A wagtail came for drinking;
A blaring bull went wading through,
The wagtail showed no shrinking.

A stallion splashed his way across,
The birdie nearly sinking;
He gave his plumes a twitch and toss,
And held his own unblinking.

Next saw the baby round the spot
A mongrel slowly slinking;
The wagtail gazed,but faltered not
In dip and sip and prinking.

A perfect gentleman then neared;
The wagtail,in a winking,
With terror rose and disappeared;
The baby fell a-thinking.

ひとりの赤ん坊が浅瀬を見ていた そこに
一羽のセキレイが水飲みにやってきた
モウモウ鳴く雄牛が横切って行ったが
セキレイは驚いた様子は見せなかった

種馬がしぶきを上げて駆け抜けて行った
小鳥はほとんど沈みそうになったが
羽根を上下にぴくつかせて
たじろぐこともなかった

次にその赤ん坊は見た あたりを
雑種の犬がそっと忍び歩いているのを
セキレイはじっと見つめたが 
ためらうことはなかった
水に浸かり 水を飲み 羽根つくろいすることを

ひとりの完璧な紳士がそこへやってきた
セキレイはあっという間に
恐れおののいて舞い上がり 姿を消した
赤ん坊は考え込んで倒れてしまった
▲(歌なし)4 The little old table4 小さな古い書き机       
Creak,little wood thing,creak,
When I touch you with elbow or knee;
That is the way you speak
Of one who gave you to me!

You,little table,she brought –
Brought me with her own hand,
As she looked at me with a thought
That I did not understand.

– Whoever owns it anon,
And hears it,will never know
What a history hangs upon
This creak from long ago.
きしめ 小さな木製の奴よ きしめ
私がお前を肘や膝でさわった時には
それがお前の語り口なのだから
お前を私にくれた人のことを話す

お前 机よ 彼女が持って来た-
運んできてくれたのだ 彼女自身の手で
その時彼女は私を見た ある考えを持って
私には理解できなかった考えを

-いつかこれが誰か他の人のものになって
彼がこの音を聞いても 分からないだろう
どんな歴史が纏わりついているのかは
ずっと昔からの このきしみには
5 The choirmaster’s burial   5 聖歌隊長の葬礼  聖歌隊指揮者の葬式   
He often would ask us
That,when he died,
After playing so many
To their last rest,
If out of us any
Should here abide,
And it would not task us,
We would with our lutes
Play over him
By his grave-brim
The psalm he liked best –
The one whose sense suits
“Mount Ephraim” –
And perhaps we should seem
To him,in Death’s dream,
Like the seraphim.

As soon as I knew
That his spirit was gone
I thoguht this his due,
And spoke thereupon.
“I think,” said the vicar,
“A read service quicker
Than viols out-of-doors
In these frosts and hoars.
That old-fashioned way
Requires a fine day,
And it seems to me
It had better not be.”

Hence,that afternoon,
Though never knew he
That his wish could not be,
To get through it faster
They buried the master
Without any tune.

But ’twas said that,when
At the dead of next night
The vicar looked out,
There struck on his ken
Thronged roundabout,
Where the frost was graying
The headstoned grass,
A band all in white
Like the saints in church-glass,
Singing and playing
The ancient stave
By the choirmaster’s grave.

Such the tenor man told
When he had grown old.

彼はよく俺たちに頼んだものだ
自分が死んだら
今までこんなに大勢の人のために
演奏してきたのだから
彼らの最後の安息のために
だからもしお前たちの中で誰かが
ここに生き残っていたなら
そしてそれが面倒でなかったのなら
俺たちのリュートを
遺骸の上で奏でてはくれないかと
自分の墓のそばで
一番好きだった讃美歌
中身もその場にふさわしい
「エフレイムの山《を
そうしてくれれば俺たちの姿が自分には
死の夢の中で
大天使様のように見えるのだろうからと

そういうわけで俺が知った時には
彼の魂が昇天したことを
俺は思った 彼の願いは叶えられるべきだと
だからそう俺は言ったんだ
「私が思うに《 牧師様はおっしゃった
「朗読の礼拝の方がずっと早いですよ
外でヴィオールを弾くよりも
こんな霜の降りた寒さの中でね
そういう古いやり方は
晴れた日でないとできませんよ
私にはそれは
やめておいた方が良いように思えます《と

そんなわけで その日の午後
彼には決して知る由もなかったのだけれど
自分の願いが叶えられなかったことなどは
手早く終えるために
皆で楽隊長を埋葬したのだ
音楽の調べひとつなく

だがその後 こんな話があった
次の日の真夜中
牧師様が外を眺めると
彼の目に入ってきたのは
ぐるっと取り巻いている姿
霜が灰色にしているところ
墓石のあるところの芝を灰色に
白い衣を纏った一団が
まるで教会のステンドグラスに描かれた
聖者様のように 歌い 奏でている姿だった
昔の曲を 聖歌隊長の墓の傍らで

そんな風にあのテナー歌手は語った
彼が年老いた時に
6 Proud songsters         6 誇り高き歌い手たち いばった歌い手たち
The thrushes sing as the sun is going,
And the finches whistle in ones and pairs,
And as it gets dark loud nightingales
In bushes
Pipe,as they can when April wears,
As if all Time were theirs.

These are brand-new birds of twelve-months’ growing,
Which a year ago,or less than twain,
No finches were,nor nightingales,
Nor thrushes,
But only particles of grain,
And earth,and air,and rain.
ツグミたちは歌う 太陽が沈みゆく時に
フィンチたちも囀る 独りで あるいは番いで
そして暗くなれば 声高きナイチンゲールが
茂みの中で
笛を吹き鳴らすのだ 四月が過ぎ去ろうとする今
まるで全ての時が自分たちのものであるかのように

これらの鳥たちは新しい鳥たちだ この十二ヶ月の間に育った
一年前には 少なくとも二年経たない前には
フィンチもおらず ナイチンゲールもおらず
ツグミもいなかったのだ
ただ穀物の粒だけがあった
そして大地と 大気と雨だけが
7 At the railway station,Upway7 アップウェイの停車場で 停車場で
“There is not much that I can do,
For I’ve no money that’s quite my own!”
Spoke up the pitying child –
A little boy with a violin
At the station before the train came in,-
“But I can play my fiddle to you,
And a nice one ’tis,and good in tone!”

The man in the handcuffs smiled;
The constable looked,and he smiled,too,
As the fiddle began to twang;
And the man in the handcuffs suddenly sang
With grimful glee:
“This life so free
Is the thing for me!”
And the constable smiled,and said no word,
As if unconscious of what he heard;
And so they went on till the train came in –
The convict,and boy with the violin.
「ぼくにできることは何もないんだ
だって自分で使えるお金が全然ないんだから《
同情したその子どもは声を張り上げた
ヴァイオリンを持った小さな男の子が
列車がやって来る前の停車場で
「だけどぼく ヴァイオリンなら弾いてあげられるよ
すてきな曲をね 音もきれいさ!《

手錠を掛けられていた男は微笑んだ
警官はそれを見たが 彼もまた微笑んだ
ヴァイオリンが音を立て始めた時に
すると手錠を掛けられた男は突然歌い始めた
厳然とした陽気さで
 「この自由な人生は
 俺のためのものだ!《
警官は微笑んで何も言わなかった
まるで自分の聞いたことに全く気が付かなかったように
こうして彼らは列車が入って来るまで続けていた-
囚人とヴァイオリンを持った少年は
8 Before life and after8 生命の前と後      
A time there was – as one may guess
And as,indeed,earth’s testimonies tell –
Before the birth of consciousness,
When all went well.

None suffered sickness,love,or loss,
None knew regret,starved hope,or heart-burnings;
None cared whatever crash or cross
Brought wrack to things.

If something ceased,no tongue bewailed,
If something winced and waned,no heart was wrung;
If brightness dimmed,and dark prevailed,
No sense was stung.

But the disease of feeling germed,
And primal rightness took the tinct of wrong;
Ere nescience shall be reaffirmed
How long,how long?
そんな時代があった 皆が想像するように
そしてまた きっと この世の教えが述べているように
意識というものが生まれる前に
すべてがうまくいっていた時が

誰も苦しまなかったのだ 病に、愛に 喪失に
誰も知らなかったのだ 後悔を 飢えた希望を 嫉妬を
誰も気にかけなかった いかなる破壊や試練が
物事を破滅へと導こうとも

もし何かが終わっても 誰の舌も嘆きを発することなく
もし何かがたじろぎ衰えても 誰の心も痛まなかった
もし明るさが衰え 闇が広がっても
誰の感覚も刺されることはなかった

だが 感情という病が発生して
当初の正義は悪の色に染まってしまった
あの無垢さが再び認められるようになるまでには
あとどのくらい どのくらいかかるのか?

ひとりだけの旅

NHK Recital (Part 5/7) 9:22ひとりだけの旅
6/あなたと行けたなら ★20世紀のブルース
「パリの道化」

6/あなたと行けたなら

20世紀のブルース

「パリの道化」

7/夜も昼も

NHK Recital in Japan (Part 7/7)夜も昼も,いつもさよならを

いつもさよならを

Ianさんの音楽はYouTubeで・・・

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Important and interesting topics are mostly from friends abroad!

Dec. 2022

  • Junior-high entrance exams in Japan. What is the “standard deviation?”
    • A standard deviation (or σ) is a measure of how dispersed the data is in relation to the mean. Low standard deviation means data are clustered around the mean, and high standard deviation indicates data are more spread out.
  • Level of school teachers in the US. (not payed enough/ to be doctors and lawers)
  • Should US limits the number of foreign students, like Chinese, Korean and black Africans? But, how to define “white American?” (me)
  • Trump’s popularity and next election? Joe Biden will challenge to the next election. (John)
  • Weather in Vermont

Wary of China, Japan unveils sweeping new national security strategy
Washington Post, Updated December 16, 2022, 6:00 p.m.


Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida attended a press conference at the prime minister’s official residence in Tokyo, Friday. In a major break from its strictly self-defense-only postwar principle, Japan adopted a national security strategy Friday declaring plans to possess preemptive strike capability and cruise missiles within years to give itself more offensive footing against threats from neighboring China and North Korea. 

DAVID MAREUIL/ASSOCIATED PRESS
TOKYO — Japan on Friday unveiled sweeping changes to its national security strategy and a major ramp-up of its defense budget, a dramatic shift to shed its longtime postwar pacifist constraints as it grapples with increasing security threats and risk of war in the Indo-Pacific.
Wary of the growing military threat posed by China, North Korea’s nuclear ambitions, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Japan is poised to take a tougher stance to defend itself and improve its capabilities to do so.

Among the notable changes is the move to acquire ‘’counterstrike’’ capabilities, or the ability to hit enemy bases with long-range missiles and coordinate with the United States in such circumstances, and an increase of its defense budget to 2 percent of gross domestic product over five years, making it the third-largest in the world.


It was my big surprise, a photo taken by me near the White House in 2010 revealed the data, the date and place of the photo taken!


NEWS WEEK誌より(Amazonで読み放題になったので・・・)


2022/10/23   2023/7/23  2023/9/17

よく続いているmeeting。病気の時だけ中断したが、退院後真っ先に再開したのがこのミーティング。大切なつながり、Ann の見えないpowerを感じる。今回はEmily、Adri、Simon(&Erik)も参加して豪華になった。Emilyの成長も素晴らしい。MarieもAdriと文通したいといい、いいことばかりだ。

Autumn in Small Town America 🍂 (Best Fall Foliage)

The crimson red streets, gloomy weather.

きれい!

photo by Hitoshi

2023/7/23 よく続く楽しいmeeting。今日の話題はもちろんMontpelierの鉄砲水。State St. Main St.の交差点では150cmぐらいまで水が来て、ひどいものだったらしい。Johnが2022.10 と同じシャツを着ている(w)。Johnも高齢者施設で楽しそうだ。脚がしびれるというから私は「John, we are old!」とかいう。世界中にJohnのような素敵な友人がいっぱいいて楽しいことも伝えた。本当に恵まれていると思う。

元気そうだといわれる

Sept. 17, 2023 Montpelier in “dusk” 夕暮れ時のmeeting 話題はもちろん洪水その後。Johnは復興に関する諮問機関に呼ばれたらしい。素晴らしい。The Bridge Newspaperがあったので話が弾んだ。

Kenの newデータサイエンス百景siteの話、私の「尻餅事件」の話。YohtaのmicrobiologyではJohnが辞書派、Ken and EmがAIに頼る話となり意見が分かれた。面白かった!

The shop Ann always took me

Sept 19: Here is the link to the website for the Bridge.  I don’t think you have to pay for a subscription.  The paper is published twice a month, and the website is updated every few days.  We’ll be in touch about a meeting next month. John ★The Link :https://montpelierbridge.org/

AROUND NEW ENGLAND Boston Globe 9/18

On one of Vermont’s most idyllic(牧歌的な) roads, fed-up locals say no more to the leaf peepers.

Residents convinced their town to close the road for three weeks at the height of foliage season to prevent social media-inspired tourists from clogging it.

Skype meetings with John in 2020

Skype meetings with John_3 in 2024

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こもれびで話題になった介護、リハビリ関連英語の使われ方、トレンド

“she appeared in a wheelchair” yoko ono

wellbeing, QOLなど外国人のための介護福祉専門用語集>英語版

東京都の英語版介護保険パンフレットなどを参考 介護保険制度パンフレット 東京都福祉保健局

(老人向け)デイサービス day care, eldery day care、adult day care
ヘルパーさんhome care worker, care giver
介護施設nursing home
ケアマネージャー       care manager
介護保険           the long-term insurance
要介護1~5 care level 1 to 5
要支援1~2 support level 1 or 2
訪問介護サービスhome care service
共同生活介護daily-group care
認知症dimentia
要支援認定support need certification
地域包括支援センターCommunity Comprehensive Support Center
訪問入浴介護home-visit bathing service
訪問看護home-visit nursing
介護保険料  long-term care insurance premiums

以下、例文(上述の東京都のパンフレットより引用)

● If you wish to utilize services provided by long-term care insurance, you should first apply for a care need certification or a support need certification at your municipal office. If you get the certification, you can use the service according to the long-term care plan the care manager draws up for you after consultation.
● At municipalities that have already launched programs to prevent long-term care need as well as comprehensive daily living support programs, you are advised to note the checklist at the consultation desk. If you meet the criteria, you are free to utilize visiting long-term care services and day services provided by these programs. 

ベッドの脇に座ってもらえますか?Can you sit up on the edge of the bed?
前屈みになって下さい。Please lean forward?
前に出てきて下さい。Please come forward?
真っすぐ立って下さい。Please stand up tall.
背筋を伸ばして下さい。Please straighten up your back.
後ろに下がって下さい。Please go backward./ Please back up.
一歩、後ろに下がって下さい。Please take a step back.
右向きに回って下さい。Please turn to the right.
車椅子の肘掛けに手を伸ばして下さい。
Please sit down on the chair.
Please reach back to the armrest of the wheelchair.
椅子に座って下さい。Please have/ take a seat on the chair.
(椅子の上で)後ろに少し下がって下さい。Please sit back. Please scooch back.(カジュアル)
深く座って下さい。Please sit back.
杖を使って下さい。Please use a cane.
松葉杖がここにあります。Here is your crutch.
2輪の歩行器と4輪の歩行器、どちらを普段使っていますか。Which do you usually use a two wheel walker or a four wheel walker?
足を車椅子のフットレストに載たままにして下さい。Please keep your foot on the footrest of the wheelchair.
車椅子のブレーキをかけて下さい。Please put on the brakes of the wheelchair.
滑り止めがついた靴を履いて下さい。Please wear non-skid/ non-slip shoes.
私が車椅子を押します。I will wheel your wheelchair.

<外国人のための介護福祉専門用語集>

医療英語学習サイト

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Ian Bostridgeさんのインスタで見たHeather!

Heather (Calluna vulgaris) Scotch Heather/Ling Heather, is an evergreen branching shrub. Heather flowers bloom in late summer. Wild species of Heather flowers are usually in purple or mauve shades. The flower’s various cultivars come in colors ranging from white, through pink, a wide range of purples and reds.

https://www.instagram.com/p/ChH7sHiqYfI/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y%3D

https://www.pickupflowers.com/flower-guide/heather

イギリスの大地を赤紫に彩るヘザーの花

英国国営放送BBCの地方ニュースで、ノースヨークシャー(North Yorkshire)の荒野ムーアでヘザーが花盛りというニュースを見ました。今回は、イギリスの夏の大地を赤紫に彩(いろど)るへザーのお話……。

ヘザーの丘.jpg


P1090969a.jpgまず、ヘザー(Heather)とは、ヨーロッパやアフリカ原産のツツジ科の植物。ヘザーは何百種という多種に及ぶそうなのですが、イギリスに自生するへザーはヒザくらいの高さの藪になって大地を這い、夏のあいだ、こんなかわいい釣鐘(つりがね)型の花をつけます。
イギリス国内では、北イングランドとスコットランドのムーア(moor)、あるいは、ムーアランド(moorland)と呼ばれる酸性土壌で農耕にも適さず、牧草も育たない荒地で見られると言われていますが、南西イングランドの高地などでも見ることができます。こちらは、イングランド南西部デボン州(Devon)にあるダートムーア(Dartmoor)に出かけたときに見かけたヘザー。


ダートムーア.jpgダートムーアは、コナン・ドイル作のシャーロックホームズシリーズの「バスカヴィル家の犬」の舞台になったことでも知られています。


ところで、このヘザー、ヒース(Heath)と呼ばれることもあります。ヒースと聞くと、イギリス文学に造詣の深い方は、エミリー・ブロンテ作の「嵐が丘」の主人公ヒースクリフ(Heathcliff)を思いうかべられるかもしれません。こちらは、エミリー・ブロンテ一家の暮らしたウエストヨークシャー(West Yorkshire)のハワース(Haworth)の村はずれで撮影したヒースです。

P8300144x.jpg


現在は博物館となっているブロンテ牧師館の裏手には、「嵐が丘」の舞台となった荒地ムーアが広がっています。エミリー・ブロンテ一は、自分の小説の主人公をその荒れ野に根をはるヒースのたくましさになぞらえたのではないでしょうか。


さて、今回、友人がヘザーを見に連れて行ってくれたのは、ブロンテ一家が暮らしたハワースの北東に位置するノースヨークシャー(North Yorkshire)のパンパーデールムーア(Pamperdale Moor)という場所。

P1100929x.jpg


きっと、その年によっても見ごろの時期は多少異なるのだと思われます。

IMG_1795a.jpg


 空模様によっても、へザーの花の色合いは変わって見えるにちがいありません。

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‘This is it, folks’ – Boris Johnson ‘hands over baton in unexpected relay race’

変な人だったけど(だから!)結構好きだったBoris Johnsonがあっけなく(潔く!?orもう飽きちゃったから?)10th of Downing Streetから去っていった。問題・課題を山のように積み上げたまま。

Placeholder image for youtube video: -ym_x2cXVB8
Boris Johnson’s final farewell speech in full as he leaves Downing Street

6 SEPTEMBER 2022 • 8:24AM

Boris Johnson has left Downing Street for the final time as Prime Minister as he told the nation “the baton will be handed over” to Liz Truss after the Tory leadership “unexpectedly turned out to be a relay race”. 

Speaking in Downing Street, Mr Johnson bemoaned the manner in which he has been forced out of No 10 as he accused Tory MPs who ousted him of having “changed the rules halfway through”. 

He said: “This is it folks. Thank you everybody for coming out so early this morning. In only a couple of hours I will be in Balmoral to see Her Majesty the Queen and the torch will finally be passed to a new Conservative leader, the baton will be handed over in what has unexpectedly turned out to be a relay race, they changed the rules half way through but never mind that now.”

Mr Johnson pledged his “fervent support” for Ms Truss’s new government and urged the Conservative Party to unite behind her. 

He said that if his dog, Dilyn, and Larry, the No 10 cat, can “put behind them their occasional difficulties then so can the Conservative Party”. 

Borisが、女王の死去で「生き返った?」

Queen Elizabeth dies: Boris Johnson makes Parliament laugh with speech remembering Her Majesty

2022/09/09 Queen Elizabeth dies: Boris Johnson makes Parliament laugh remembering Her Majesty | Boris Johnson joined parliament to pay tribute to Queen Elizabeth II.
King Charles maintains a clear sense of duty and service even as he mourns the death of his mother Queen Elizabeth, British Prime Minister Liz Truss said on Friday, having spoken to the nation’s new monarch on Thursday evening.

なんだか、あまり魅力的に見えないおばさんが首相になった。

Liz Truss and Hugh O’Leary, her husband, after the announcement of her victory in the Tory leadership race CREDIT: Stefan Rousseau/Shutterstock

TODAY’S WORLDVIEW

Liz Truss, an unpopular leader for a troubled Britain

Analysis by Ishaan Tharoor  

September 6, 2022 at 12:01 a.m. EDT

On Tuesday, Liz Truss heads to a Scottish castle to call on Queen Elizabeth II and “kiss” the royal hand. The current British foreign secretary will thus become her country’s next prime minister. With Truss’s appointment, the queen will have presided over this traditional rite 15 times in her many decades as sovereign. It’s possible, no matter reports of her ailing health, that she may do it all over again soon.

Truss comes to power not via general election but after winning the majority of votes in a Conservative Party leadership election decided by fewer than 200,000 dues-paying Tory activists. Her main rival, former Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak, was more popular among sitting Conservative lawmakers in Parliament. Broader public opinion polls show the opposition Labour Party with its strongest lead in a decade. A majority of Britons, meanwhile, believe Truss will make a “poor” or “terrible” prime minister, and only a quarter consider her an improvement from Boris Johnson, her controversial and polarizing predecessor.

Truss will struggle to muster Johnson’s irrepressible — or delusional, critics would contend — optimism. Darkened skies already hang low over her nascent premiership. “In addition to the war in Ukraine and the fallout of Brexit, the new prime minister will inherit a vast range of economic and political problems,” my colleagues explained. “The Bank of England predicts Britain will suffer through protracted recession, beginning as early as October. Inflation already stands at 10 percent, with economists warning that 15 percent is possible.”

There’s an impending cascade of woes: A mammoth cost-of-living crisis is driving a historic drop in living standards. According to some estimates, two-thirds of British households may face “fuel poverty” by the end of the year, struggling to pay for the surging costs of heating their homes. Across various sectors of the economy, industrial action is picking up, with strikes shutting down train services, garbage collection and the operation of ports.

The country that Truss will now lead is unquestionably diminished. Most analyses of the impact of Brexit find that Britain’s departure from the European Union has dented its economy, added to its supply chain headaches and hurt its trading prospects. An analysis published last month by Saxo Bank warned investors that Britain is “more and more looking like an emerging market country” and won’t have the ability to manage “an easy escape” from a deep recession.

Truss campaigned for her party’s leadership on a platform pandering to the Tory’s hard core. She sees a path out of Britain’s problems by slashing taxes and boosting fracking and nuclear energy. “We will break with the same old tax and spend approach by focusing on growth and investment,” she wrote for the Telegraph. While likely welcomed by many Tories who internally elected her, such rhetoric is less convincing to the general public that has seen the Conservatives in power for 12 years.

“Truss’s Britain will be governed by policies lifted from cliched Daily Mail headlines,” wrote leftist commentator Owen Jones in the Guardian. “All the bêtes noires of saloon-bar reactionaries from the past 20 years will be slaughtered, and the resulting anguish from those effete metropolitan lefties obsessed with mere trivialities such as avoiding mass impoverishment and the destruction of the planet will give the Tory faithful their kicks.”

“Economists … have been skeptical about her confidence that all it will take is a few tax cuts to put a tiger back in the national tank,” noted Sam Leith in the right-leaning Spectator that wondered whether she would be a “Tory Jeremy Corbyn,” a nod to the former left-wing Labour leader whose radical politics swept him to the top role in his party but ultimately hurt Labour on the national stage.

あれ?いくら冴えないおばさんでも、就任わずか44日で辞任するとは思わなかった!この記事のタイトルが「Welcomeback Boris」になったりして?

Liz Truss: The human hand grenade who tragically blew herself up

She spent a lifetime defying the doubters. But the very personality that had powered her ascent ultimately led to her downfall

ByHarry de Quetteville   20 October 2022 • 6:40pm

 Liz Truss on Thursday became Britain’s shortest serving prime minister, lasting just 44 days in office CREDIT: TOBY MELVILLE

And like that she was gone. A politician known above all as a survivor, a bundle of contradictions elastic enough to survive and thrive under three very different prime ministers, came dramatically unstuck when the top job was finally hers.

短命で気の毒だったので、新聞記事を記念に

Borisのあと9/8女王が96歳で死去された。70年も女王として君臨(蟄居?)し、多くの困難と苦しみ、葛藤があっただろう。でも、最後まで女王としての地位を守り続けたのだから「偉い」ともいえよう。

2022/09/09

BBC announces the death of Queen Elizabeth II
2022/09/09 The news anchor Huw Edwards said Buckingham Palace had released a statement confirming that the Queen had died peacefully at Balmoral Castle on Thursday afternoon.

2022/09/10 King Charles III has made his first address to the UK as sovereign, following the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II.

In a televised address, the King paid tribute to his “darling mama” saying “may flights of angels sing thee to thy rest”, and renewed his mother’s lifelong promise of service.

国葬でかわいらしかったのはシャーロットちゃん。これでも王位継承第3位

With maturity, grace and just the right type of mourning ensemble, seven-year-old Charlotte is proving she’s every inch a royal princess The Telegraph

皇后雅子さんも元気を取り戻したようで美しかった。

国葬はロンドン中心部のウェストミンスター寺院で営まれた。皇后さまは前から6列目の通路側の席に、その隣に天皇陛下が着席した。天皇陛下の隣(通路側から3番目)はマレーシアのアブドラ国王と見られ、2人が会話する様子が英メディアの配信写真で確認された。一方、英メディアは、バイデン米大統領と妻ジル氏の座席が前から14列目だったことに着目している。インディペンデント紙は「バイデン夫妻、国葬でポーランド大統領の背後、14列目への着席を余儀なくされる」との見出しで報じた。

9/25 宮内庁長官「両陛下のご訪問本当に良かった」

西村宮内庁長官は両陛下帰国後の9月22日の記者会見で次のように述べました。 「両陛下が代表する国民の弔意は、英国王室そして英国民に十二分に伝わったと思います。また今回の国葬には世界中から多くの国王、大統領と元首クラスが参列しましたけれども、両陛下はこうした多くの参列者と交流を深められたことにより、国際社会における日本の皇室の存在感をお示しになったものと考えています。今回、両陛下にご訪問いただいて、本当に良かったと率直に感じているところであります」

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