The Spaceboy and the Spacegirl －宇宙少年と宇宙少女－

My son is very keen on space these days.  He likes reading facts about the planets in his space encyclopedia for children. 

“Daddy, did you know that Jupiter is called The King of the Planets, because it is bigger than all of the other planets put together?  Did you know that Uranus and Neptune are known as The Twin Planets, because they are similar in colour, size and shape?” 

I didn’t know these things.  But I do now. 

These are the names of the planets in the Solar System, from the closest to the Sun to the furthest: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.  Earth is my personal favourite planet, because it has an atmosphere composed of 78 per cent nitrogen, 21 per cent oxygen, and 1 per cent other elements.  The Earth has many other advantages, including a temperature that is not too hot and not too cold.  Mars might be nice for a holiday, but I wouldn’t want to live there. 

I like the Scottish folk singer, Ewan MacColl.  He, along with Peggy Seeger, wrote a funny song in 1952 about travelling to space.  It is called “The Spacegirl’s Song”.  The narrator is a girl who has travelled around space, against her mother’s advice.

 

An edited extract from “The Spacegirl’s Song”:

 

My mama told me I should never venture into space

    But I did.

She said no Terran girl could trust the Martian race

    But I did.

A rocket pilot asked me on a voyage to go

And I was so romantic I couldn't say no—

That he was just a servo robot how was I to know?—

    So I did.

 

She told me never venture out among the asteroids

    But I did.

She said the Milky Way was something to avoid

    So I did.

She said that Venus was too hot and Saturn not much fun

And bug-eyed monsters tended to be just a trifle dumb.

She said I'd need a blaster and I'd need a freezer gun

    And I did.

 

Vocabulary:

an encyclopedia – a book that gives a lot of information about different subjects, or different aspects of one subject

to venture (to a place) – to go somewhere, even though the journey is dangerous or risky

a Terran girl – a girl from Earth.  Terra means land or earth, and can also mean the planet Earth.

a servo-robot – a kind of robot that can move in a complicated way.  In this song, the man that the narrator is attracted to actually turns out to be a robot, not a man.

an asteroid – a rock in space

the Milky Way – This is the name of our galaxy, the collection of stars, gas, dust and planets that are in our neighborhood of the universe

a bug-eyed monster – a monster with huge or strange eyes, like a bug or insect (used in science fiction descriptions of scary aliens)

to be a trifle dumb – to be a little stupid

a blaster – a kind of gun (from science fiction), that makes a loud noise, like a blast