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A stone potato

(Japanese classical stories)

Translation　ちいさな翻訳屋さん

Japanese　←→　Japanese ＆ English　←→　English

　A long time ago, a Buddhist priest named Kukai visited one village.

　He hasn’t eaten anything since morning. He passed over mountains, crossed valleys, and finally arrived at this village.

“Oh, I am starving. I am having a giddy feeing. ”

　Then he found a woman walking from the opposite direction.

　The woman has just come back from her crop field.

　She hold a basket full of delicious looking potatos.

　On looking at that, he asked to her despite himself,

“Would you please give me just one potato in the basket.”

　She gave a sharp look to him.

（Faugh. What a dirty priest he is.）

　Because she did not want to give any potato to this miserable priest,

“I am sorry, but you can’t eat this potato.”

　she said so to him.

“I can’t? Why is that?”

“This is actually a stone much like a potato.”

“Oh, that is a stone. If so, I have no choice.”

　He lowered his head and walked along the street with heavy feet.

“Heh-heh, it worked well. Who will give my precious potatoes?”



　In the next autumn,

“I hope there will be a lot of delicious potatoes this year, too.”

　She went to her crop field holding her big basket.

　She immediately dig up the field, and found there were bigger potatoes than previous year one after another.

“I have a rich crop this year. These potatoes are heavy and look nutritious.

　… But these are really heavy like stones. … Oh my goodness! These are!”

　What she thought as potatoes were actually stone much like potatoes.

“Oh, this is a stone, too. And this, and this! All are stones!”

　All the potatoes of her crop field were all stones looked like potatoes.

　　Then she remembered that she lied to a Buddhist priest around the same time in precious year.

“Oh my goodness. I lied to him at that time and I got divine punishment.”



　She regretted the lie and since then she changed herself being a generous person who did poor people many kindnesses.

The end

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