Hukumusume fairy tale collection > Foreign language (English) > Classical stories of the world

イラスト　「ぺんた♪」　　運営サイト　「Trying to be a good day*」

Delicious Porridge
(Grimm Fairy Tales)

Translation　ちいさな翻訳屋さん

Make Origami ( ORIGAMI CLUB) Cooking pot

Japanese　←→　Japanese ＆ English　←→　English

　Once upon a time in some town, there lived a very poor family.

　There were only two in the family, a sweet little girl and her mother.

　One day, there was nothing left to eat in the house.

“Oh boy. Will you go to the forest and bring some nuts for us?”

　So the little girl went to the forest to gather some nuts as she was told by her mother.

　All of a sudden, an old lady appeared and asked the girl,

“What are you doing alone in this forest? What’s the matter?”

“Yes, I’m here to gather some nuts because we have nothing to eat at home.”

“Is that so? You are a good girl. Let me give you something nice.”

　Then the old lady gave the little girl an old cooking pot.

　It was a magic pot.

　When she said to the pot,

“Cook, pot,”

then the pot cooked warm delicious porridge.

　And until she said, “Stop, pot,”

the pot continued to cook porridge.

　Thanks to the magic pot, the little girl and her mother no longer worried about starving themselves.


　One day, while the little girl was out in the next town, the mother wanted to eat some porridge.

　Just like the little girl,

“Cook, pot,”

the mother said to the pot.

　Then the pot started cooking porridge with no problem.

　However, the mother didn’t know how to stop the pot.

“Oh pot, that’s enough. I’m already full.”

　No matter how many times the mother said so, the porridge kept cooking and overflowed from the pot.

　Soon the porridge overflowed from the kitchen, filled the house, and finally poured out of the house.

　The porridge still did not stop.

　The porridge filled the house next door, the one next to it, and the one next to it, and at last, the whole town was filled with porridge. People in the town were all washed away by the porridge.

　Just when the porridge reached outside of the town, the little girl returned from the next town.

　The little girl shouted in surprise,

“Stop, pot!”

　That finally made the pot stop cooking porridge.

　After that, people in the town had to eat the porridge filling the whole town to get back home.



　This story tells us that using things without knowing how to use them properly may result in a big trouble.

The end

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