White night in Winter? 冬に白夜？

Today (February 16th) around 2 AM I woke up and noticed that it was rather bright outside. I thought it was strange because yesterday evening during a walk I saw the crescent moon in the Western sky, which should have already sunk below the horizon. Its light was rather weak and could not illuminate the earth like a full moon. I can only assume that it is white outside, it is snowing! I got up and opened the curtain to look outside. It was in fact snowing a little bit but there was not a lot covering the ground. What I found strange was that the sky appeared white. Evene though it was the middle of the night, the buildings around were clearly visible. I imagine white nights to be similar to this. Those of course happen in Summer at much more Northern latitudes than here in Vienna if we talk about the Northern hemisphere. I forgot that I was only wearing a pyjama and barefeet and without noticing it I was looking outside for a while. Maybe there were some similar bright nights before then but here in the city there is only a small part of the sky visible between buildings and maybe until now I haven’t properly looked at it. To me it appears that the sky has its belly full of snow kids hanging down low and the white colour is reflecting the city lights… I do not know. Somehow it seems strange to me.

今日（2月16日）、真夜中の2時頃目が覚めて、辺りが妙に明るいことに気がつきました。昨日の夜、散歩した時西の空に見た三日月は、もうとっくに沈んだはず。それに、その光は弱々しくて、満月のように辺りを明るく照らすはずもない。私には、外が白いのだとしか想像がつきません。きっと雪が降ってるんだ！起きて窓まで行き、カーテンを開けました。確かに少し雪が降っていましたが、辺りを覆いつくすほどではありません。奇妙なのは、空が白いことでした。夜中というのに、建物がはっきり見えます。もしかしたら白夜はこんな感じかもしれない、と思いました。もちろん、それは夏季で、北半球であればウイーンよりもっと緯度の高い場所の話しです。私は裸足で、パジャマだけ着ていましたが、しばらく寒さも忘れて外を眺めていました。今までもこのような明るい夜があったのかもしれませんが、街の中で見える空は、建物と建物の間に切り取られたようにほんの少し見えるだけなので、あまり気にとめることがなかったのだろうと思います。雪をたくさん孕んだ空が、お腹をふくらませて低く下がっているのを、街の灯りが照らし、白く反射して見えているような感じ… よく分かりませんが。とても奇妙な印象を受けます。

Pictures by Yuka Simeno, February 2021 in Vienna