木を切る Cutting down Trees

 木を切る　

私の住んでいるマンションの近くに小さな公園があり、私は毎朝そこで体操をしている。

先日、そこに生えていた巨木（多分、ケヤキ）が４本切り倒されていた。恐らく近所の住民が市の土木課にお願いして切らせたのだろう。落ち葉が落ち、日陰になるからと言う理由からかもしれない。

どの木も、私が４０年ほど前にマンションに引っ越してきた当時に植えられた木で細長い木であったが、４０年もたつと腕で抱えきれないぐらいの太さになり、高さは５階建てのマンションぐらいあった。巨木の眺めは心を休ませてくれていたのに残念なことになった。

そういえば、近所の空き地や林や藪が更地にされ、どんどん新築の家が立っている。緑が消えるのは何とも痛ましいことだ。今では、近所はマンションと細長い三階建てのビルばかりになってしまった。なんと殺風景なことヨ。

写真は、泣いている切り株。

Cutting down Trees

There is a small park near the condominium where I live. I make it a rule to take exercise there every morning.

Just a few days ago, four big trees (probably zelkova trees) were cut down. Because the falling leaves were nuisance for the neighboring inhabitants and because the trees made shadows upon their houses, they requested the Civil Engineering Division of Nagoya City to get rid of them, I guess.

The four trees were planted about 40 years ago when I moved to live in the condominium. At that time, they were tall and thin, but now they grew so big and so tall as a five-story condominium that you could not hold any one of them in your arms. The sight of the trees with full of green leaves always consoled me.

Now, new houses have replaced the neighboring empty lots and the places where trees and bushes once grew. It is painful to see big stumps and decreasing amount of foliage around you. As I walk in the neighboring area today, I see nothing but new condominiums and slender two or three story buildings. How desolate a scenery!

 The pictures below show the weeping stumps.