子供達の大好きな歌 “If You Are Happy and You Know it Clap Your Hands” 。「幸せなら手をたたこう」は日本人なら誰でもしっている童謡ですね。アークの生徒さんにとっても馴染みの深い歌かと思います。この歌は1964年に坂本九さんが東京オリンピックで歌ってヒットし、それ以来いろんな言葉に訳され、今では世界中の子供達に愛されている曲です。
曲はスペインの民謡が元になっているようですが、作詞は早稲田大学人間科学部名誉教授の木村利人さん。元々は木村さんが学生時代フィリピンでボランティア活動をしていた際に原曲を耳にし、木村さんが帰国の途に着いた際に、旧約聖書の詩篇47篇を参考にして詞をつけたものが元になっているそうです。
実はその木村さんが、私の実家がある徳島に講演に来てくださり、そのことが新聞に掲載されました。フィリピン人の友達にぜひ紹介したいからと実家の父に頼まれ、新聞記事を英語に訳してみました。「楽しい童謡」の背後には平和への切なる願いがある事を知り、この曲をクラスで歌うたびに、感慨深い気持ちになっています。
下記が新聞記事の英語訳です。よろしければご一読ください。
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You may have heard about the song If You’re Happy and You Know it Clap Your Hands. It is a fun children’s song sang in many languages. This song was written by Rihito Kimura who is a professor at Waseda University and recently he gave a speech about the story behind this song.
He visited the Philippines as a volunteer from a Christian organization in 1959. There were still strong anti-Japanese feelings from WWII, and that made it difficult for him to build a relationship with local people. Despite that difficulty, he dedicated himself to the volunteer work and regular worship. As he started to share the gospel with local people, they started opening up to share about their experiences in the War. He was touched by the transformation that had occurred in the hearts of the people, how they began to let go of their resentment and embrace hope.
On the ship going back to Japan, a lyric came to his mind as he was listening to the local children singing. The phrase “if you are happy and you know it clap your hands” was from the bible verse from Psalms. He wanted to share his experience by physicalizing the song with actions such as “clapping hands,” believing that people can overcome the hurt and anger toward each other by building relationships.