サンタクロースは実在するのか？に対する世界で最も有名なコラム
サンタクロースは実在するのか（Is there a Santa Claus?）は、1897年9月21日、かつて存在したアメリカ合衆国の新聞『ザ・サン』（ニューヨーク・サン）に掲載された社説。新聞社に投書をした8歳の少女からの質問に答える形で、同社の記者であるフランシス・チャーチが社説を書いた。（Wikipediaより）
メリークリスマス間際！
タイトルの英文をご存知でしょうか？
世の中のお父さま、お母さまを悩ませる問題に対する一つの答えです。
邦訳は次回に！
100年以上前の英文にチャレンジ！！
8歳の少女からの質問
I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa
says, “If you see it in The Sun, it’s so.” Please tell me the truth, is there a
Santa Claus?
Virginia O’Hanlon
社説
Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a sceptical age. They do not believe except they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men’s or children’s, are little. In this great universe of ours, man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.
Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.
He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The external light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.
Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies. You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if you did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that’s no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.
You tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived could tear apart. Only faith, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.
No Santa Claus?Thank God he lives and lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay 10 times 10,000 years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!