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

An ogre stopped eating people

(Japanese classical stories) (Okayama)

Translation　ちいさな翻訳屋さん

おりがみをつくろう ( おりがみくらぶ より) あかおに・あおおに

Japanese　←→　Japanese ＆ English　←→　English

　A long time ago, there lived a man who was very aggressive.

　One day, when the man was working in the mountain, an ogre suddenly appeared in front of him,

and the ogre snapped him up.

　However, since the man was very aggressive, he didn’t get afraid to be inside the ogre.

“Hmm, now I see how the throat of the ogre like.”

　As the man moved forward, he found his way out to a enclosed space surrounded with red walls.

　Suddenly, he looked at his front, there were three things look like a string from the upper part.

“What are those?”

　The man pulled one of the strings.

　Just then, the ogre gave a loud sneeze.

“A-a-a achoo!”

“I see. This string triggers him sneezing.”

　The man pulled the other string.

　Then the ogre opened his big mouth,

“A-ha-ha-ha. Ha-ha-ha-ha!”

and the ogre burst into laughter.

“Things are getting interesting. ”

　The man pulled the last string.

　Then the ogre who was laughing up until just now burst out crying.

“Boo-hoo-hoo, boo-hoo-hoo.”

“This is really fun. These are the sneezing string, the laughing string and the crying string.

　… What if I pull all of them at once?”

　He grabbed hold of all the three strings and pulled as much as he could.

　Now that is an trouble for the ogre.

　Achoo!

　A-ha-ha!

　Boo-hoo-hoo, boo-hoo-hoo.

　He was making a big fuss over sneezing, laughing, and crying.

　However the man did not stop pulling the strings.

　It was too suffocating for him and he was almost fall over.

“Well, it seems like it’s time to get out of here.”

　The man released his grip on the three strings and pulled the sneezing string as much as he could.

　A-a-a-achoooooo!!!

　The ogre had a violent sneeze and that made him to spew out the man out of his mouth.

　The man talked to the ogre who was suffering with tears,

“Hey you, ogre,? would you like to swallow me again?”

“No, no, no! No way! ”

　He shook his head from side to side and hurried to run away from there.

　Since then the ogre never eat people again.

The end

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