Learn a tale of Warashibe Choja, or the Straw Millionaire
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| Intermediate Lesson #45 |
| INTRODUCTION |
| Natsuko: 第45回中級レッスン |
| Peter: Peter here. Intermediate lesson #45. Natsuko san, what are we talking about today? |
| Natsuko: Another story right? |
| Peter: Yes むかしばなし |
| Natsuko: 昔話 |
| Peter: And what is the title of today’s story? |
| Natsuko: わらしべちょうじゃ |
| Peter: Now I think some people translate this as Straw Millionaire. |
| Natsuko: Umm sounds interesting. |
| Peter: Yeah this is a pretty good story. Now let’s just take a look at the title. Natsuko san, what do we have first? |
| Natsuko: わらしべ |
| Peter: Which is |
| Natsuko: A Straw |
| Peter: Followed by |
| Natsuko: ちょうじゃ |
| Peter: Which is a rich person. And as we said, some people kind of interpret this as Straw Millionaire. So Straw, a rich person. Now to find out more about why this story is called what it is, let’s take a listen to… |
| Natsuko: わらしべ長者 |
| Peter: Natsuko san, are you ready? |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: All right. Here we go. |
| DIALOGUE |
| むかし、むかし、ある所に正直者ですが、運の悪い男が住んでいました。朝から晩まで、 |
| 働けど働けど、貧乏で運がありませんでした。 |
| ある日のことです。男は、最後の手段として、飲まず食わずで、観音さまにお祈りしました。 |
| 「初めて観音さまにお祈り申し上げます。今まで頑張ってきましたが、頑張れば頑張るほど、まったく上手く行きません。もうちょっとだけ私に幸運をください。」 |
| すると、夕方暗くなった時、観音さんが目の前に現われ、こう言いました。 |
| 「あなたは、このお寺を出るとき、転んで何かをつかみます。それを持って西に行きなさい。」 |
| 確かに、男は、お寺を出ようとしたとき、転がって、何かをつかみました。それは、一本のわらでした。何の役にもたたないと思いましたが、男は、わらを持って西に歩いて行きました。 |
| あぶが飛んできました。男はあぶをつかまえると、わらの先に縛りつけ、また歩いて行きました。 |
| 町にやってくると、赤ん坊が、わらの先のあぶを見て、泣き止みました。 |
| 「ママ、ほしい~。ほしい~!」 |
| うれしそうな赤ん坊を見て、男は、わらを赤ん坊にやりました。代わりに、赤ん坊のお母さんから、男はミカンを三つもらいました。 |
| ミカンを三つ持って、男はさらに西に歩いて行きました。しばらく行くと、娘さんが道端で苦しんでいるのを目にしました。水を欲しがっていたので、男はミカンをあげました。 |
| じきに、娘さんはよくなりました。代わりに、男は、きれいな絹の布をもらいました。 |
| 絹の布を持って、男はさらに西に歩いて行きました。しばらく行くと、サムライと元気のない馬に出会いました。美しい布を見て、サムライは、馬と交換するよう言うと、布を持って東の方へ行ってしまいました。男が、夜通し馬の面倒を見てやると、馬は、朝には元気になっていました。 |
| 馬を連れて、男はさらに西に歩いて行きました。城下町にやってくると、長者さんが、馬を見てたいそう気に入りました。男は長者さんの家に招かれました。娘さんが、長者さんと男に、お茶を持ってきました。 |
| 何と、男がミカンをあげた娘さんでした。長者さんは、不思議な縁と男のやさしさに心打たれ、娘を男に嫁がせることにしました。 |
| 男は、観音さまに言われたとおり、わら一本で長者になりました。男は、生涯、わら一本粗末にすることはありませんでした。村人からは、「わらしべ長者」と呼ばれました。めでたし、めでたし。 |
| Natsuko: 次は、Peterさんの英語が入ります。 |
| A long, long time ago, there lived an honest but unlucky man. He worked and worked from dawn to dusk, but he was poor and without luck. Then one fateful day when the honest but unlucky man had not eaten or drank and things looked bleak, he prayed to Kannon, the god of mercy. He said, "Kannon, God of mercy, this is the first time that I am praying to you. Up until now, I have worked hard but the harder I work, the worst things turn out. Could you please give me just a little bit of luck? Then when evening came, Kannon, the God of mercy appeared before the man’s very eyes and spoke the following words. When you leave this temple, you will fall and grab on to something. Take that something and go west. Sure enough, when the man left the temple, he fell and grabbed something. That thing was one stock of straw. He thought to himself. Of what possible use could this be but he took the stock of straw and headed west. A horse fly came flying by. The man snatched the horse fly from the air and tied it to the tip of the stock of straw, he took off walking again. When he came to town, a young child stopped crying upon seeing the horse fly on the end of the stock of straw. Mother I want it, I want it and the man upon seeing the boy looked so happy, gave the child the stock of straw. In return, he received three mandarin oranges from the mother of the child. He took the oranges and again set out west. After walking for a while, he spotted a young woman who appeared to be in the stress on the side of the road. The man gave her three mandarin oranges as she was dehydrated. The young woman soon became well and the man received some beautiful silk cloth from her. The man took the cloth and again set out west. After walking for a while, he came across a samurai with a sickly looking horse. The samurai saw the beautiful cloth and proposed a trade for the horse. The samurai took the cloth and headed east while the man looked after the horse all night come morning, the horse was well. The man took the horse and headed west. He soon reached the town near the castle where a rich man spotted the horse that the man nurse back to health and came to desire it. The rich man invited the man back to his house. When they arrived at the house, a young woman brought the two men some tea. The young woman, daughter of the rich man was none other than the young woman from the side of the road. The rich man was deeply impressed by the man’s kindness and the remarkable fate of their meeting and they gave us blessing for their marriage. The man carried out Kannon's orders exactly as he was told and with just one stock of straw, he became a rich man. Throughout his life, he never wants damaged straw not even one stock and was thus called the Straw Millionaire by the Town’s people. The end. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Peter: So Natsuko san, what did you think? |
| Natsuko: It’s a really happy ending, isn’t it? |
| Peter: Yeah finally. Like a really, really happy ending. |
| Natsuko: Yeah. |
| Peter: And all that from just one stock of straw. |
| Natsuko: I heard a similar story recently about paper clips. |
| Peter: Really? |
| Natsuko: Aaha! |
| Peter: What happened? |
| Natsuko: Some guy, I think he was American or Canadian ended up buying a whole house starting with a paper clip. |
| Peter: Hah! |
| Natsuko: Trading online. |
| Peter: Really? |
| Natsuko: Yeah. |
| Peter: You are going to have to write a detailed comment about this because now everybody’s listening. |
| Natsuko: Oh I am sure some of the listeners know this. |
| Peter: All right. If anybody has any information, please let us know but in the mean time, that’s going to do for today. |
Outro |
|---|
| Peter: Now again, stop by japanesepod101.com. Inside the PDF, we have a detailed write up of today’s story which is quite long and some other kind of explanations in there but yeah really nice story today. |
| Natsuko: Yeah. |
| Peter: All right and I just have to ask Natsuko san, before we go. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: What was your favorite trade? What do you think you really made out the best on? |
| Natsuko: I think it was the orange. |
| Peter: Yeah. |
| Natsuko: Yeah given to the girl. |
| Peter: Yep. Three little mandarin oranges in Japanese みかん |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: All right. That’s going to do for today. |
| Natsuko: じゃ、また来週。 |
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