The Red Candle
Japanese
A monkey in a mountain went down to a village and found a red candle there. Red candles were rare to be seen, so the monkey was convinced that it was a firework and took it carefully to the mountain.
The whole mountain made a fuss. After all, nobody; deer, boars, hares, tortoises, weasels, foxes and others in the mountain, had seen a firework. So they believed it was a firework as the monkey had insisted.
"How beautiful it is!"
"What a pretty color it has!"
The deer, boars, hares, tortoises, weasels, foxes and others jammed together to look at it.
The monkey cried,
"Look out! It's dangerous! Don't go close to it like that. It may explode."
They were so afraid and jumped back from it.
The monkey explained how loudly fireworks explode, and how beautifully they sparkle with many colors in the sky. They wished to see such a beautiful display at all costs.
"Then we'll light the firework to display tonight on the top of the mountain,¡¦said the monkey.
They were so enchanted to imagine how it would sparkle in the night sky like stars.
Night came on. Their hearts bounded with expectations as they climbed up to the top of the mountain. The monkey had already fastened the candle to the branch of a tree and waited for the rest.
The time came when the firework would be lit. But they were in a fix. The trouble was that nobody dared to light it. They hesitated to go there to light it, though they wanted to see its display.
As they wanted to see the firework sparkling so much, they started a lottery to decide who would light the firework. The first loser was a tortoise. It psyched up itself and got closer to the candle. Could it light the candle? No, because it pulled its head in without its intention.
The second loser was the weasel, who was better than the tortoise as it didn't pull its head in. But it was nearsighted so what it did was only whirled around the candle with wandering eyes.
At last the boar rushed away among all the animals. It was so brave that it dashed to the candle and lit it!
All of them were afraid and jumped into the grass and covered their ears tightly; they also covered their eyes.
But the red candle was only keeping on flaming up quietly without any sounds. (2013.11.1 With Itaya) Image by Masako Yamamoto
Original By Nankichi Niimi
