Hukumusume fairy tale collection > Japanese classical stories > December

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Illustrator　myi　　　blog　sorairoiro

The secret that a mermaid told to the young men

・日本語(Japanese)  ・英語(English)　・日本語(Japanese)＆英語(English) 　・日本語＆中国語

Translation　ちいさな翻訳屋さん

　Once upon a time, young men drank on the beach after work, they heard a gentle singing voice from the sea.

‘Who is singing now?’

　Young men looked around, but there is no ship on the sea.
　However, the singing voice is certainly coming from the sea.
‘What a beautiful voice…’

　Young men forgot to drink and they were entranced by the singing voice.
　Several days later, huge fish came to the net.

‘We’ve made a big catch today!’
‘Hey, wait. It is not fish…a mermaid!’

　Young men astonished to see a mermaid in the net.
　Legend has it that there is mermaids living on the sea.
‘Mermaids truly exist.’
‘If we sell the mermaid, we could make a lot of money.’
　They were so delighted.
　Then, the mermaid shed tears and said,

‘Please let me release into the sea.’
‘No, we can’t.
　You can be sold with a high price.
　So we can be a millionaire! Ha ha ha.
　The mermaid wiped away tears and began to sing calmly.

　The singing voice was the same as it was heard on the beach.
‘Oh, this song…?!’
‘Were you singing at that time?’
　It is said that mermaid’s singing voice have an ability to manipulate people.

　Mermaid’s singing voice made them feel like they are in a dream.
　After finishing the song, the mermaid said,
‘If you help me, I’ll tell you a secret of the sea.’

　Their heart were calm after listening to her song. They said
‘All right, we’ll help you.’
‘Thank you so much!’

　The mermaid smiled, jumped into the sea and said,

‘The morning 10 days later, a major tsunami will come to your village.

　Please run away to the higher place as soon as possible!’
　Young men went to the village elder to tell the words of mermaid.
‘Village elder, it’s an emergency!’

　After listening about the tsunami, the village elder was greatly surprised and said after taking a deep breath.

‘Everyone, let’s pack your luggage and get ready for escaping.Which is the tallest mountain in our village?’
‘The mountain behind the village!’
‘But, there’s no road we can walk…’
‘My grandmother can’t walk that animal trails.…What should we do?’
　All Villagers would be swallowed up by tsunami at this rate…
　When the young men dropped their shoulders, the village elder said,
‘It’s too early to feel depressed.
　We have 10 more days to prepare for a major tsunami.
　Let’s make a road that every villagers can walk.’

　They decided to change the animal trail into a new road in the mountain behind the village.

　Young men did their best to make a road.
　People in the neighboring village told to them,
‘Hey, what are you doing here?’

　Young men told them about the major tsunami which is heard from the mermaid.
‘It’s boring. Mermaid can’t be here.’
‘It’s true. We actually met mermaid and she said that the major tsunami is coming in the morning!’
‘It’s ridiculous. Leave them alone. Let’s go.’
　Though young men were made a fool, they were desperate to pave the road for protecting their lives.

　Then, the morning before the day of tsunami…

　the new road has opened finally.
‘Thank you for doing your best, everyone. Let’s take refuge to the mountain behind village.’

‘Yah----!!’
　At last, every villagers could take refuge to the mountain behind village.
　When the sun rises, they were watching the sea from the mountain.

‘Look! Tsunami is coming!!!’
　They saw the tsunami is approaching.

　People in the neighboring village was running to the mountain to escape from tsunami.

‘Come here!
‘Run quickly!’
‘Run!!’

　When in the night time, their village was already sank in the sea.

　Though their village was swallowed up by the major tsunami that no one had ever seen, as the mermaid said,

　It is said that in every villagers in the young men and the people in neighboring village,there were no casualty.

The End

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