Seattle's rainy season begins in October and runs through April, and with an average of about 150 days of rain a year, that must be three times as many as Tokyo. The rain falls fine and thin, though, so the total comes to only about two-thirds of Tokyo's, and it rarely comes down hard. From July through September the days are long; at the summer solstice it stays light from around five in the morning until ten at night.

シアトルは雨期が１０月に始まり４月まではレイニーシーズンで、平均年間降雨日数は約１５０日だから東京の３倍はあるだろうか。ただ細い雨なので降雨量は東京の2/3ほどで大降りになることは少ない。７月から９月は日照時間が長く夏至には午前５時ごろから午後１０時くらいまで明るい。

The morning sun grows brighter by the day now, and its rays turn everything into a delightful picture, as though seen through a kaleidoscope. The body, waking from sleep, is completely reset, ready to stand comfortably in a new day.

今は朝日の輝きも日に日に増し、その光線はすべてのものを万華鏡で見るような楽しい絵にしてくれている。そして眠りから覚めた体は完全にリセットされ、新たな一日に心地よく立つ準備ができるのだ。

The plants and trees, given all the water they needed through the winter, bud all at once from April, and by May and June the earth is buried in new green. As the temperature climbs, this whole area fills with a cocktail of green fragrance, and its essence soaks into every corner of the heart.

冬の間十分に水分を与えられた草木が４月から一斉に芽吹き５月、６月には大地が新緑で埋まる。 気温が高くなってくるとこの辺りは青い香りのカクテルで満たされ、そのエッセンスが心の隅々まで沁みわたる。

And now that it has grown warmer, though the summer average is only 24°C, I find myself wanting, after all, to go to those radiant places and bathe in this glittering season.

そして気温も高くなってきた今（といっても夏の平均で２４℃）、このキラキラと光輝く季節を浴びにやはりその燦然たる場所に行きたくなるのだ。

Driving a little to the east and climbing a grassy hill, I find the wildflowers blooming all at once in profusion. They bloom when they please and for as long as they please, scatter their seed, and spread a little further the following year, and so, some years or some decades from now, this hill too will surely be covered in yellow and purple without a gap.

少し東へ走り草原の丘を上がると野生の花々が一斉に咲き乱れている。自分たちの好きな時に好きな間だけ咲き、種を飛ばして来年はもう少し広がり、こうして何年か何十年先にはこの丘もすき間なく黄色や紫色で覆われるのだろう。

In another month the wide open farms will be busy with the harvest of lush green turf. It was clear until a moment ago, but now the rain has begun to fall in scattered drops. Real summer must not have arrived yet. The weather still turns sharply. The young grass seems glad of it, as though this will let it stretch a little higher. And before long, with a long rushing hiss, a magnificent wind-driven shower swept across and covered the whole field.

広く開けた農場はもうひと月もすれば青々とした芝の収穫で忙しくなる時期だ。先ほどまで晴れていたが雨がぽつんぽつんと降ってきた。まだ本格的な夏は来てないのか天候の変化も激しい。芝の芽はこれで更にひと伸びできそうだと喜んでいるようだ。そして間もなく、さーーーさっさーーと風まじりの壮大なシャワーがこの芝野を覆い尽くした。

Looking from Seattle toward downtown Bellevue on the far shore of Lake Washington, I often meet clouds like these. Long streaks are drawn across the sky with soft, downy clouds tucked in between, and I catch myself thinking how well a person might sleep, nestled snugly into a place like that. The lake was windswept today and the waves were rough, and there was not a single yacht to be seen out sailing at its leisure.

シアトルからワシントン湖の対岸にあるベルビューのダウンタウンを見ると、よくこのような雲に出会う。長く筋目が入りその間にふわっとした雲が挟まっていて、あんな所へすっぽりとはまり込んだら気持ちよく眠れるだろうな、なんて考えてしまう。今日の湖面は風が強く吹いていて波が荒く、のんびりと航行しているヨットも見ることはなかった。

Around the city, poplars stand in rows everywhere alongside the native western red cedar and aspen, and the small streams running through forest and meadow give the landscape its unmistakably Northwest character. Standing in the quiet that the trees shut in, I notice that I have forgotten the world's entanglements, that my mind has settled and my breathing has grown deep.

街の周辺には自生する米杉やはこやなぎと共にポプラが至る所で並木になっていて、森や草原を流れている小さな川がノースウエストらしい景観を見せている。木々に遮られた静けさの中にいると、世間のしがらみを忘れ気持ちも安らいで呼吸が深くなっているのに気がつく。

On the way home from work I often stop here to shift my mind over into personal time. The wind crossing Lake Sammamish carries a coolness with it, and even stepping out into the low, slanting sun I feel no heat. Wrapped in the air of this shore, letting the time pass idly, things I would not ordinarily call to mind rise up one after another and vanish again.

仕事からの帰り道に頭をパーソナルな時間に切り替えるのにここへ寄ることが多い。サマミッシュ湖を渡る風が涼を運んで くれ、既に傾いた日向に出ても暑さを感じることはない。この湖畔の気配に包まれ漫 然と時をすごしていると、普段は思い出すこともない物事が次々と浮かんできては消えてゆく。

As evening comes, the water taxis and ferries carry people hurrying home from downtown across the bay to West Seattle and the scattered islands. Here again today is the familiar scene at the close of a day.

夕方になると、ウォータータクシーやフェリーがダウンタウンから家路に急ぐ人々を湾の向こうのウエストシアトルや点在する島々へ送っていく。今日も一日の終わりの、いつもの風景がここにある。