Short short with English summary
東京の冬景色 東京の街並みに花は少ない。冬になると更に少なくなる。１月２０日は大寒で、梅も桜もまだ芽も吹いていない。それでも散歩をしていると、鼠色の木々の中でしっかり頑張っている植木がある。真っ赤な花の椿だ。もちろん白い花の椿もあった。 オペラ椿姫の彼女は白い椿の花が好きで何時も身に着けていたので椿姫と呼ばれたのだそうだ。 歌劇の椿姫は「乾杯の歌」で有名だが、原作（小デュマ）のタイトルは「椿姫」でも、歌劇のタイトルは、「ラ・トラヴィアータ」で、その意味は高級娼婦・ふしだらな女だそうだ。 頑張っている赤い椿からの連想をネットで引いたら随分面白い話題が出てきた。 Winter scenery of Tokyo There are not so many flowers in the streets of Tokyo. In winter time, we can see even less flowers. According to the Japanese old traditional calendar, the 20th of January is the coldest day of the year. There are no blossoms of plum trees nor cherry trees. When I took a promenade, I found a tree working hard to have sweet red flowers. It was a camellia tree. There are also some trees with white flowers. The prima donna of opera “La Traviata” was named “The lady of camellia” since she loved the white camellia. This opera is famous with “Cheers Song”. The original novel was by Duma fils and titled “Lady of Camellia” but the opera is titled “La Traviata”, meaning high class prostitute. My association with a red camellia led me to quite interesting episodes.