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Illustration　myi

Demades’ speech

(Aesop's Fables)

Translation　ちいさな翻訳屋さん

Japanese　←→　Japanese ＆ English　←→　English

　Once upon a time there lived a very good speaker named Demades.

　One day, Demades was making a speech in front of the citizens of Athens.

　Even though he was trying to make a speech, the audience were being noisy and nobody was paying attention to him.

　So Demedes asked to the audience,

“People, do you mind if I present you a tale of Aesop? ”

in a loud voice.

“No! ”

　People were pleased and yelled.

　So Demedes started the tale.

“The goddess Demeter, a swallow, and an eel went on a trip together.

　They walked for a while, and they found there was a river without a bridge.

　The swallow flew up in the air and reached the other side of the river.

　The eel jumped into the water and he swam across the river.”

　Demades then stopped speaking.

“And what about the goddess Demeter? What happened to Demeter?”

　All of the audience asked Demades.

“As for Demeter, she got angry with all of you.

　You didn’t pay attention when I was talking about an important political matters, but you listened and preferred to Aesop’s fake story. That is not a right thing.”



　As just described, people who leaves important things behind, and prefers interesting things are such a problem.

The end

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