At my
daughter's school, Tuesday morning is "Yomi-ki-ka-se" time,
where mothers volunteer to read books to the children.
Once a year the school asks me to read a book in English to the class at Christmas time.
So, since Y. has been in elementary school I have been choosing a book to read to the two classes in her grade---this year she is in fourth grade. Always something with a wintry or Christmas theme.
I go to one of our two local libraries to find a book that is also available in a Japanese version, and I read the English version while another mother in the class reads in Japanese.
This year I did the reading with H.san (Mrs. H.), the mother of one of Y's good friends.
The book we selected was "The Polar Express" by Chris Van Allsburg, who also made the gorgeous illustrations.
In Japanese the title is:
急行“北極号”
Translator: 村上春樹
It is translated beautifully by the writer Haruki Murakami (Murakami Haruki as he is known is Japanese).
We read a few lines at a time alternately, as the Japanese translation beautifully followed the English lines about a little boy's adventure on a train to the North Pole where he meets Santa and receives the first gift of Christmas.
H. san and I arranged to meet a few days before to 'practice' and to decide how we would read --one page at a time, or line by line.
When we met in her apartment it was evening and the night was still. Y. and T.kun (H. san's son; 'kun' is the suffix used after boys names in Japan) were in another room playing.
The two of us alternated reading the lines, and we became transported into the world of the Polar Express, as if we were really looking out the window for Santa's sleigh. As the train headed faster and faster North, our voices speeded up and the lines in Japanese and English blended into a wonderful feast of wintry words.
We forgot our roles as mothers who were to read to our childrens' class and became two children waiting for the first gift of Christmas.
H. san was crying at the end of the story, and she told me that as a child she believed she really saw one of Santa's reindeers, though she never saw Santa himself.
After we read to the fourth grade class yesterday morning, H. san and I were giddy and thanked each other for the pleasure of reading this book together. We hugged each other in the halls of the elementary school, and confessed that for both of us it was like we already experienced Christmas, as we both believed we heard the silver bell of Santa's sleigh when we read together the other evening at her house.
The school principal saw us giggling and we must have surprised him---two grown-ups caught in a moment of being kids again.
Merry Reading to to
All and to
All a
Good Book....
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