Читать книгу Treasury of Japanese Folktales - Yuri Yasuda - Страница 9

Nezumi No Yomeiri (The Marriage of a Mouse)

OTŌSAN AND OKAŌSAN NEZUMI, which means Father and Mother Mouse, lived in a storehouse in Japan. They possessed rice and were very rich.

They were also very proud of their beautiful daughter, and no wonder, for she was white and soft and furry all over. She had bright glistening eyes and the most delicate pink nose. She looked so sweet and pretty in a mousy way that young male mice from near and far came to ask for her hand.

But her parents Otōsan and Okāsan Nezumi were not satisfied to have a clumsy ordinary mouse as her husband.

“That can’t be—no ordinary fellow is worthy of our beautiful daughter,” they cried. “We must think of someone special. We’ll give her to the most powerful person in Japan.”

So they looked around and lo, up in the sky they saw the warm, kind sun beaming down on them!

“Why not the all-powerful sun?” they cried, delighted at the idea.

So they dressed their daughter in her bridal attire. Never was there such a desirable and beautiful mouse-bride as she.

Now I don’t know how they did it, but the three traveled and traveled and at last reached the sun.

The father, bowing low, said: “Gracious and kind sun, you are the most powerful person on earth. Behold our daughter—whom we wish to give to you as your bride.”

The sun continued smiling down on them, and he said: “You are kind, and I am thankful to you for your proposal, but I am not the most powerful being on earth. There is someone else.”

Otōsan and Okāsan Nezumi were surprised: “Who can this be?”

“It is Kumo, the cloud. I would like to beam and beam on the earth and make it warm, but when the cloud comes out I am helpless.”

“Well, well,” said Otōsan and Okāsan Nezumi, staring at each other, “Naruhodo, it is so—it is so!”

So they bowed and, taking their daughter, visited the cloud.