Časoris is an online newspaper aimed at children. Each week we’ll take an article and post it here as a Slovene-English dual text.
Osamljene cvetoče češnje
Lonely flowering cherries
Written Romana Dobnikar Šeruga translated by JL Flanner & G Translate
Japonsko sta ta teden pretresli dve novici: poletne olimpijske igre so prestavljene za leto dni in okoli cvetočih češenj v tokijskih parkih so postavili plastične trakove, da bi preprečili piknike pod njimi.
Japan was shaken by two news stories this week: the Summer Olympics have been postponed for a year and plastic barriers have been placed around flowering cherries in Tokyo's parks to prevent picnics underneath them.
Kaj je lepšega kot sedeti v parku in z najdražjimi uživati ob pogledu na cvetoče češnje? Na Japonskem je to pravi praznik, hanami. Izjemno je priljubljen tako med domačini kot obiskovalci iz tujine.
What is better than sitting in the park and enjoying the cherry blossoms with your loved ones? In Japan, this is a real holiday, hanami. It is extremely popular with both locals and visitors from abroad.
Japonski meteorologi vsako leto izdelajo celo napoved za sezono hanamija.
Every year, Japanese meteorologists even make a forecast for the hanami season.
Češnje so te dni že vzcvetele v Tokiu in njegovi okolici, v okolici Osake in Kjota pa jih pričakujejo naslednji teden. Bolj ko se pomikamo proti severu, kasneje cvetijo češnjeva drevesa.
In recent days cherries have already bloomed in Tokyo and its surroundings, and are expected next week in Osaka and Kyoto. The more we move north, the later the cherry trees bloom.
»Simbolika češnjevega cveta je poleg lepote tudi minljivost, kar je v teh nepredvidljivih časih, ko se svet bojuje proti koronavirusu, dobrodošlo sporočilo vsem ljudem,« pojasnjuje Maja Rome iz Genki centra, japonskega izobraževalnega in kulturnega centra, ki skrbi za širjenje japonske kulture in učenje japonščine v Sloveniji.
"In addition to beauty, the symbolism of cherry blossom is their fleeting nature, which in these unpredictable times, when the world is fighting the coronavirus, is a welcome message to all people," explains Maja Rome of Genki Center, a Japanese education and cultural centre that work to spread Japanese culture and learning Japanese in Slovenia.
»Prepoznavanje lepote življenja, kljub njegovi minljivi naravi, nam lahko daje optimizem tudi v težkih situacijah bolezni in smrti,« dodaja.
"Recognizing the beauty of life, despite its fleeting nature, can give us optimism even in difficult situations of illness and death," she adds.
Tudi v Sloveniji se po japonskem vzoru zadnja leta družimo pod cvetočimi češnjevimi drevesi v ljubljanskem Botaničnem vrtu.
In Slovenia, too, following the Japanese model, we have been hanging out under the flowering cherry trees in the Ljubljana Botanical Garden for the past few years.
Zaradi koronavirusa to druženje letos odpade. Toda še vedno, pravi Maja Rome, lahko doma na svojem vrtu poleg češnjevih cvetov opazujemo tudi druga cvetoča pomladna drevesa, ki nam prav tako pričarajo občutek pomladne moči življenja.
Because of the coronavirus, this group activity is cancelled this year. But still, says Maja Rome, at home in her garden, besides cherry blossoms, we can see other flowering spring trees that also give us a sense of spring’s power of life.
Read more stories and improve your Slovene at Časoris, while all our dual texts can be found here.
