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The reason why cats run after mouse

(Japanese classical stories)

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) ねこのかお　　　ねずみのかお

Japanese　←→　Japanese ＆ English　←→　English

　A long time ago, at the end of the year when humans hadn’t come in the world yet,

　the God told animals,

“The New Year is coming soon. All of you come to my place on January 1st.

　And I will make the one who come first till 12th as a leader of the year.”

 However, the careless cat forgot when to go to the God, and asked to his friend mouse.

　The mouse said,

“It’s on January 2nd.

　and it was his lie on purpose.



　Now January 1st came.

　Because the cow walks so slow, he left home early in the morning.

　The shrewd mouse rode on a back of the cow secretly, and when they arrived at the God’s,

　he jumped off from the cow and went to the God first.

　That’s why the mouse became a leader of the first year and the cow became second.

　After that, the order became the tiger, the hare, the dragon, the snake, the horse, the sheep, the monkey, the chicken, the dog, and the boar.

　But the cat went to the God’s on 2nd as the mouse taught.

　Then the God said,

“You are too late. Sorry, but the leaders were determined yesterday.”

　How frustrating it was for the cat.

“How dare the mouse cheat me!”



　Since then, the angry cat ran after the mouse when he saw the mouse.

The end

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