Hear Kintaro, mukashi-banashi
Now Playing: Lesson Audio
Get a breakdown of the dialogue and translations instantly with the Premium line-by-line Audio. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
| Intermediate Lesson #47 |
| INTRODUCTION |
| Natsuko: 中級レッスンでございます。Natsukoです。 |
| Peter: Peter here. Natsuko san, we are back with the intermediate lesson but today we are switching it up again. Natsuko san, what are we talking about today? |
| Natsuko: むかしばなし |
| Peter: And today, we will be talking about? |
| Natsuko: きんたろう |
| Peter: Which in the title, we called Tarzan of the Japanese Jungle. |
| Natsuko: That’s pretty interesting. |
| Peter: Well it’s kind of like a forest jungle if they have those. |
| Natsuko: Right. |
| Peter: Because it takes place in a forest. |
| Natsuko: In a mountain. |
| Peter: Yeah. He has lot of characteristics that I think a lot of westerns can relate to when they think about Tarzan. |
| Natsuko: Right. |
| Peter: Wrestling with animals, competing with the animals, learning from the animals. |
| Natsuko: Yes mostly doing things with animals. |
| Peter: Yeah. So today we will be covering this once upon a time story. So with that said, here we go. |
| DIALOGUE |
| むかし、むかし足柄山に金太郎という男の子と母上が住んでいました。父上は京の都の武士で敵に捕らえられ殺されてしまいました。 |
| 母上は、敵から逃れ、小さな金太郎を連れて山奥に入りました。 |
| 親子は洞窟の中にかくれ暮らしています。木の実や野イチゴなどを取ってきては金太郎に与えていました。かつてはとても美しかった姿も今は色あせてしまいました。着物も汚くなり、擦り切れていました。しかし必死に金太郎を育てました。 |
| 金太郎は元気のいい男の子になりました。森に住む動物と遊んだり、相撲をしたりして毎日を過ごしていました。 |
| 「くまさん、次は君の番だ。さあ、かかってこい。」 |
| 熊も金太郎にはかないません。相撲のあとは森の中でかけっこです。鹿と競争です。木登りは猿から教わりました。川では大きな鯉が友達です。鯉にまたがると急流下りです。 |
| 雨の日は、洞窟の中で、ねずみやりすやキツネやたぬきやさるやうさぎやくまたちとおしゃべりです。金太郎は森の人気者です。 |
| 金太郎を見ながら、母上は神に祈りました。 |
| 数年が過ぎ、春が来ました。ある日、金太郎は動物たちと隣りの山に探検に出かけました。大きな熊の背中にまたがり、おのを肩に背負い、その後をねずみやリスや猿やうさぎやキツネやタヌキやいのししや鹿がついていきます。みんな幸せでした。 |
| がけに来ると下を激流が流れています。 |
| 「流れが速くて川は渡れない。」と金太郎。 |
| 「あの大きな木を倒して橋を作りましょう。」と熊は木を押しましたがびくともしません。押しても葉っぱが揺れるだけです。 |
| 「よし、私がやってみよう。」と金太郎は大きな木の前に立ち、力一杯押し始めました。するとどうでしょう、木が傾き、大きな音とともに倒れ川の上にかかりました。みんな大喜びです。すると後ろから声がしました。 |
| 「ものすごい力だ。」 |
| そこには立派な武士とその家来が立っていました。 |
| 「私は源頼行と申すものです。私の家来になりませんか。」 |
| 「私は武士になれるのですか。」 |
| 「あなたならきっとすばらしい武士になれるでしょう。」 |
| 金太郎は母上のところに帰るとこの話をしました。 |
| 「私は父上のような立派な武士になりとうございます。」 |
| 別れるのはつらいけれども母上の目からは喜びの涙が流れました。 |
| 山を去るとき、母上だけでなく動物たちも金太郎をさびしそうに見送りました。 |
| 「母上ありがとうございました。ご恩は決して忘れません。かならずお迎えに参ります。」金太郎は何度も何度も手を振りました。 |
| 数年が過ぎ、金太郎は坂田金時という武士になりました。ご主人の忠実な四人の家来に選ばれ、大江山に住む鬼も退治しました。 |
| その後、京に母上を迎え幸せに暮らしました。 |
| Natsuko: 次は英語が入ります。 |
| Once upon a time, a young boy named Kintaro lived with his mother on Ashigara mountain. His father was a Kyo no Miyako samurai and was captured and killed by one of his foes. The mother escaped from the enemy and fled deep into the mountains with a young Kintaro in her arms. The two carried on their lives hidden deep inside of a cave. The mother gathered nuts, berries and fruit from the trees and fields and brought them back for Kintaro. Once very beautiful, the mother slowly became haggard. Her Kimono also became worn out and dirty but she continued to raise Kintaro as best as she possibly could. |
| Kintaro grew into a healthy young boy. He spent his days playing with the forest animals, wrestling and such. Mr. Bear, it’s my turn now. All right, give me all you got. Even the Bear was no match for Kintaro. After wrestling, Kintaro would run through the forest raising against the deer. He learned how to climb trees from the monkeys. He was friends with a huge carp in the river and he would ride the rapids on the back of the carp. On rainy days, the mice, squirrels, foxes, Tanuki, monkeys, rabbits and bears would all gather inside of the cave and chat with Kintaro. All of the forest animals loved Kintaro. While watching Kintaro, his mother prayed to the Gods. |
| Several years passed and spring came. One day Kintaro set out with the forest animals to explore the neighboring mountain. Kintaro rode up on the back of the huge bear with an axe sling across his shoulder and the rest of the animals followed behind. Everyone was having a great time. They came to a cliff with raising rapids at the bottom. “The current is too swift, we can’t cross.”, said Kintaro. “Let’s knock that big tree over and use it as a bridge.” said the bear. He gave the tree a push but it didn’t budge. Push as he might, the leaves merely trembled. “All right, let’s see what I can do.” Kintaro stood in front of the big tree and began to push with all of his strength and what happened. The tree began to bend and with a big crack fell down across the river. The animals all howled with delight and then a voice came from behind. “Amazing strength.” There stood an elegant samurai with his retainer, “I am Raiko Minamotono, I want you to join me.”“You think I can become a Samurai?”“ I am sure that you can become a great Samurai.” |
| Upon returning to the cave, Kintaro said to his mother, “I shall become a great samurai just like father.” Being separated from Kintaro would be hard but the mother cried tears of joy. When the time came for Kintaro to leave the mountain, not only his mother but all of the forest animals were sad and came to see him off. “Thank you mother. I will never forget all that you’ve done. We will definitely be reunited.” Kintaro waved goodbye again and again. |
| A number of years passed and Kintaro became known as Kintoki Sakatano. He was chosen to be one of his master’s faithful four retainers and even slew the demon of Oyama. After that, his mother joined him and they lived happily ever after. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Peter: Natsuko san, what did you think? |
| Natsuko: This is a very famous story in Japan. Very popular, so everyone is kind of familiar with this episode. |
| Peter: I would agree with that statement 100%. You know my friend, last year he dressed up his Kintaro for Halloween. |
| Natsuko: For Halloween? |
| Peter: Yeah. While I mean dressed up, he had a big kin kanji on his chest. |
| Natsuko: Oh yes, yes. |
| Peter: And well for me, I didn’t really understand but a lot of Japanese can identify with this right? |
| Natsuko: Right. |
| Peter: So that’s kind of his trademark but the point is that I have been in Japan so long but because I didn’t really focus on mukashi banashi, these once upon a time stories, I wasn’t familiar with the character. |
| Natsuko: Oh really? |
| Peter: Yeah. |
| Natsuko: I think most – well 99% of Japanese would recognize Kintaro. |
| Peter: Yeah so this is why we are introducing this. You know, it’s so important to know about the culture because culture plays such an important role in language. |
| Natsuko: Right. |
Outro |
|---|
| Peter: So this is one more we wanted to introduce. So next week for the intermediate lesson, we will jump back to our ongoing diary. |
| Natsuko: Oh this series. |
| Peter: This series. That’s going to do for today. |
| Natsuko: じゃ、また来週。 |
Get complete breakdowns, review with quizzes and download printable practice sheets! Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Comments
Hide