Japanese Folk Tales - The Cicada and Kouboudaishi

Passage

A long time ago, at the time when the venerable Buddhist teacher Kouboudaishi visited the countryside in the different countries that made up Japan wearing clothes as dirty and ragged as a beggar, he came to the house of one farmer and asked to borrow a place to sleep for the night.

Koubodaishi's appearance was so rough, though, that the farmer refused and turned Kouboudaishi back. But after a while the farmer began to realise that it was Kouboudaishi that he had turned away. So in a hurry he climbed up a Zelkova tree and cried out in a loud voice "Kouboudaishi - it's OK, Kouboudaishi - it's OK".

However Kouboudaishi had already gone a long way away and couldn't turn round and come back.　It was while calling out forever like that eventually the farmer turned into a type of cicada called the "chiba hime semi".

Even these days when the 23rd of July comes along the reason that the cicada collect in the Zelkova trees and cry out in a high voice is because they think that the day has come around when Kouboudashi will come and borrow a place to sleep for the night.

Vocabulary

1. 弘法大師・こうぼうだいし・kouboudaishi
2. 蝉・せみ・cicada
3. 百姓・ひゃくしょう・farmer
4. 身なり・みなり・appearance
5. 迄・まで・until
6. 欅・けやき・Zelkova tree
7. 啼く・なく・cry out

Japanese Folk Tales - The Dyer Owl

Passage

A long time ago it is said that Owl ran a dying business. He was asked by many of the other birds to dye all sorts of different costumes. At that time Crow was really smartly dressed, wearing pure white suit when he flew around. Crow came to Owl's dye shop and ordered a costume dyed with a colour unlike any other.

Owl undertook the order, dying the clothes with a colour as black as the blackest coal, unlike any other colour in the world. Crow was so angry, but there was nothing he could do about it. But because of Crow never forgets his complaint and if he even sees Owls face he gets angry and bullies him.

This is why Owl still hides deep in the forest and when Crow is awake not only does Owl not come out, when he is sometimes in a place that is found by Crow he will be in a lot of trouble.

Vocabulary

1. 衣装・衣裳・いしょう・costume
2. 梟・ふくろう・owl
3. 又とないような色・またとないようないろ・unlike any other colour in the world
4. 染物屋・そめものや・dyer

Japanese folk tales - The Sparrow and the Woodpecker

Passage

A long time ago it was said that Sparrow and Woodpecker were two sisters. One day news came to them that their parents were so ill they might die. Sparrow was just putting on her "tooth blacking makeup" but straightaway flew off to be by the parent's sickbed. Because of this even in these days Sparrow's cheek is dirty and the top half of her beak is white. Woodpecker put on her lipstick and the white make up for her face that geisha use and then took her time to primp herself up before leaving but in the end was not in time to be by her parent's bedside when they passed away.

It is said that because of this that although Sparrows dress is not so beautifully she always lives where people live and and can eat as much as she needs of the grains that people eat. But for Woodpecker, even though she looks so good with so much makeup, she has to start to go around the woods from early in the morning hitting the bark of the tree here and there but in one day all she can eat is just three grubs. Then, when the evening falls, she has to climb into a hollow and at last she can cry tears about how much her beak hurts.

Vocabulary

1. 雀・すずめ・sparrow
2. 啄木鳥・きつつき・woodpecker
3. 歯黒・はぐろ・"tooth blacking makeup"
4. 白粉・おしろい・white makeup used by geisha
5. 嘴・くちばし・beak
6. 啄む・ついばむ・to peck
7. 空ろ・うつろ・a hollow

Japanese folk tales - Why Monkey's Tail is so Short

Translation

Long, long, long ago it was said that Monkey's tail was sixty meters in length! It was because Monkey was tricked by Bear that Monkey's tail became as short as it is now.

One day Monkey went to visit Bear in his house. Monkey asked Bear how he could catch a lot of fish from the river. Bear said that this was what Monkey should do: "On a cold night like tonight find rock to sit on next to a deep pool. Try dipping your tail in the water and see what happens. I'm pretty sure that lots of fish will come and stick on your tail."

Monkey was so happy. He did just as he had been taught by Bear and waited. As night wore on Monkey's tail got heavier and heavier. This was because the ice was spreading more and more but Monkey thought that the fish were getting stuck on his tail. Monkey thought "If I've caught this many, its enough! Its so cold, so let's go home".

Monkey tried to lift up his tail but somehow he just couldn't pull it out. "Oh no, this is awful" Monkey thought, beginning to panic and frantically he tried to pull out his tail when it snapped off at its base.

Some people say Monkey's face is so bright red because he put so much of his strength in pulling out his tail.

Source

Vocabulary

1. 尋・ひろ・a unit of length often used in measuring depth of water - "fathom" -- wikipedia
2. 更ける・ふける・get late, wear on (of evening etc)
3. ぷっつりと切れました・snapped off - but actually no translation on google translate

Looking back

Passage

・・・そのとき私は最後の別れを告げるつもりで金閣のほうを眺めたのである。金閣は雨夜の闇におぼめいており、その輪郭は定かでなかった。それは黒々と、まるで夜がそこに結晶しているかのように立っていた。瞳を凝らして見ると、三階のくっきょう頂にいたって俄かに細まるその構造や、法水院と潮音洞の細身の柱の林も辛うじて見えた。しかし嘗てあのように私を感動させた細部は、ひと色の闇の中に融け去っていた。

三島由紀夫「金閣寺」p.544.

My attempt

I turned to look at the Golden Temple, intending at that moment to say a final goodbye. The Temple could only be seen vaguely in the dark of the falling rain. Its outline was indistinct but there it stood, deep black like the dark of the evening crystallised in place. If you squinted you could just about make out the Temple's construction - the third storey suddenly coming to a sharp point, some details of the clump of pillars in Housui Temple and the Cave of Echoing Tides. But the details of the Temple, details that had so entranced me in the past, were dissolved into an immutable black.

From the original translation

…for at that moment I gazed at the Golden Temple to bid it a last farewell. The Temple was dim in the darkness of the rainy night and its outline was indistinct. It stood there in deep black, as though it were a crystallization of the night itself. When I strained my eyes, I managed to make out the Kukyochou, the top story of the temple, where the entire structure suddenly became narrow, and also the forest of narrow pillars that surrouned the Choonodo and the Housui-in. But the various details of the temple, which had moved me so greatly in the past, had melted away into the monochrome darkness.

Comments

Not bad for a first attempt at literary translation. Note " 三階のくっきょう頂にいたって俄かに細まるその構造" is a noun phrase appearing as a list of items that could just be seen. 構造 is modified as a noun, where その refers to the modificiation itself. Give yourself some marks for a great job!

vocabularly

• 雨夜, あまよ、an evening with falling rain
• おぼめく、be ambiguous, not clearly defined
• 定か、さだか、of facts etc clear
• 瞳を凝らす、ひとみをこらす、focus your eyes
• 俄かに、にわかに、suddenly, abruptly
• 嘗て、かつて、in the past
• 融ける、とける、melt