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Yes, Virginia! There is a Santa Claus (Francis Church) -「サンタクロースっているのでしょうか?」- 89冊目

ジャンル: その他
英語難易度: ★☆☆
オススメ度: ★★★☆☆

クリスマスが近づいて来た。 そこでこのシーズンになるとよく取り上げられる有名な話を紹介したい。 アメリカに住む八歳の女の子がパパに聞いた。「サンタさんてホントにいるの?」パパは「サン(新聞)の投書欄で聞いてみたら?」とムチャ振り。 そこで彼女はペンを取り編集者さんに手紙をしたためた。

「へんしゅうしゃさま
わたしはは八さいです。
わたしのともだちは、サンタさんなんて、いやしないといいます。 パパにきくと、わからないことがあれば、サンしんぶんにきいてごらん、といいました。だからほんとうのことをおしえてください。
サンタさんはいるのですか。

バージニア・オハンロンより」

普通によくある新聞の投書とその回答記事だったが、読者の反響が大きく、その後100年以上にも渡ってよく知られる話となった。短い話なんで全文掲載。 簡単に読めます。 サン=デグジュベリに通じるこのセンス。 ぼくもこの編集者のようにシャレ心のある大人になりたい。(1887年掲載)


Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus

In 1897, eight-year old Virginia O’Hanlon wrote to The New York Sun asking whether Santa Claus truly existed. The paper's response, printed as an unsigned editorial in the September 21, 1897 paper, was written by Francis Pharcellus Church, and has become a beloved holiday literary tradition.

Is there a Santa Claus?
We take pleasure in answering at once and thus prominently the communication below, expressing at the same time our great gratification that its faithful author is numbered among the friends of THE SUN.


DEAR EDITOR:

I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, “If you see it in THE SUN it's so.” Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus?

Virginia O’Hanlon
115 West Ninety Fifth Street



VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except (what) they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, VIRGINIA, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You may tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank GOD! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, VIRGINIA, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

この少女バージニアは、その後学校の先生になり何十年にもわたって多くの子供達を教えたそうです。

Yes, Virginia!  There is a Santa Claus (English Edition)

Yes, Virginia! There is a Santa Claus (English Edition)

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