昨日、夕暮れ時に３０分ほど短い散歩に出ました。陽はもう沈んでいましたが、外はまだ少し明るく西の空は夕焼けが残っていました。黒い雲が無造作に低空に飛び散って何とも怪しげな雰囲気。一体明日は晴れるのか雨だろうかと考えながら空を見上げて歩いていると辺りの明るさはどんどんなくなって代わりに家々の電気が目に入ってきます。黄昏（たそがれ）とはよく言ったもので、知った人に出会っても「あなたはどなた？」と聞かなければもう誰か分かりません。昔の人はこんな時間は足を速めたでしょう。とっぷり日が暮れたら道が分からず大変です。今はといえばポツンポツンであるけれど街灯があったり、２００メートルほど先にあるコンビニの強烈な光が届いたり、時折通る車のライトに照らされたりして行く手に困ることはありません。それでも、途中で羽虫が顔に当たって、びっくり。相手も驚いたに違いありません。何がしかの灯りに助けられながら太田川の橋近くまで来て左手の神社の森の中を覗いたら真っ暗。じっーと覗き込めど一点の灯もない闇の世界でした。今も衝撃となって心に残っています。Yesterday at dusk, I took a short walk for about thirty minutes. The sun had already set but it was still a little bit bright, and I still saw the sunset glow on the western sky. The dark clouds scattered mysteriously low in the sky. While I was walking and looking up at the sky wondering if it would be clear or rainy tomorrow, it was getting darker and darker and the light from the windows was coming into my eyes instead. Twilight is "TASOGARE" in Japanese which indicates the time that you can't recognize who is in front of you and need to ask who they are. In the old days, people must have rushed to their home before it got dark otherwise they would have trouble finding the way. Now, we have street lights although there are not many in my town, strong lights from a convenience store which is 200 meters (o.12 miles) ahead of me, or car lights, and all of these help me to find the way. Although we have something happening in the evening, a small winged insect hit my face, and it surprised me. I think the insect was also surprised. Anyhow, when I came back to the small river near the shrine, I looked into the shrine's woods on my left. It was so dark and I couldn't see anything there. it was total darkness. Since I have never seen such darkness, it overwhelmed me.
