Price hikes*1 squeezing*2 fatherless families
A 41 years old woman, whose husband took his own life when he was 51, continues to work as a nursing-care helper to provide for her three children while taking medicine to relieve an irregular heartbeat. The woman wrote in response to*3 a questionnaire: If I try to earn money, I lose time to spend with my children. I am seized*4 with anxiety not knowing what to do."
As the prices of daily essentials go up, how are fatherless families that are socially vulnerable*5
As the prices of daily essentials go up, how are fatherless families that are socially vulnerable*5
Tulip vandalism*1sign of an oppressive*2 society
"Les Papillons" (The butterflies) is a long poem by Gerand de Nerval (1808-1855), a French poet. Part of it, translated into Japanese by Kyuichiro Inoue (1909-1999), goes to the effect: "Butterflies flutter, flowers without a stem, flowers picked up into a net... ." The butterflies glide away over green grass like sentiments of love, the poem continues. And because of their beauty, they are eventually visited with tragedy.
As if to echo this poetic imagination, stemless flowers and flowerless stems-a pathetic* sight indeed- are being descovered in various parts of Japan this spring. I don't want to think there are people out there begrudging*4 things of beauty, but flowers are being cut and trampled*5 upon in an ongoing spate spate of vandalism.
Earlier this month, about 1,000 tulips planted along a main street in the city of Maebashi were butchered. Despite a tightened neighborhood watch after the incident, vandalism occured again, and some of the tulips were nearly upriited. I felt chiloled by the words of a city offical, who said "malevolence*6" is sesed in this crime.
Tulips awere trageted*7 in Fukuoka and SHizuoka prefectures, too. Those in SHizuoka were planted in memory of a deceased woman surfer by her friends. "Hana ni arashi" (literally, a bloom caught in a storm) is an old Japanese expression, meaning that dab things can happen in the best of times. Had those tulips been ruined by a rainstorm, one could have accepted the outcome as inevitable*8. But it's a totally different matter when vandalism was the cause, and this must deeply distress the deceased surfer's friends.
In our society becoming a place where strangers cannot be trasted? Spray-paint graffiti*9 were discovered on Sunday in the main hall of Zenkoji temple had just declined to be the starting point of the Olympic torch relay for the Beijing Olympics. The temple premises are said to be open to faithful 24/7*10. But now that it is obious that not everyone is pious*11 worshipper, calls may be made to review this arrangement.
With the "torches" of benevolence*12 being put out one by one society is growing more oppressive, as if everyone should be suspicious of*13 one another. In the shadows cast by suspicion, cynical*14 sayings of old glitter unpleasantly. The indivisuals who vandalized the tulips and the temple are contributing to this unacceptable social trend. (Herald Asahi, April 22)
As if to echo this poetic imagination, stemless flowers and flowerless stems-a pathetic* sight indeed- are being descovered in various parts of Japan this spring. I don't want to think there are people out there begrudging*4 things of beauty, but flowers are being cut and trampled*5 upon in an ongoing spate spate of vandalism.
Earlier this month, about 1,000 tulips planted along a main street in the city of Maebashi were butchered. Despite a tightened neighborhood watch after the incident, vandalism occured again, and some of the tulips were nearly upriited. I felt chiloled by the words of a city offical, who said "malevolence*6" is sesed in this crime.
Tulips awere trageted*7 in Fukuoka and SHizuoka prefectures, too. Those in SHizuoka were planted in memory of a deceased woman surfer by her friends. "Hana ni arashi" (literally, a bloom caught in a storm) is an old Japanese expression, meaning that dab things can happen in the best of times. Had those tulips been ruined by a rainstorm, one could have accepted the outcome as inevitable*8. But it's a totally different matter when vandalism was the cause, and this must deeply distress the deceased surfer's friends.
In our society becoming a place where strangers cannot be trasted? Spray-paint graffiti*9 were discovered on Sunday in the main hall of Zenkoji temple had just declined to be the starting point of the Olympic torch relay for the Beijing Olympics. The temple premises are said to be open to faithful 24/7*10. But now that it is obious that not everyone is pious*11 worshipper, calls may be made to review this arrangement.
With the "torches" of benevolence*12 being put out one by one society is growing more oppressive, as if everyone should be suspicious of*13 one another. In the shadows cast by suspicion, cynical*14 sayings of old glitter unpleasantly. The indivisuals who vandalized the tulips and the temple are contributing to this unacceptable social trend. (Herald Asahi, April 22)
