娘がまだ3歳の時、田舎の小さなホテルに泊まった。朝早く、一人さきに目覚めた娘に起こされた。
「おとうさん、早く起きて、ねえ、起きてよ。」
まだまだ目が覚めないわたしは、①「もうすこし」といってふとんをかぶる。窓のところへ走っていく娘の足音。しばらくして、「お父さん、ねえ、こっちへ来て。」「ねえ、お父さん、きれいだよ。夕焼けの朝だよ。」
このことばに起き上がったわたしは、「えっ、何？」娘のところに行き、窓から外を見た。そこには、赤い赤い、空が広がっていた。美しい朝焼けの空だ。
「ねっ、きれでしょ。おとうさん。」
「うん、きれいだね。」
娘はまだ3歳。「朝焼け」ということばは知らなかったが、②自分の知っている日本語で目の前に広がる美しい景色を上手に伝えることができた。
人はだれでも、ことばを使って自分の気持ちを表す力を持っている、わたしはそう感じた。
AI translation, cross-checked between two models.
When my daughter was only three years old, we stayed at a small hotel in the countryside. Early in the morning, I was awakened by my daughter, who had woken up before everyone else.
“Dad, get up quickly. Come on, wake up.”
Still far from fully awake, I said, ①“Just a little longer,” and pulled the covers over myself. I heard my daughter’s footsteps running toward the window. A little while later, “Dad, come over here.” “Dad, look, it’s beautiful. It’s a sunset morning.”
Those words made me sit up. “Huh? What?” I went over to my daughter and looked outside through the window. Before me stretched a sky of deep, deep red. It was a beautiful dawn sky.
“See? It’s beautiful, isn’t it? Dad.”
“Yes, it is beautiful.”
My daughter was still only three years old. She did not yet know the word “morning glow,” but ②she was able to use the Japanese words she knew to skillfully describe the beautiful scene before her.
I felt that everyone has the ability to use words to express their own feelings.
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