Above Image from White Rabbit Press – https://www.whiterabbitpress.com/japanesegradedreaders/
Disclaimer: The following is my personal attempt to translate a Japanese Graded Reader story published by White Rabbit Press. If you are interested in reading the published story, please refer to the White Rabbit Press website (https://www.whiterabbitpress.com/japanesegradedreaders/) for further information. This is NOT my story and I have no ownership of the story whatsoever. I have simply translated the story in English for my own Japanese language learning purposes.
Now, let’s begin the story…….
At some place, there was a man.
One night, an old man came to his house.
Excuse me. Please give me water.
The man spoke.
“What is wrong?” “I want to go to the next town. But I have walked a lot today, so I am very tired. I would like to rest a bit.”
“Is that so? That’s really tiring. Please, come inside.”
The old man went into the house.
“Old man, please have some water.”
The man gave the old man water.
“Oh, this is delicious. Thank you very much.” The old man slept at the man’s house.
It is the morning of the next day. The old man spoke to the man.
“Thank you very much. You are a good person. Please have this.”
The old man took out a small millstone.
The old man then asked the man.
“Right now, what do you want?”
“I want food.”
The old man rotated the millstone to the right.
“Fish, come out! Fish, come out!”
From the millstone, fish came out. “Oh my! Fish!”
The old man turned the millstone for some more.
More fish came out from the millstone.
“Wow! Lots of fish have come out.”
The old man turned the millstone towards the left.
No more fish came out. It stopped.
The old man spoke.
“I will give this to you.”
“Thank you, old man”.
“Goodbye.” The old man went to the next town.
“This is a good millstone.”
The man turned the millstone towards the right.
“Vegetables, come out! Vegetables, come out!”
From the millstone, vegetables came out.
“This is so good! Oh, I also want a cow. Oh, I also want a house”
The man turned the millstone towards the right again. A cow, as well as a house, come out.
One day, the man’s older brother came to the man’s house.
The man’s house is very big.
The older brother spoke.
“What? This big house is my younger brother’s house? How could this be?”
The brother saw the inside of the house from the window.
Inside the house, there is a lot of food. The man turned the millstone. “Oh my goodness! Food is coming out from the millstone….A horse also has come out! I want that millstone!
That night, the brother went to the man’s house again. Quietly, he went inside the house.
In the room, there was the millstone.
The brother carried the millstone. He then went outside.
He went to the ocean. Because there was a boat, he got on the boat.
The brother went to a place far away.
From a bag, he took out a rice ball.
“Hmmm I just want a little bit of salt…. Oh right!”
The brother rotated the millstone to the right.
“Salt, come out! Salt, come out!”
From the millstone, salt came out. “OH! Salt has come out. This rice ball is delicious!”
The brother ate all of the rice balls.
However, the salt did not stop.
“Oh no! There is so much salt! Oh no!”
The boat becomes very heavy.
“Oh no.. the boat….”
The boat is in the ocean.
The millstone is also in the ocean.
One hundred years…. Two hundred years…
The salt does not stop. And this is why the water of the ocean is salty.
