美国国家公共电台 NPR A Dying Japanese Village Brought Back To Life — By Scarecrows

A Dying Japanese Village Brought Back To Life — By Scarecrows

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

In Japan, you sometimes hear this term, village on the edge. What it means is a village on the edge of extinction¹. Japan's population is fast declining². It's easy to find evidence of that in rural areas. NPR's Ina Jaffe recently visited a remote mountain village on the island of Shikoku. It once had some 300 residents. Now the population has dropped to just 30. But one of those residents has been repopulating her hometown with scarecrows.

INA JAFFE, BYLINE⁴: You can tell when you've arrived at the village of Nagato. A tipoff is the three farmers in floppy⁵ hats resting against a telephone pole by the side of the road. Actually, they're life-sized figures made of cloth, stuffed with cotton and newspapers. The same goes for the man fishing in the creek⁶ a bit further up the road and the woman working in the potato field and the people waiting at the bus stop.

All of these figures are the work of 67-year-old Tsukimi Ayano. She's been making them for more than a decade. The first one she made really was intended to just be a scarecrow. And it looked like her father.

TSUKIMI AYANO: (Through interpreter) My father really didn't mind. But all the neighbors thought, because the scarecrow was wearing his clothes and looked like him, that he was out farming very early in the morning. So they'd say, good morning, how are you doing this morning? You're up working very early. So it just started up a conversation between the scarecrow and the neighbors.

JAFFE: Ayano met us in her front yard, where she was boiling a big pot of bamboo shoots over a wood fire. Nearby, a hose³ streams spring water into a tank where she's raising baby fish she caught in the nearby river. Country life seems to suit her. You wouldn't guess she's lived most of her life in Japan's third-largest city, Osaka. Her family moved there when she was in the seventh grade. And she remained, married, raised children. She returned to this village to look after her father.

AYANO: (Through interpreter) When I was in seventh grade, there were lots of people in the community, a lot of villagers, a lot of children. When I came back 15 years ago, you could obviously see the decline⁷ in the population.

JAFFE: But that emptiness has given Ayano a huge canvas⁸ for her creations⁹. She guesses she's made more than 400 scarecrows by now, all with individuality in their faces and clothing. As we walk up the road, Ayano explains that many of her figures have names of characters she's made up or of real people, some living, some gone.

AYANO: (Through interpreter) This is Mrs. Ogata, Miyako Ogata. She's a grandmother who passed away two years ago. But she used to sit like that in front of the house. So I made the figure look exactly like her.

JAFFE: Does that make you sad, or do you find it comforting to see her there?

AYANO: (Through interpreter) It's no longer sad because she's wearing the same clothes when she was very active. So she's there, and I come and greet her all the time. And so it feels like she's still here.

JAFFE: Ayano seems to take the loss of her neighbors in stride¹⁰. At 67, she's one of the younger people in Nagano. But the villagers are still a hearty¹¹ bunch. The reason we don't see any as we walk, she explains, is because they're all out in the fields, harvesting potatoes.

Soon, we arrive at the town's only school. But there are no longer any children here. The place is now a showcase for dozens of Ayano's figures, classrooms as she remembers them, full of students, teachers, parents looking on. One of the classrooms has just two child figures seated at the desks. They represent the last two students who were here before the school shut down for good.

AYANO: (Through interpreter) These two little scarecrows, the children made those themselves during their home economics¹² class. And they put the clothes they wore back then on the figures before they left the school.

JAFFE: Ayano's scarecrows have put this village on the map. The regional government sponsors a scarecrow festival for tourists each October. And some foreign visitors just find Ayano on their own, like a young man from Poland named Kit¹³ Kornowalski, who just showed up unannounced during our interview.

KIT KORNOWALSKI: I don't know, it wasn't - it's not even a rational¹⁴ thing. I just found it really interesting and just really wanted to come. It is absolutely wonderful. I can't stop smiling.

JAFFE: Ayano smiles a lot, too. She says she doesn't make these scarecrows because she's lonely, that making them brings her joy.

AYANO: (Through interpreter) Every morning I just greet them, saying good morning or, have a nice day. I never get a response, but that doesn't make a difference. I just go around talking to them anyway.

JAFFE: She says she'll keep making these figures as long as she's able. So Nagato's population of scarecrows is likely to increase, as the people who live here slowly fade away. Ina Jaffe, NPR News.

1 extinction   

n.熄灭，消亡，消灭，灭绝，绝种

参考例句：

• The plant is now in danger of extinction.这种植物现在有绝种的危险。
• The island's way of life is doomed to extinction.这个岛上的生活方式注定要消失。

2 declining   

adj.下降的，衰落的

参考例句：

• The nub of the matter is that business is declining. 事情的实质是工商业在萎缩。
• It is encouraging to read that illiteracy is declining. 从读报中了解文盲情况正在好转，这是令人鼓舞的。

3 hose   

n.输水软管，长统袜；vt.浇园子，用管冲洗

参考例句：

• Connect the hose to the tap and turn on the tap.把水管接在龙头上，打开水龙头。
• After raining,I always hose the yard out.雨后，我总是用软管把院子冲干净。

4 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

5 floppy   

adj.松软的，衰弱的

参考例句：

• She was wearing a big floppy hat.她戴了顶松软的大帽子。
• Can you copy those files onto this floppy disk?你能把那些文件复制到这张软盘上吗？

6 creek   

n.小溪，小河，小湾

参考例句：

• He sprang through the creek.他跳过小河。
• People sunbathe in the nude on the rocks above the creek.人们在露出小溪的岩石上裸体晒日光浴。

7 decline   

n.衰微，跌落，下降；vt.使降低，婉谢；vi.下降，衰落，偏斜

参考例句：

• I must decline to show favour to any of the candidates.我必须拒绝偏袒任何一位候选人。
• The birthrate is on the decline.出生率在下降。

8 canvas   

n.粗帆布，一块油画布

参考例句：

• The times that people used canvas boat have become history.人们用帆船的时代已成为历史。
• Smith painted an oil painting on the canvas.史密斯在画布上画了一幅油画。

9 creations   

创造( creation的名词复数 )； 创造物； （尤指所述由上帝）创造天地； 宇宙

参考例句：

• This artist's creations are worth collecting. 这个艺术家的作品值得收藏。
• The intellectual creations of individual nations become common property. 各民族的精神产品成了公共的财产。 来自英汉非文学 - 共产党宣言

10 stride   

vi.大踏步走，阔步行进；n.大步，步态

参考例句：

• In a big stride he came out of the room.他一个箭步出了房间。
• The boy walked with a confident manly stride.这男孩以自信的男人步伐行走。

11 hearty   

adj.热情友好的；衷心的；尽情的，纵情的

参考例句：

• After work they made a hearty meal in the worker's canteen.工作完了，他们在工人食堂饱餐了一顿。
• We accorded him a hearty welcome.我们给他热忱的欢迎。

12 economics   

n.经济学，经济情况

参考例句：

• He is studying economics,which subject is very important.他正在学习经济学，该学科是很重要的。
• One can't separate politics from economics.不能把政治与经济割裂开来。

13 kit   

n.用具包，成套工具；随身携带物

参考例句：

• The kit consisted of about twenty cosmetic items.整套工具包括大约20种化妆用品。
• The captain wants to inspect your kit.船长想检查你的行装。

14 rational   

adj.合理的，理性的，能推理的；n.有理数

参考例句：

• It was a rational plan and bound to succeed.这是一个合理的计划，肯定会成功。
• The reasoning seems rational.这论据似乎是合乎情理的。