Hukumusume fairy tale collection > Foreign language (English) > Japanese classical stories

イラスト　柴田伸子　　サイト　昔話で販促！

Pond Head

(Japanese classical stories)

Translation　Laurence Hunter

おりがみをつくろう ( おりがみくらぶ より) かき　　　きのこ　　さかな

Japanese　←→　Japanese ＆ English　←→　English

　Once upon a time, there lived an exceedingly poor man.

"Oh, how I would like to live like the rest of the people.  That’s it! I will go and pay the (Kannon) goddess of mercy statue a visit. "

　When the man was passing by the village statue, he prayed then went on his way. Later one night the goddess appeared before him and spoke out.

"Ok, then.

　I will grant your wishes true.

　When day breaks, I ask that you walk down from the stone steps of the shrine and pick up the first thing you find. Then cherish that close to your heart."

　Spoke the statue.

　When the man came down from the stone steps, he noticed that something was lying on the ground.

"Yes, this must be it."

　He picked up what turned out to be a persimmon seed.

"What! Can such a thing be of help to me?"

　Although he thought about throwing away such a thing, he could not waste what the statue had told him to do.

　After holding up the gift and thankfully receiving it ,something strange happened.

　The persimmon seed stuck to his forehead and now matter how hard he tried the seed would not come off.

"Well, what can I do, I may as well just leave it there."

　After a short while a sprout came out from the seed.

　The sprout grew and grew until it became a wonderful tree.

　While the man couldn’t believe his eyes, the branches filled themselves with flowers and then bore wonderful fruit.

"Wow! They look so delicious. Why, I think I will try one."

　After trying one, he discovered they were incredibly sweet.

　The man then went off to town to sell the persimmons.

"Persimmons from a mans head, I want one." Shouted out one man.

"I want one too." Shouted another

"Me also."

　All the persimmons were sold in a flash.

　The man smiled to himself and put the money he had made into the sleeve of his jacket, But the persimmon vendors in the town were not happy at all.

"You are really getting in the way of our business!"

　So the man was surrounded beaten up, then had the persimmon tree cut from his head.

"Oh no, I cant make any more money..."

　While the man was feeling disheartened by this, from the roots of the tree, rare persimmon mushrooms sprouted out from his head.

　Since the mushrooms were so delicious, he went to town and sold them instantly.

　But the mushroom vendors in town were not happy at all.

"Hey, we will go out of business!"

　The man was once more surrounded and beaten up, then the roots of the persimmon tree were plucked out of his head.

　The man was very disheartened by all this.

　A big hollow has been made on his head by all what had happened.

　And after a while the hollow was soon filled with rain and a big pool of water was left there.

"With the situation I am in, I think it would be better for me to throw myself into this pool and die ."

　While the man grieving over the facts, he heard a splash coming from the pool of water on his head.

　When he grabbed at the sound with his hand, there he found a large carp fish.

　Before he knew it his head had been filled with carp fish and catfish and the likes.

　The man then went off to the market, sold all the fish and all the fishmongers could do was stare on in amazement with open mouths.

The end

One piece of advice: There’s more to life than money.

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