多賀あさひや

４月１５日（水曜日）２０２０
春の訪れを祝う例年の様々な儀式や催しが今年は軒並み中止という前代未聞の状況が世界中で起きています。感染者がまだ一人も出ていない滋賀の田舎町の私の地域でも県内の数字は少しずつ増えて辺りは閉塞感でいっぱいです。Youtubeで世界各都市の様子を映し出していました。賑わっているはずの観光地は人がほとんどいなくて中学か高校の時にテレビでみたアメリカ映画の「渚にて」（1959製作）のラストシーンを思い出しました。映画は放射能に侵されて人類が滅亡しラストは廃墟となった街が映し出されるという恐ろしいものでした。既にウイルスで何万もの人が亡くなってしまったとはいえ、今日見たYoutubeの映像は多くの人はまだ建物の中でしっかり生きているところが映画とは違います。田舎だから安心だろうとつい思ってしまいますが、感染はいつどこからはじまるか分かりません。１週間で様相がガラリと変わってしまう得体の知れない感染病の恐ろしさが迫ります。映画「渚にて」の主題歌を載せておきます。軽やかなやさしい曲だけにそこはかとない悲しさが漂います。https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZGpTzRmwb0
Various rituals and events which celebrate spring around the world are all being canceled due to this abnormal situation. Even my area, which is a countryside town in Shiga where no infected people have been found yet, is filled with a gloomy atmosphere because of the increasing number of infected people in our prefecture. I saw a video on Youtube which showed an updated situation of the famous cities in the world where usually you will see very lively scenes with many tourists and local people but they were almost empty which made me recall the last scene of the American movie titled "On the beach" (1959) where there are no people to be found anywhere because all of the people on earth have died because of radioactive contamination. The video on Youtube, however, was different from that because even though tens of thousands of people have already died because of coronavirus, there are still people living on the earth and hiding in the buildings. Honestly I tend to think that we will be safe as long as we live in such a spacious rural area, but there is no guarantee that we will not be infected by the virus. Coronavirus which we don't know what to do is fearful because it changes our living situation into a chaotic one within only a week. I will put the music of "On the Beach" here. It is a light smooth song by Jimmie Rodgers. The more smooth and beautiful the music, the more deep sadness I feel. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZGpTzRmwb0