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

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The Lion and The Sheepherder

(Aesop’s Fables)

Translation　ちいさな翻訳屋さん

Japanese(にほんご) ・ English(えいご) ・ Chinese(ちゅうごくご)

Japanese & English ・Japanese & Chinese

　A lion that was walking around in the woods stepped onto a bramble carelessly,

　and got prickles on his sole.

　So he decided to go see a sheepherder who lived nearby,

　and looked gently at the sheepherder with his head lowering.

　Then he wagged his tail as if he definitely needed the sheepherder's help

　The sheepherder courageously checked his sole,

　and picked out the prickles

　by putting the lion's forepaw on his knee.

　After every prickle was picked out, the lion bowed to the sheepherder, and went back into the woods.



　Some time later,

　the sheepherder was wrongly accused, and after the trial,

　he was sentenced to death by being thrown to a lion.

　The sheepherder insisted upon his innocence repeatedly, but the judge would not accept his appeal.

　Upon the judge's order, a cage, where a lion was kept, was opened.

　However, the lion that came out from the cage was the one the sheepherder once saved.

　As soon as the lion noticed that the sheepherder was the one who courageously picked out the prickles,

　the lion never tried to kill the sheepherder.

　On the other hand, he approached the sheepherder, and looked at him gently with his head lowering. Then he put his forepaw on the sheepherder's knee softly.

　When the king heard this story, he released the lion back to the woods,

　and also released the sheepherder back home by making him innocent.



　This story tells us that if we kindly and sincerely treat people who even seem tremendously horrifying,

　a day when they repay us will surely come some day.

The end

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