夏の音といえば、蝉の鳴き声。
夏の初めから鳴き始める、というより、これが鳴き始めたら夏になる、その名も「ミンミンゼミ」という蝉がいます。
その名の通り「ミーン、ミンミンミン、ジー」と鳴いていて、数も多く、そこらじゅうの木に止まって鳴いて、うるさいくらいですよね。
昔から日本映画やアニメなどでも夏を表す典型的な方法として、蝉の声が聞こえます。皆さんも聞いたことがありませんか？
蝉とその鳴き声にも何種類かあって、夏の季節が進んでいくうちに、その種類も変わっていきます。まず夏になった！と感じさせるのが、このミンミンゼミ。
夏の終わりを感じさせる蝉については、また来週お話ししますね。
いろは
The sound of summer: the cicada.
It's not so much that cicadas start singing at the beginning of summer — it's more that when they start, summer has arrived. The cicada responsible for this is called the minminzemi, named for exactly the sound it makes: miin, minminmin, jii.
There are so many of them, clinging to trees everywhere you look, all calling at once. It gets quite loud — almost overwhelming, if you're not used to it.
In Japanese films and anime, the sound of cicadas has long been the shorthand for summer. A scene goes quiet, and then — minminmin. You know immediately: it's summer, it's hot, the days are long. You may well have heard it yourself without realising what it was.
There are actually several species of cicada in Japan, and as the summer progresses, the species change. The minminzemi is the one that announces summer's arrival.
As for the cicada that signals summer's end — I'll tell you about that one next week.
Iroha
