３月１５日（水曜日）２０２３
今朝は小学校６年生の教室で読み聞かせをしました。３年生までは通常週一回の読み聞かせですが、４、５、６年生は１学期に一度の教室訪問となります。６年生の子供達に接するのは初めてだったので何を読むか考えて、私の好きな宮沢賢治の「よだかの星」を選びました。ただ、全文を読むと規定の１０分を超えてしまうので良さを損ねないように少しカットして用意しました。外見が醜いという理由で他の鳥たちから疎外されたよだかがとった最後の行動は衝撃的で、胸打たれる作品です。時間超過を恐れて特急で朗読しましたが、一心に聴いてくれているのが伝わり嬉しかったです。
I went to 6 grader's class for story telling this morning. Up until 3rd graders, they have storytelling mostly every week, but it comes only once a semester from 4 to 6 graders. Thinking over what I will read for them, since it was the first time for me to visit 6 graders' class, I chose "Yodaka no hoshi"（The Nighthawk Star) (by Kenji Miyazawa) which I like very much. It will be over ten minutes if I read the full book so I made it shorter in order to be finished in ten minutes by cutting some parts which don't affect the main story. The final action of Yodaka (Japanese goatsucker), who had been alienated from other birds, was devastating and it deeply moved me. Since I was afraid of taking over time, I read rather rapidly, but children listened to my reading intently and it made me very happy.
