📖 Night on the Galactic Railroad (銀河鉄道の夜)
Chapter 1: Afternoon Class (午後の授業)
Original story by Kenji Miyazawa (public domain)
Bilingual made by PaperNom
A Japanese–English parallel text to help you learn Japanese through
a real story instead of textbook sentences. Read each Japanese
paragraph side by side with its natural English translation, and
follow Giovanni and Campanella's journey chapter by chapter.
Tags: Japanese English parallel text, bilingual Japanese story,
learn Japanese through reading, Kenji Miyazawa English translation,
Night on the Galactic Railroad English, 銀河鉄道の夜 英語,
Japanese reading practice, side by side Japanese English novel
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午後の授業
Chapter One: Afternoon Class
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| Night at the Galactic Railroad | 銀河鉄道の夜 | English–Japanese Bilingual Chapter 1 |
「ではみなさんは、そういうふうに川だと言われたり、乳の流れたあとだと言われたりしていた、このぼんやりと白いものがほんとうは何かご承知ですか」先生は、黒板につるした大きな黒い星座の図の、上から下へ白くけぶった銀河帯のようなところを指しながら、みんなに問いをかけました。
"Now then, this hazy white band that people have called a river, or the trail left by spilled milk. Does anyone actually know what it is?" The teacher pointed to the pale, misty strip running from top to bottom of the large black star chart hanging on the blackboard, and put the question to the class.
カムパネルラが手をあげました。それから四、五人手をあげました。ジョバンニも手をあげようとして、急いでそのままやめました。たしかにあれがみんな星だと、いつか雑誌で読んだのでしたが、このごろはジョバンニはまるで毎日教室でもねむく、本を読むひまも読む本もないので、なんだかどんなこともよくわからないという気持ちがするのでした。
Campanella raised his hand. Four or five others followed. Giovanni started to raise his too, but stopped himself at once. He was sure he had read somewhere, once, in a magazine, that it was all stars, but lately he was tired every single day, even in class, with no time to read and nothing to read even if he had the time, so that everything felt somehow uncertain to him now.
ところが先生は早くもそれを見つけたのでした。
But the teacher had already noticed him.
「ジョバンニさん。あなたはわかっているのでしょう」
"Giovanni. You know the answer, don't you?"
ジョバンニは勢いよく立ちあがりましたが、立ってみるともうはっきりとそれを答えることができないのでした。ザネリが前の席からふりかえって、ジョバンニを見てくすっとわらいました。ジョバンニはもうどぎまぎしてまっ赤になってしまいました。先生がまた言いました。
Giovanni sprang to his feet, but once standing he found he could not give a clear answer after all. Zanelli turned around from the seat in front and smirked at him. Giovanni went red with embarrassment. The teacher spoke again.
「大きな望遠鏡で銀河をよっく調べると銀河はだいたい何でしょう」
"If you examined the Milky Way carefully through a large telescope, what would it turn out to be, roughly speaking?"
やっぱり星だとジョバンニは思いましたが、こんどもすぐに答えることができませんでした。
Giovanni thought again that it must be stars, but once more the words would not come.
先生はしばらく困ったようすでしたが、眼をカムパネルラの方へ向けて、
The teacher looked troubled for a moment, then turned his eyes toward Campanella.
「ではカムパネルラさん」と名指しました。
"Campanella, then," he said, calling on him by name.
するとあんなに元気に手をあげたカムパネルラが、やはりもじもじ立ち上がったままやはり答えができませんでした。
But Campanella, who had raised his hand so eagerly, only shifted uncomfortably as he stood, and no answer came from him either.
先生は意外なようにしばらくじっとカムパネルラを見ていましたが、急いで、
The teacher looked at him steadily for a moment, surprised, then quickly said,
「では、よし」と言いながら、自分で星図を指しました。
"Very well then," and pointed to the star chart himself.
「このぼんやりと白い銀河を大きないい望遠鏡で見ますと、もうたくさんの小さな星に見えるのです。ジョバンニさんそうでしょう」
"Seen through a fine, powerful telescope, this hazy white band turns out to be countless tiny stars. Isn't that right, Giovanni?"
ジョバンニはまっ赤になってうなずきました。けれどもいつかジョバンニの眼のなかには涙がいっぱいになりました。そうだ僕は知っていたのだ、もちろんカムパネルラも知っている、それはいつかカムパネルラのお父さんの博士のうちでカムパネルラといっしょに読んだ雑誌のなかにあったのだ。それどこでなくカムパネルラは、その雑誌を読むと、すぐお父さんの書斎から巨きな本をもってきて、ぎんがというところをひろげ、まっ黒な頁いっぱいに白に点々のある美しい写真を二人でいつまでも見たのでした。それをカムパネルラが忘れるはずもなかったのに、すぐに返事をしなかったのは、このごろぼくが、朝にも午後にも仕事がつらく、学校に出てももうみんなともはきはき遊ばず、カムパネルラともあんまり物を言わないようになったので、カムパネルラがそれを知ってきのどくがってわざと返事をしなかったのだ、そう考えるとたまらないほど、じぶんもカムパネルラもあわれなような気がするのでした。
Giovanni, flushing red, nodded. But before he knew it, his eyes had filled with tears. Yes, he had known it all along, and of course Campanella knew it too. They had read it once together, in a magazine, at Campanella's house, in the study of Campanella's father, the doctor. More than that, Campanella had gone straight to his father's study after reading that magazine, brought out an enormous book, opened it to the section on the galaxy, and the two of them had gazed for the longest time at a beautiful photograph, a page of deep black scattered all over with white points of light. There was no way Campanella could have forgotten that. And so the reason he hadn't answered at once, Giovanni thought, must be that he knew how hard things had become for Giovanni lately, mornings and afternoons both, working at his job, no longer playing cheerfully with the others at school, hardly even talking with Campanella anymore, and that Campanella, out of pity, had held his answer back on purpose. The thought was almost more than he could bear, and it left him feeling sorry for them both, himself and Campanella alike.
先生はまた言いました。
The teacher spoke again.
「ですからもしもこの天の川がほんとうに川だと考えるなら、その一つ一つの小さな星はみんなその川のそこの砂や砂利の粒にもあたるわけです。またこれを巨きな乳の流れと考えるなら、もっと天の川とよく似ています。つまりその星はみな、乳のなかにまるで細かにうかんでいる脂油の球にもあたるのです。そんなら何がその川の水にあたるかと言いますと、それは真空という光をある速さで伝えるもので、太陽や地球もやっぱりそのなかに浮かんでいるのです。つまりは私どもも天の川の水のなかに棲んでいるわけです。そしてその天の川の水のなかから四方を見ると、ちょうど水が深いほど青く見えるように、天の川の底の深く遠いところほど星がたくさん集まって見え、したがって白くぼんやり見えるのです。この模型をごらんなさい」
"So then, if we really did think of the Milky Way as a river, each of those tiny stars would correspond to a grain of sand or gravel lying on its bed. Or if we thought of it as a great stream of milk, that would suit it even better. In that case, every star would correspond to one of the countless fine droplets of fat suspended in the milk. And what, you might ask, would correspond to the water of that river? It would be a vacuum, the medium that carries light along at a certain speed, and the sun and the earth are floating in it too, just as the stars are. Which means that we ourselves are living inside the waters of the Milky Way. And if you look around you from within those waters, in every direction, well, just as water looks bluer the deeper it is, the deep, distant reaches of the Milky Way appear thick with stars, and so look pale and hazy. Take a look at this model."
先生は中にたくさん光る砂のつぶのはいった大きな両面の凸レンズを指しました。
The teacher pointed to a large double convex lens filled with countless grains of shining sand.
「天の川の形はちょうどこんななのです。このいちいちの光るつぶがみんな私どもの太陽と同じようにじぶんで光っている星だと考えます。私どもの太陽がこのほぼ中ごろにあって地球がそのすぐ近くにあるとします。みなさんは夜にこのまん中に立ってこのレンズの中を見まわすとしてごらんなさい。こっちの方はレンズが薄いのでわずかの光る粒すなわち星しか見えないでしょう。こっちやこっちの方はガラスが厚いので、光る粒すなわち星がたくさん見えその遠いのはぼうっと白く見えるという、これがつまり今日の銀河の説なのです。そんならこのレンズの大きさがどれくらいあるか、またその中のさまざまの星についてはもう時間ですから、この次の理科の時間にお話します。では今日はその銀河のお祭りなのですから、みなさんは外へでてよくそらをごらんなさい。ではここまでです。本やノートをおしまいなさい」
"The shape of the Milky Way is just like this. Imagine that each of these shining grains is a star, giving off its own light just as our sun does. Suppose our sun sits roughly here, near the middle, with the earth close beside it. Now imagine standing at that midpoint at night and looking all around, through the lens. In this direction the glass is thin, so you would see only a scattering of shining grains, that is, stars. In these other directions the glass is thick, so you would see a great many shining grains, and the farthest ones would blur together into a hazy white. That, in short, is today's account of the Milky Way. As for how large this lens actually is, and the many different kinds of stars within it, our time is up, so we'll take that up in our next science lesson. Now, today happens to be the festival of the Milky Way, so I want all of you to go outside this evening and look carefully at the sky. That will be all for today. Put away your books and notebooks."
そして教室じゅうはしばらく机の蓋をあけたりしめたり本を重ねたりする音がいっぱいでしたが、まもなくみんなはきちんと立って礼をすると教室を出ました。
For a while the whole classroom filled with the sound of desk lids opening and closing and books being stacked together, but before long everyone stood up properly, bowed, and filed out of the room.
Vocabulary
銀河（ぎんが）— the Milky Way, galaxy
星座（せいざ）— constellation
望遠鏡（ぼうえんきょう）— telescope
天の川（あまのがわ）— the Milky Way (literally "river of heaven")
凸レンズ（とつレンズ）— convex lens
どぎまぎする — to be flustered, to fluster
きのどくがる — to feel sorry for someone, to pity
もじもじする — to fidget, to hesitate awkwardly
Grammar notes
〜のでした / 〜のです: this narrative "explanatory" form appears constantly in Miyazawa's prose. It frames a statement as background explanation rather than a bare fact, giving the narration its gentle, storytelling tone.
〜ようとして: "tried to ~ (but)", used here with 手をあげようとして (started to raise his hand) to show an action begun and then interrupted.
〜わけです: "which means that, it follows that" — used by the teacher to draw a logical conclusion from his explanation.
Key kanji
銀（ぎん）silver / 河（が）river → 銀河 galaxy
星（ほし・せい）star
涙（なみだ）tear(s)
頁（ページ）page (an older kanji reading, now usually written ページ)
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