２５ Ａｕｇｕｓｔ， Ｍｉｔｏ Ｏｒｉｈａｒａ
文字数 3,861文字
Child of The Sun
This year the rainy season was long.
Day after day, so much rain fell, and houses and villages throughout Japan were flooded.
And at the end of July, when the Olympics were supposed to be starting, the rain didn’t stop. The sky was the color of lead.
Even summer vacation was shorter than usual this year.
Why’s that?
Because of the coronavirus.
Because of a virus that has the same name as me.
The name Corona is a total curse.
I feel like I’m hated by everyone in the world.
It makes me feel like thousands of people, all over the globe, have died because of me.
When will it end? Or will it never end?
The thought is so scary, I can barely breathe; I can’t see a future.
I had the thought that things will never again be normal and fun.
But then today, the rainy season ended.
Usually mom wakes me up around 8, but today I woke up on my own around 5.
I went out on the balcony and saw that the sky was covered with lead-colored clouds as always.
The day should’ve been dawning, but it was still quite dark; I looked idly up at the sky, wondering dejectedly if it would rain again today.
Just then, a small hole suddenly opened up in the thick clouds.
And through that gap, I saw a clear blue, like a sapphire.
It slowly became like a thin river, cutting a blue crevice in the sky.
Eventually, a dazzling golden light broke through the crack in the clouds.
It was the morning sun.
The sun, which I was seeing for the first time in a long while, started to slash through the clouds just like a hero swinging a sword of light.
More and more and more. The gray clouds were chased away, as the blue gained territory.
Before long, the sky was split cleanly between blue and gray.
I felt like I had seen, for the first time in my life, the borderline between the rainy season and summer.
On the afternoon news, they reported on the end of the rainy season in the Kanto region.
Summer 2020 had finally arrived, on the first day of August.
As she reported on the end of the rainy season, the newsreader’s face seemed brighter than usual. The people and streets on the TV screen, too, looked different than they had the day before.
The gray images had a tinge of hope to them.
Because the sun was shining on the world. . . .
When the fall semester starts, I’ll be going to school, one I haven’t been to even once since I started there. I’ll puff up my chest and introduce myself to my classmates, who I’ll meet for the first time.
“My name is Corona. It’s written with the characters for ‘sun’.”
It’s time to stop cowering in fear in the darkness.
The rain has stopped. The sun is shining.
However bad a year is, summer will still come.
Maybe someday we’ll be called “the Corona generation.”
That’ll be the title given to the strong kids who overcame these times of darkness.
My name is Corona.
Child of the sun.
And the only one who can dispel this curse is me.
Translated by Morgan Giles /Arranged by TranNet KK
Mito Orihara
Became a shojo-manga artist in 1985, making her debut as a novelist in 1987. Her 1991 novel
This year the rainy season was long.
Day after day, so much rain fell, and houses and villages throughout Japan were flooded.
And at the end of July, when the Olympics were supposed to be starting, the rain didn’t stop. The sky was the color of lead.
Even summer vacation was shorter than usual this year.
Why’s that?
Because of the coronavirus.
Because of a virus that has the same name as me.
The name Corona is a total curse.
I feel like I’m hated by everyone in the world.
It makes me feel like thousands of people, all over the globe, have died because of me.
When will it end? Or will it never end?
The thought is so scary, I can barely breathe; I can’t see a future.
I had the thought that things will never again be normal and fun.
But then today, the rainy season ended.
Usually mom wakes me up around 8, but today I woke up on my own around 5.
I went out on the balcony and saw that the sky was covered with lead-colored clouds as always.
The day should’ve been dawning, but it was still quite dark; I looked idly up at the sky, wondering dejectedly if it would rain again today.
Just then, a small hole suddenly opened up in the thick clouds.
And through that gap, I saw a clear blue, like a sapphire.
It slowly became like a thin river, cutting a blue crevice in the sky.
Eventually, a dazzling golden light broke through the crack in the clouds.
It was the morning sun.
The sun, which I was seeing for the first time in a long while, started to slash through the clouds just like a hero swinging a sword of light.
More and more and more. The gray clouds were chased away, as the blue gained territory.
Before long, the sky was split cleanly between blue and gray.
I felt like I had seen, for the first time in my life, the borderline between the rainy season and summer.
On the afternoon news, they reported on the end of the rainy season in the Kanto region.
Summer 2020 had finally arrived, on the first day of August.
As she reported on the end of the rainy season, the newsreader’s face seemed brighter than usual. The people and streets on the TV screen, too, looked different than they had the day before.
The gray images had a tinge of hope to them.
Because the sun was shining on the world. . . .
When the fall semester starts, I’ll be going to school, one I haven’t been to even once since I started there. I’ll puff up my chest and introduce myself to my classmates, who I’ll meet for the first time.
“My name is Corona. It’s written with the characters for ‘sun’.”
It’s time to stop cowering in fear in the darkness.
The rain has stopped. The sun is shining.
However bad a year is, summer will still come.
Maybe someday we’ll be called “the Corona generation.”
That’ll be the title given to the strong kids who overcame these times of darkness.
My name is Corona.
Child of the sun.
And the only one who can dispel this curse is me.
Translated by Morgan Giles /Arranged by TranNet KK
Mito Orihara
Became a shojo-manga artist in 1985, making her debut as a novelist in 1987. Her 1991 novel
Toki
no
kagayaki
(The shine of time) became a bestseller, with 1,100,000 copies sold. Her works include the popular The Legend in Annatour series and its manga adaptation, the mangaTenshi
no
iru
basho:
Dr.
Piyoko
no
kenshū
nōto
(Where angels lie: Dr. Piyoko’s research notes) andEien
no
kodō
(The eternal heartbeat), the novelsSeifuku
no
koro
kimi
ni
koishita
(I loved you when we were in uniform),Tengoku
no
yūbin
posuto
(Postbox in heaven),Kōfuku
no
pazuru
(The puzzle of happiness), andOtome
no
hatsukoi
(Maiden’s first love). In addition, she has also written for a variety of mediums including essays, picture-books, poetry, cooking recipes, and music compilations.
