1. Afternoon Classes

by Kenji Miyazawa

"Now, everyone. Do you know what this faint white thing actually is?" the teacher asked, pointing to a large constellation chart displayed on the blackboard. A hazy white band of the Milky Way was drawn on it, stretching from top to bottom.

Campanella raised his hand. Then, four or five others followed suit. Giovanni also tried to raise his hand but suddenly stopped. He had certainly read in a magazine that it was a star, but lately, Giovanni had been sleepy every day in class, had no time to read books, and felt like he didn't understand anything.

The teacher immediately noticed his demeanor.

"Giovanni, you know, don't you?"

Giovanni instinctively stood up, but once standing, no answer came to him. Zanelli, who was sitting in the front row, turned around and chuckled at Giovanni. Giovanni blushed crimson with embarrassment. The teacher spoke again.

"If you examine the Milky Way closely with a large telescope, what is the Milky Way mostly made of?"

Giovanni still thought it was a star, but this time too, he couldn't answer immediately.

The teacher looked troubled for a moment, then turned his gaze towards Campanella.

"Then, Campanella," he called out by name.

Then, Campanella, who had vigorously raised his hand, also stood up hesitantly, but still couldn't answer. The teacher looked at Campanella with surprise, but then quickly pointed to the star chart himself.

"When you look at this faint white Milky Way with a large telescope, it appears as countless tiny stars. Isn't that right, Giovanni?"

Giovanni nodded, his face beet red. But before he knew it, tears welled up in his eyes. That's right, I knew it. Of course, Campanella knows too. It was in a magazine we read together at Dr. Campanella's father's house. As soon as Campanella finished reading that magazine, he immediately brought a large book from his father's study, opened it to the galaxy page, and we both looked at the beautiful picture of white dots on a pitch-black page. There's no way Campanella would forget that, and the reason he didn't answer right away was because lately I've been struggling with work both morning and afternoon, not playing with everyone at school, and not talking much with Campanella either. Thinking that Campanella knew that and was being considerate by deliberately not answering, I felt an indescribable emotion.

The teacher spoke again.

"Therefore, if we truly consider this Milky Way to be a river, then each of those tiny stars corresponds to a grain of sand or gravel at the bottom of that river. Also, if we consider it a large flow of milk, it resembles the Milky Way even more. In other words, all those stars are like the tiny globules of fat floating in milk. Now, if you ask what corresponds to the water of that river, it is the vacuum, which transmits light at a certain speed, and the sun and Earth are also floating within it. In other words, we too live within the water of the Milky Way. And when we look in all directions from within the water of the Milky Way, just as water appears bluer the deeper it is, the deeper and farther the bottom of the Milky Way is, the more stars appear to gather, and thus it looks white and hazy. Look at this model."

The teacher pointed to a large double-convex lens filled with many sparkling grains of sand.

"The shape of the Milky Way is exactly like this. Imagine each of these luminous particles is a star that shines on its own, just like our sun. Let's say our sun is almost at the center, and Earth is very close to it. At night, you stand in the middle and look around inside this lens. In this direction, the lens is thin, so you'll only see a few luminous particles, or stars. In this direction and this direction, the glass is thick, so you'll see many luminous particles, or stars, and the distant ones will appear faintly white. This is today's theory of the galaxy. Now, regarding the size of this lens and the various stars within it, we're out of time, so I'll tell you about it in the next science class. Well, today is the festival of that galaxy, so everyone, go outside and look carefully at the sky. That's all for today. Please put away your books and notebooks."

The classroom was bustling for a while with the sounds of desks opening and closing and books being stacked, but soon everyone stood up properly, bowed, and left the classroom.