Hukumusume fairy tale collection > Foreign language (English) > Aesop's Fables

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マムシ と ミズヘビ
The Viper and The Water Snake

(Aesop’s Fables)

Translation　ちいさな翻訳屋さん

Japanese　←→　Japanese ＆ English　←→　English

　A viper used to go to a certain spring to drink water everyday.

　However, a water snake that lived at the spring was not happy about it.

”Hey! Don't drink water from my spring.”

　The water snake always said to the viper.

　And he also said, “You're a snake that lives on shore. You should go away.”

　The quarrel went on everyday, and it got worse and worse.

”We'd better arrange a duel, and decide what we should do,

　which means that the land and the water will be awarded to the winner.”

　The viper and the water snake made up their mind to fight a duel, and the day was impending.

　Frogs that heard about the duel came to the viper right away.

”We wish you the best of luck.

　We don't like water snakes, so we'll aid you on the duel day.”

the frogs said.



　Finally the day came, and the duel began.

　The viper and the water snake were fighting against each other very fiercely.

　The frogs stayed nearby, and

merely croaked.

　That was the only thing that the frogs did.

　The winner was the viper.

　After the duel, the viper said to the frogs,

”What on earth were you doing during the duel?

　You said that you would aid me, but all you did was just croaking rather than aiding.”

　The viper got furious at the frogs.

　Then the frogs said,

”It's such an obvious thing for us to do.

　What we meant was to aid you by voice rather than by physical contact.”



　This story tell us that

　aiding verbally is of no use whatsoever.

The end

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