和名: モズ, English: Bull-headed shrike, Binomial name: Lanius bucephalus (Temminck & Schlegel, 1845)
Wikipedia
スズメ目 > モズ科 > モズ属 > モズ
Order: Passeriformes > Family: Laniidae > Genus: Lanius > Species: L. bucephalus
「モズが枯れ木に」のような情景, The scene like “A shrike in a dead tree”
2016年11月30日、柏市にある柏の葉公園を散歩した。第2水辺公園を歩いていると木の梢にモズがいるのに気付いた。モズは時々鳴いては周囲を見回していた。このモズはこの辺をテリトリーにしているようだ。止まっている木はメタセコイアだ。 冬になると葉を落とす針葉樹なので、「モズが枯れ木に」のような情景だ。
On November 30, 2016, I strolled in Kashiwanoha Park in Kashiwa city. I noticed a Bull-headed shrike perched on a tree top of the tree when I was walking the second Kashiwanoha waterside park. The shrike sometimes sang and was looking around. This shrike seems to make this neighborhood territory. The tree is a Metasequoia. As it is a coniferous tree that drops leaves in winter, the scene is like that of “A shrike in a dead tree”.
(柏の葉公園 Kashiwanoha Park, Chiba, Japan, 11:33, Nov. 30, 2016, D810)
「もずが枯木で」の歌を思い出した。この歌には東北地方農家生まれの私には馴染みの情景がある。この歌は大日本帝国が中国を侵略し始めた1935年に 作詞されたと知ってびっくりした（1937年、盧溝橋事件が勃発し日中全面戦争）。当時、検閲により反戦表現は許されなかったからだ。 この歌が世界大戦後に茨城県民謡になった歴史があり、不思議な経過だと指摘されている（インターネット参照）。 その不思議さに魅せられて英語訳してみた。
I remembered a song “Shrike calling in a dead tree”. There is a familiar scene to me in this song because I was born in a farmer in North-east district of Japan. I was surprised to know that this song was written in 1935 when Empire of Japan begun to invade Republic of China (1937: Full-scale invasion of China). This is because the antiwar expression was not permitted by censorship in those days. There is the history that this song became the folk song of Ibaragi prefecture after the World War, and it is pointed out that it is mysterious progress (refer to the Internet sites). I was fascinated by that wonder and translated it into English.
Shrike calling in a dead tree
A shrike is calling in a dead tree
I am beating a bundle of straw
My grandma is spinning yarn out of cotton
The mil is working rhythmically
All seem the same as the last year
But there’s one thing that’s not the same
No sound of splitting wood by my darling
No sound of splitting wood with a single stroke
My darling has gone to Manchuria
His carrying gun shone with his tears
Shrike, squeak more in perishing cold
My darling should be much colder than you